Independent Consulting Services
So the people who rely on them get something that actually works well. Serotine: the lodgepole pine cone that only opens after fire, built to regenerate what has burned down.
Programs exist to serve the people who rely on them. My job is to build and protect the parts that let a program, and the people behind it, actually thrive, no matter what constraints it's operating under.
Each service below is grounded in systems I've built and shipped, not a facilitation menu. Available to federal, state, and local government agencies, nonprofits, and private sector organizations, as prime or as a sub on larger contract vehicles.
Refactored the DCAT-US 3.0 schema after the original shipped incomplete, with broken links and unresolved agency disagreement. Verified all 26 raw JSON schema files by hand, wrote a Python conversion script for the v1.1 to v3.0 migration, and led the catalog.data.gov cutover from legacy CKAN to a new Python/Flask application.
Own the Catalog API v4 and Harvester API v2 as the authoritative front door for programmatic data access. Handled a launch-day traffic spike of roughly 400 requests per second with no rate limiting in place, coordinating a fix through api.data.gov.
Run daily operational security monitoring across AWS and cloud.gov, plus New Relic and Snyk alerting beyond native GitHub scanning. Author of record on a formal Incident Response Plan. Caught a secret key committed to a public repo during a 7-repo security review.
Built and deployed 6 AI-powered helpbots across 4 federal programs in about 2 weeks during a government shutdown, cutting per-ticket resolution time from 10 minutes to 1 minute. Also built a browser-based Q&A tool backed by harvested CSV data and Python error analysis, covering 1,470 errors across 81 sources.
Led the Search.gov migration off legacy search technology, and the catalog.data.gov cutover from CKAN, each while keeping the outgoing system running for dependent users through the transition.
Draft SOO/SOW/PWS documents scoped to actual technical architecture, not boilerplate. Restructured an hours-based BPA across six interagency call orders into a quality-weighted incentive and disincentive pricing model. COR-level oversight of $200M+ in technical program spend across three active contract vehicles.
Absorbed an emergency COR-3 takeover during a 5-month stretch of PM and partner turnover on Search.gov, restructured an hours-based BPA across six interagency call orders into a quality-weighted incentive and disincentive model, and delivered roughly $1M in contract consolidation savings. Reduced a 400+ ticket O&M backlog to a steady-state of around 100.
Some programs get stuck at the architecture level: a schema nobody agreed on, an API with no rate limiting, a legacy system nobody's willing to touch. That's where I do my best work: refactoring the actual technical thing, not just the process around it.
I hold official ownership of Data.gov's metadata and API layer: the DCAT-US 3.0 schema, the catalog.data.gov cutover from CKAN to Python/Flask, the Catalog and Harvester APIs. As Lead COR, I also manage a $200M+ portfolio across nine contracts, including Data.gov, the PX Contact Center, Search.gov, and Vote.gov, so I can write a SOW that reflects real engineering scope, not boilerplate. Over 22+ years, I have led platform modernizations serving millions of users and rebuilt operations during federal crises using AI tooling I built myself.
This is not limited to government work performed directly. I also partner as a subcontractor on larger federal contract vehicles, bringing technical depth to primes who need it beyond process facilitation. I figure out what the system actually needs, build it, and make sure it keeps running after I leave.
Nine contracts spanning Data.gov, PX Contact Center, Search.gov, and Vote.gov
IT Program Management focus. Distinguished Scholar, CSU Global, 2025
Federal Acquisition Certification in Program and Project Management
Contracting Officer Representative Certification
Digital IT Acquisition Professional Program
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Available for government, nonprofit, and private sector engagements, as prime or sub. Flexible models include hourly, project-based, and retainer. Remote-first.
sue@serotineservices.com
Responses within one business day
Open to new engagements
Bounded projects and retainers
Colorado
Remote-first, travel available