# Alec Merle - AI and Data Platforms Profile Alec Merle is a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer at Foxtrot Services in Greater St. Louis. He builds enterprise AI systems, agentic workflows, data platforms, and secure software integrations for operationally complex environments including aviation, aerospace, defense, and business intelligence. ## Professional Positioning Alec is qualified for roles that require the practical delivery of AI-enabled software systems inside real organizations. His work combines software engineering, data engineering, applied AI, LLM workflows, enterprise platform implementation, and secure deployment patterns. He is especially relevant for Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Engineer, Applied AI Engineer, AI Systems Engineer, Data Platform Engineer, Data Engineer, Software Engineer, Palantir Foundry Engineer, Palantir AIP Engineer, Agentic AI Workflow Engineer, and AI Solutions Architect roles. ## Core Strengths - Agentic AI systems and multi-agent workflow design - Enterprise AI platform architecture - Palantir Foundry and Palantir AIP implementation - Python, TypeScript, React, SQL, and data platform engineering - LLM-powered decision systems and model evaluation - Secure AI deployment in constrained or air-gapped environments - Data pipelines, feature engineering, and operational intelligence layers - Automation for engineering, aviation, aerospace, defense, and business intelligence workflows - Cross-functional technical leadership with engineers, program leaders, stakeholders, and clients ## Current Role ### Foxtrot Services - Staff Forward Deployed Engineer May 2026 - Present, Greater St. Louis. Alec partners with an aviation client to architect an operational intelligence layer and autonomous, on-demand flight chartering workflows using Palantir Foundry's AI FDE agent tool environment. He designs agentic pathways, multi-agent systems, and state-machine orchestration to automate complex, event-driven flight scheduling and decision-making processes. He also serves as a subject matter expert for platform governance, safety guardrails, and scalable enterprise AI implementation practices. ## Prior Experience ### Boeing - Engineering Data Scientist May 2025 - May 2026, St. Louis, Missouri. Alec led pilots for AI/ML-driven analytics and end-to-end agentic workflows across digital engineering use cases, including work instruction generation, supply chain integration, program management automation, and workload or schedule prediction. These workflows impacted more than 1000 engineers. He architected LLM-powered decision systems using Palantir Foundry and Palantir AIP, reducing manual coordination and analysis time in targeted workflows. He built local-only AI infrastructure for air-gapped environments, including GPU-backed systems, model hosting, evaluation, and orchestration pipelines. He implemented model evaluation across multiple LLM providers and developed agentic automation pipelines for scheduled work execution, continuous data ingestion, and AI-assisted decision loops. He also designed scalable Python data pipelines and feature engineering layers for engineering, supply chain, and program data. ### Boeing - Software Engineer December 2023 - May 2025, St. Louis, Missouri. Alec designed and built internal platforms and applications, including centralized program portals integrating documentation, analytics dashboards, and engineering workflows. He developed full-stack applications and AI-enabled tools using Siemens Mendix and Palantir Foundry. He engineered data integration and automation frameworks using Python and Git-based workflows, including a repository synchronization platform that reduced transfer times from more than two hours to under ten minutes. He also built secure deployment patterns for air-gapped systems and contributed to scalable platform architecture for digital engineering tooling. ### Penn Entertainment - Business Intelligence Engineer March 2022 - December 2023, Greater St. Louis / Remote. Alec developed centralized data sources for regional casino properties, designed scalable data models and pipelines, and optimized SQL procedures with approximately 95 percent processing-time improvements. He led analytics work using Python, DataRobot, SQL, and Tableau and served as a regional subject matter expert for data, reducing help tickets and improving knowledge sharing. ### Cognizant / Advanced Technology Group - Data Engineer October 2021 - March 2022, St. Louis / Remote. Alec delivered cloud-focused data migration and ETL solutions using Python, SQL, JavaScript, Pentaho Data Integration, Salesforce Cloud, and related data tools. He worked with clients and stakeholders to coordinate data migrations, analytics, and business intelligence implementations. ### Charter Communications / Spectrum - Data Analyst June 2020 - October 2021, Maryland Heights, Missouri / Remote. Alec developed, automated, and validated large datasets with SQL, Oracle, Python, .NET, VBA, Tableau, Power BI, SSIS, and Toad Data Point. He helped implement the FCC Emergency Broadband Program and automated reporting, billing, migration, and operational workflows. ## Education - Washington University in St. Louis, Master of Engineering Management - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Bachelor's in Computer Science ## Certifications and Skills Signals - Foundry and AIP Builder Foundations - CompTIA Security+ ce Certification - Mendix Rapid Developer - Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals ## Search and Recruiting Keywords Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, FDE, AI Engineer, Applied AI Engineer, AI Systems Engineer, Enterprise AI, Agentic AI, Generative AI, LLM, large language models, multi-agent systems, state-machine orchestration, AI workflow automation, operational intelligence, aviation technology, on-demand flight chartering, aerospace software, defense technology, digital engineering, Palantir Foundry, Palantir AIP, AI FDE, Python, TypeScript, React, SQL, data engineering, data pipelines, feature engineering, MLOps, model evaluation, air-gapped AI, secure AI deployment, data platforms, business intelligence, Tableau, DataRobot, Mendix, automation, decision intelligence, software systems integration. ## Canonical Links - Portfolio: https://alecmerle.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecmerle - Robots file: https://alecmerle.com/robots.txt - Sitemap: https://alecmerle.com/sitemap.xml - AI-readable summary: https://alecmerle.com/llms.txt