Mark Gingrass
Solutions Architecture • Applied AI • Federal Program Leadership
I architect and ship real systems: a live serverless platform on AWS, an AI-assisted review workflow inside the FDA firewall, and apps on the App Store.
Professional
GS-14 Program Manager at the FDA with a Computer Science background I’ve kept sharp by shipping real systems. Twenty-plus years in federal technology, from enlisted Air Force service through senior program leadership, gives me something most cloud candidates don’t have: I understand how agencies actually buy, approve, and operate technology. I know what a COR does, what an ATO means in practice, and how to move a program through procurement without it dying in review.
Now I’m moving that background into Solutions Architect and senior TPM roles in GovTech and defense tech, where the combination is rare: federal domain depth, hands-on cloud work, and a track record of finishing what I start.
I translate between the people who fund systems and the people who build them. I can read an architecture diagram, push back on a vendor proposal, and write a user story for the same system in the same week. And when a problem calls for AI, I design the workflow around it — including who checks the output — rather than bolting a chatbot onto the org chart.
Current Focus
- Leading product strategy for FDA modernization initiatives that serve 400+ regulatory scientists
- Delivered an AI-assisted review workflow for an FDA regulatory tracking system: an in-firewall LLM analyzes each project abstract against the coding manual and returns recommendations with supporting evidence and discrepancy flags — the review team keeps final authority
- Pursuing the AWS SAA-C03 certification with production architecture as the hands-on lab, not a sandbox. See what that means
Outdoor Enthusiast
I have been hiking for several years now, lately focused on overnight trips and more grueling terrain. I also dabble with mountain biking, running, fitness, and skateboarding.
I make annual trips to the Upper Gauley in West Virginia for Class 5 whitewater, have completed a solo skydive, and volunteer regularly to plant trees and clean up trails.
My dog Ollie joins me on trails and camping whenever possible.
Curious Mind
Interested in how systems, organizational and technical, succeed or fail. Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement aren’t abstract to me; I’ve applied them in environments where inefficiency has real regulatory consequences.
Always looking for the more efficient path, and usually finding it.
AI, In Practice
- Human-in-the-loop AI: Designed an LLM review workflow now running inside the FDA firewall — recommendations with evidence, humans with authority
- AI-assisted engineering: I direct AI coding agents across PetShots and my iOS work; the architecture decisions stay mine
- Computer vision: Building an app that counts the stairs in any photo — screenshot a stair set, get the number
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate: Working toward certification on the same services I already run in production