Paul Smith

Chief Technologist, co-founder, founding CTO

• Founded Ad Hoc as Chief Technology Officer, a leading technology consulting firm delivering government digital services, growing to over 500 employees and $100,000,000 in revenue in less than 9 years.
• Advised and led technology teams supporting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies.
• Led development and operations of Premium Estimation Tool and its successor, Window Shopping, a major new consumer-focused portion of HealthCare.gov
• Helped design, in partnership with the White House, the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services, and health insurance companies, a machine-readable format for sharing data about provider and formulary networks and the health plans that cover them, a major new public dataset. In addition, led development and operations of a system that imported and indexed this information and made searchable for consumers on HealthCare.gov

Member of the “Ad Hoc Team”

• Part of the group of technologists assembled by U.S. CTO Todd Park to assess, stabilize, and lead turnaround of site after disastrous initial launch
• Advised HC.gov leadership on technology strategy during turnaround
• Implemented, deployed, and operated “smart queue” to manage peak demand
• Provided leadership to technology teams across HC.gov
• Executed several bug fixes and performance improvements
• Helped get site to point where it could enroll millions of Americans in health coverage

Deputy Director of Technology

• Led software engineering efforts for the DNC during the 2012 presidential election cycle
• Worked closely with Obama for America 2012 (OFA) technology department on common projects
• Developed, deployed, and operated the party’s polling place locator, used in common by DNC and OFA, and which received millions of pageviews in the days leading up to and including Election Day

Senior Software Engineer

• Transitioned EveryBlock.com to msnbc.com after the latter’s acquistion of the site in August 2009
• Led expansion of EveryBlock.com to 17 cities

Co-founder, Developer

• Developed and launched major new local news website, funded by the inaugural Knight Foundation’s New Challenge award
• Developed pioneering custom web-based maps for the site; described the process in A List Apart

Senior Web Developer

• Lead developer, Civic Footprint
• Site development included main CNT site, Airhead, Travel Matters, secure donation site
• Implemented online mapping for sites including CityNews

Technology Director, Wireless Community Networks

• Deployed community wireless networks in underserved Chicago neighborhoods as part of National Science Foundation grant to explore innovations to address the digital divide
• Aided emergency communications and telecom recovery in Gulf region after Katrina

Systems Administrator

• Designed and implemented CNT server and network infrastructure
• Maintained heterogeneous network of Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, and Windows platforms

Co-Founder, Board of Directors

• Grassroots organization advocating for conversion of unused Bloomingdale railroad on north side of Chicago into a multi-use trail and greenspace

Student Intern, Molecular Information Theory Group

The Laboratory of Mathematical Biology (now know as Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Program)

• Researched conservation of information of protein binding sites of the p53 tumor supressor gene