Michael Alexander

[email protected] | linkedin.com/in/michael-alexander-nj | South Jersey / Philadelphia Metro

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Professional Summary

E-commerce infrastructure leader who scaled a startup to $8M in multi-channel revenue while architecting the systems that captured 60% of sales through channels competitors couldn't match. I tend to sit with problems longer than most — which is how I traced a years-long system stability issue to a single corrupted database field, discovered that fewer orders could mean higher profit, and built marketplace integrations before commercial tools existed. Currently building AI-powered SaaS tools with multi-LLM provider architecture, shipping iOS applications in Swift, and preparing an open-source release — applying deep operational expertise to emerging technology.

Current Work

Independent Consultant & AI/SaaS Developer

2025–Present

Building production AI tools and applications — not experimenting, shipping.

  • Architected content processing platform with multi-LLM provider routing across OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models with automatic fallback and cost-optimized provider selection
  • Built custom RAG pipeline via Model Context Protocol (MCP), ingesting thousands of documentation pages for real-time querying during development
  • Developing iOS applications in Swift/SwiftUI including real-time audio analysis app combining on-device ML with adaptive UX
  • Designed AI workflow automation (N8N) embedding LLMs at specific decision points — AI where it adds value, traditional logic everywhere else
  • Infrastructure: Docker Compose, Proxmox virtualization, Cloudflare tunneling, Git/GitHub workflows

Professional Experience

Nella Cosa Corporation

Marlton, NJ 1998–2025

Progressive technology and operations leadership scaling from 3-person startup to $8M enterprise

Director of Technology & Operations

(2015–2025)
  • Grew omnichannel commerce from 0% to 60% of total revenue ($4.8M+ captured) by architecting custom marketplace integrations across Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and direct channels — building tools before commercial solutions existed
  • Drove 15-25% revenue uplift ($1.2-2M on $8M base) through data-driven pricing optimization that discovered counterintuitive "fewer orders, higher profit" sweet spot factoring labor costs into margin analysis
  • Eliminated years of daily system crashes (99.9% uptime improvement) by tracing root cause to corrupted characters in unused database field — a fix that took an afternoon once the real problem was understood
  • Managed $1M+ COVID demand surge in 48 hours working alone, maintaining zero system downtime during 10x normal volume by choosing database-level solutions over manual order processing
  • Maintained zero security breaches across 26-year tenure through systematic PCI compliance, payment data migration, and security framework treating protection as interconnected system rather than checklist
  • Managed 20,000-22,000 active SKUs across 5+ platforms, transforming minimal supplier data (12 fields) into omnichannel-ready listings (200+ fields per product)
  • Reduced shipping errors 60% (5% to 2%) and scaled fulfillment to 500 orders/day through non-standard Pick All/Pack All/Ship All method developed via experimentation
  • Delivered enterprise-grade infrastructure on ~$100K annual budget — saved $17,000 on single server purchase through refurbished equipment strategy, achieved 10x processing power increase

Infrastructure & Commerce Operations

(2005–2015)
  • Built foundation for scalable growth: consolidated 3 physical servers into 1 virtualized environment, reducing power consumption 70%
  • Established enterprise networking, Hyper-V/Proxmox virtualization, and monitoring systems
  • Created automation frameworks in PowerShell for bulk data processing, reporting, and operational efficiency

Technology Implementation

(1998–2005)
  • Built original technical infrastructure supporting business evolution from startup to enterprise operations
  • Developed early automation capabilities and database optimization routines

5150 Electric Supply

Owner/Operator 1997–1999

Launched and managed retail business. Learned P&L management, customer relationships, and the operational realities that inform every technology decision I make today.

Education

Rutgers University

Physics and Computer Science | 1992–1994

Technical Skills

AI & Emerging Technology

Multi-LLM provider architecture, RAG pipelines, Model Context Protocol (MCP), AI workflow automation (N8N), cost-optimized API routing, Swift/SwiftUI, real-time audio processing, on-device ML

Infrastructure & Cloud

Docker Compose, Proxmox, Hyper-V, Cloudflare (CDN, Workers, Pages, Tunnels), enterprise networking, DNS/DHCP, SSH configuration

Data & Development

MS SQL Server (15 years), PowerShell (10 years), Python, MySQL, REST API design, ETL/EDI frameworks, Git/GitHub

Commerce & Operations

Amazon Seller Central, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, Miva platform, 20,000+ SKU catalog management, GS1/UPC, custom WMS implementation

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS/iPadOS, Android