Robert “robertmeta” Melton#

Systems thinker with 20+ years building production systems. Started in general software development (2000-2022), moved into AI/ML (2022-present). Work across the full platform - from infrastructure to user experience.

Contact#

Current Work#

Program Tech Lead at Skyward IT Solutions leading 30 engineers across 5 work streams delivering federal AI solutions.

Technical Focus#

AI/ML Systems (2022-Present):

LLM and GenAI implementation
RAG systems and vector databases
MLOps and AI infrastructure
Developer tooling and MCPs
Data-oriented design

General Software Development (2000-2022):

Distributed systems and microservices
Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Data pipelines and analytics
Remote team building

Core Technologies:

Languages: Go, Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, Kotlin, C#, Swift, Rust, Erlang
Databases: PostgreSQL, ScyllaDB, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB
Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, GCP
Tools: Emacs, Git, Make

Open Source#

Recent Projects (2025):

mail-app-cli - Scriptable interface to Mail.app for Emacs and AI agents (50K lines Go)
graph-handles - File handle monitoring with pure Unix tools
Clarity - AI-powered team transparency through MCP (active development)
FFWF - Lightning-fast macOS window switcher with full VoiceOver support
twist-cli - CLI for Twist communication platform (106K lines Go)

Established Projects:

discuss.kakoune.com - Discourse community for Kakoune editor (7+ years, daily activity)
SwiftMac - Native macOS speech server implementing emacspeak protocol for blind/low-vision developers
nofrils - Minimalist Vim colorscheme (331 stars, 10 years maintained)

Archive:

Arctic Code Vault Contributor - Code preserved in Arctic for future generations
60+ repositories on GitHub

Background#

MBA in Information Systems Management, Argosy University (2008)
BS in Computer Science, Virginia College (2004)
Security Clearance: Active Top Secret
Former certifications: Security+, CSM, AWS Solutions Architect, GCP Engineer

Selected Experience#

Skyward IT Solutions - Program Tech Lead (2024-Present)

Leading 30 engineers across 5 work streams delivering federal AI solutions
Built Clarity - AI-powered team transparency tool using MCP
Achieved 94% retention with async-first workflows
FedRAMP-compliant RAG chatbot: 50K+ daily queries, 99.18% uptime

Intelligrit - Principal AI Architect (2023-2024)

Architected AI platform from scratch to 10K users
Led distributed team across 3 time zones
MLOps pipeline: reduced model deployment from 2 weeks to 2 hours
Vector database (Qdrant): 200M+ embeddings, sub-100ms retrieval

Digital Turbine (NYSE: APPS) - Director of Engineering (2019-2023)

Advertising platform: 1B+ monthly users, 15B events daily
8th highest trafficked site in US
Managed 35 remote engineers across 6 countries with 97% retention over 4 years
7PB cloud migration: $3.2M annual savings, 31% latency reduction

Search for Yeti - Technical Co-founder (2014-2017)

Won TechCrunch DC Pitch-Off 2014
Patent intelligence platform with computer vision and NLP
5M patents analyzed with 92% accuracy

Earlier roles - AOL (Winamp Cloud, 2M+ users), IXI Corporation (Equifax acquisition), Eagle Publishing, Arcode, Suprtek

Full work history on LinkedIn.

About