David Sumner

About David Sumner

I believe technology’s highest purpose is serving communities, especially those who need it most.For 25+ years, I’ve built and led teams that keep mission-critical systems running for millions of people. Most recently, I’ve contributed to the consistent delivery of medicare.gov, cms.gov, and healthcare.gov – because when these systems fail, real people lose access to healthcare they need.But operational excellence is just the foundation. I’m passionate about the direction of where technology is headed:→ Using AI responsibly to predict problems before they impact people→ Implementing open source solutions that benefit entire communities→ Building resilient systems for emergency response and disaster recovery→ Creating equitable access to technology for underserved populationsI’ve contributed to $70M+ in civic technology contracts, developed AI governance policies for educational institutions, and volunteered with US Digital Response to strengthen public sector technology capacity.I’m passionate about developing the next generation of leaders. I measure my success by the careers I help launch and the team members who move on to bigger opportunities. The best part of leadership is watching someone you mentored step into their own leadership role.I’m always looking for my next challenge. I appreciate any opportunity to advise executives on resilience, incident management, and responsible technology adoption – while building teams that do meaningful work.My Interests include: AI policy, clean energy infrastructure, emergency management, civic technology, open source, autonomous systems, and any application of technology that creates more equitable access to essential services.

Experience

1. Associate Director

   Civicactions

   Jan 2020 — Present · Houston, TX, US

   Led DevOps, platform strategy, and product enablement for applications supporting millions of users. Partnered with product managers and agency stakeholders to align infrastructure with evolving mission goals. Introduced AI into monitoring and CI/CD workflows, cutting response time and deployment risk while improving resilience and compliance.

Education

• Western Governors University

  Bachelor of Science - BS

Skills

• Oracle Cloud
• Sun Storage
• Jenkins
• Amazon Rds
• Oracle Database
• Amazon
• IT Security
• Amazon Web Services (Aws)
• Google Cloud Platform
• Management
• Virtualization
• Project Management
• Network Security
• Firewalls
• Cloud Computing
• Chef
• Terraform
• Linux System Administration
• Xen
• Program Management