Solutions Engineering · San Antonio, TX

Clarity at the Intersection of Systems

A 25-year enterprise closer, retooled for observability. I run the discovery, build the demo, and make the technical case land.

I’m Eric Harris. For 25 years I’ve done the hardest-to-teach part of solutions engineering - running discovery, presenting under pressure, handling objections, and closing complex, high-consideration deals. Over the last eight months I’ve built the technical half to match: AWS, OpenTelemetry, and Dynatrace certifications plus hands-on observability demos. So I bring the sales instinct and the technical ramp to the same role.

My edge isn’t out-engineering the engineer. It’s speaking the language of people and business - uncovering the real problem, connecting technical truth to operational impact, and helping customers move forward with confidence.

Best fit

Commercial or Enterprise Solutions Engineering, where customer discovery, demo fluency, and a fast observability ramp matter more than a traditional engineer-to-SE path.

San Antonio, TX Solutions Engineering Observability AWS OpenTelemetry AI-Assisted Systems

Featured work

Observability & Demos

The first proof point: a live, customer-facing observability demo and the telemetry/cloud labs that support the ramp.

Observability-native workflow & public demo pipeline

StoryTime

A local-first pipeline that turns public-domain and Creative Commons texts into audio, generates RSS, and exposes the whole workflow - built observability-first, with process mapping, failure visibility, and a deliberate operator experience.

Why it matters

An end-to-end observability demo I built and can walk through live - process mapping, failure visibility, and a deliberate operator experience. The closest thing on this site to the demo an SE runs every week.

Observability Workflow Design Operator Experience Local-First Demo Architecture

Cloud & telemetry

AWS / OpenTelemetry / Observability Labs

Certification-driven, hands-on work across AWS, telemetry pipelines, distributed tracing, and observability fundamentals - the working layer underneath the featured projects.

AWS OpenTelemetry Tracing Cloud Observability

Verified ramp

Credentials

OpenTelemetry Certified Associate (OTCA)

Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)

Telemetry & Tracing
Issued May 2026 · Expires May 2028 ID · LF-fu7ozzqcoq
Application Performance Monitoring Distributed Tracing +5 more
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Dynatrace Essentials

Dynatrace

Observability
Issued Jun 2026 · Expires Jun 2028 ID · 1c1d2668-c8e2-43ac-be32-a92edc8d3756
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AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloud Architecture
Issued Dec 2025 · Expires Dec 2028
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AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cloud Foundations
Issued Dec 2025 · Expires Dec 2028
Cloud Computing Concepts Amazon Web Services (AWS)
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Career Essentials in Generative AI

Microsoft · LinkedIn

Generative AI
Issued Jun 2026
Prompt Engineering AI for Business +1 more
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Ethics in the Age of Generative AI

LinkedIn

AI Ethics
Issued Jun 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Responsible AI +2 more
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Foundations of Cybersecurity

Google

Security
Issued Aug 2023
Cybersecurity
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Certificate in Digital Animation & Media Arts

Victor Valley College

Creative & Media Arts
Earned 2000
Digital Animation Media Arts Visual Storytelling

Currently preparing: Dynatrace Associate · Terraform · Python · Cloud infrastructure · Observability labs

Positioning

Why This Matters for Solutions Engineering

Sales Acumen

25 years of discovery, presentation, objection handling, coaching, and customer trust-building.

Technical Curiosity

Home lab systems, AWS, OpenTelemetry, Dynatrace Essentials, observability projects, and a continuous hands-on ramp.

Customer Pattern Recognition

Experience across automotive, insurance, training, business analysis, and high-consideration customer conversations.

AI-Assisted Execution

AI as leverage, not a substitute for judgment - structured, inspectable, and accountable workflows.

The through-line is practical translation: take ambiguity, identify the real constraint, and turn technical capability into business confidence.

One pattern, many expressions

How the Work Connects

These projects aren’t random apps - they’re different expressions of the same pattern:

Find the signal. Reduce the noise. Make the system understandable. Help people act with confidence.

That pattern shows up in customer discovery, observability, workflow design, AI-assisted development, writing, and photography. In Solutions Engineering, the job isn’t only knowing the tool - it’s understanding the customer’s pain, mapping it to the right technical path, explaining the value clearly, and earning trust.

Signal

Find what matters in the noise - in telemetry, in data, in a customer conversation.

Systems

Understand how the pieces connect, where they fail, and why it matters.

Story

Explain complex things so people actually follow - and act.

Trust

Earn confidence through clarity, evidence, and follow-through.

Supporting range

More Projects - Range

Additional builds that show AI workflow discipline, mobile execution, desktop tooling, and the range behind the core observability story.

AI-assisted workflow governance & multi-model review system

RoundTable

A local-first Progressive Web App for coordinating multi-model AI work through phase gates, critique layers, review loops, and explicit state management - structured AI usage with human judgment still in control.

Why it matters

Shows AI fluency, process governance, and disciplined execution.

React TypeScript Vite PWA Local-First LLM Workflow

Native Android app · time-sensitive workflow execution

ApplyWindow

A native Android execution cockpit for time-sensitive workflows. It stages inputs, reminders, documents, checklists, and a live WebView into one mobile workspace, then records submission timing without ever auto-submitting. The point is disciplined preparation, human-in-the-loop execution, and reliable evidence under pressure.

Why it matters

Native Android engineering, human-in-the-loop AI use, workflow orchestration, and spec-driven delivery of a complete, shipped app.

Kotlin Jetpack Compose Room AlarmManager WebView Android

Windows desktop app · visual continuity for AI video

StoryBoard

A shipped Windows desktop app that treats visual continuity as state management for AI video production. It organizes storyboard keyframes, emotional beats, artifact bundles, and persistent 3D reference assets so each scene has a source of truth before it becomes an AI-generated shot.

Why it matters

Shows source-of-truth design for creative systems - using persistent references, scene order, and production state to reduce continuity drift and make AI video workflows easier to direct, review, and trust.

Electron React Three.js AI Video State Management 3D References

Ramping in public

Technical Learning Labs

Early ramp evidence: smaller, self-directed builds that show foundational fluency, public accountability, debugging, and iteration.

Early ramp evidence - foundational fluency, built in public.

Public build log · daily execution

10-Day Python Sprint

Ten consecutive days of Python, built and documented in public - one folder per day, from core syntax to a working CLI log-analysis tool. A timestamped trail of commits that shows real, progressive growth toward automation-adjacent work.

Why it matters

Consistency, public accountability, and daily execution - the same repeatable process behind the larger projects.

Python Daily Execution CLI Tooling JSON Refactoring Public Build

Early ramp evidence - foundational fluency, built in public.

Foundational fluency

Python CLI / Log Analyzer Lab

An early self-directed Python lab: CLI design, parsing, branching logic, file handling, and debugging. Phase-gated learning with earned technical perspective - not tutorial-following.

Python CLI Logs Debugging Foundational Fluency

15+ years of hands-on

Home Lab & Systems Background

I’ve run personal systems and home lab environments for more than fifteen years - Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD / TrueNAS-style storage, media services, GPU systems, home networking, and local experimentation, including local AI.

I don’t present this as formal SRE experience. It’s evidence of long-running technical curiosity, troubleshooting discipline, and hands-on systems thinking - the habit of taking things apart, watching them fail, and putting them back together better.

Environment

Windows / Linux / FreeBSD Home networking Storage & media systems GPU experimentation Local AI experimentation Troubleshooting mindset

Perspective, in writing

Field Notes & Articles

Writing that sharpens technical storytelling and works out perspective on AI, observability, and customer understanding.

Observability · Data Platforms

Snowflake × Observe and the Rise of Data-First Understanding

A reflection on what Snowflake’s Observe acquisition signals about AI-native, data-first observability - and the role of understanding in platform value.

Observability AI Data Platforms Technical Strategy

Data · Execution Systems

The Elephant in the Room: The Data Execution Layer

A field note on why data strategy cannot stop at storage, dashboards, or insight - the real leverage comes from connecting understanding to execution.

Data Execution Layer Systems Thinking Business Value

AI · Reasoning

DiffusionGemma, Memory Palaces, and the Shape of Thought

An exploration of text diffusion, pattern coherence, and what alternative model foundations may suggest about the future of language interfaces.

AI LLMs Reasoning Technical Writing

Seeing what matters

Visual Storytelling

The instinct for visual storytelling isn’t new - it traces back to a Certificate in Digital Animation & Media Arts in 2000, and it has shaped how I make complex systems clear ever since.

Photography is part of my technical storytelling practice. A good image demands both artistic instinct and systems thinking - light, timing, composition, constraint, and signal selection.

The same discipline shows up in Solutions Engineering: helping people see what matters.

Photography Portfolio

A visual body of work built on the same principles as customer-facing technical work: signal, composition, clarity, and story.

Get in touch

Let’s Connect

Open to Solutions Engineering conversations, demos, and technical storytelling problems worth solving.

Eric Harris·San Antonio, Texas·[email protected]