Kolter Atkinson

About Kolter Atkinson

I never planned to work in data operations.I kept seeing the same problems: teams overwhelmed, customers frustrated, and systems that couldn’t scale. So I fixed them. Then I kept getting asked to fix more.That led to four promotions in three years.Today I lead operational teams responsible for data integrations, customer onboarding infrastructure, scoring operations, and technical services. These systems support thousands of users across multiple products.My focus is simple: build systems that scale, reduce operational friction, help teams work better together, and deliver better outcomes for customers.I enjoy complex operational environments — mergers, product migrations, rapid growth, and disconnected systems. These are the situations where systems break down, but they’re also where the biggest improvements can be made.In recent years I’ve also begun applying AI to operational workflows. Not as hype, but as a practical tool.AI works best when it removes repetitive work: searching documentation, parsing large files, manipulating structured data, drafting documentation, or analyzing operational workflows.I’ve introduced AI tools that help teams reduce manual data work, extract information from large documents, generate documentation faster, analyze operational data more efficiently, and access internal knowledge more easily.I strongly believe in human-in-the-loop AI. AI can summarize, analyze, and automate predictable tasks, but experienced people provide context, judgment, and exception handling. The best systems combine both.Adoption matters as much as technology. AI only creates value when teams understand how to use it, so I focus heavily on enablement: training teams, documenting workflows, helping people experiment safely, and building internal champions.Responsible use is also essential. AI must respect privacy, compliance requirements, and clear guardrails that protect both organizations and customers.My goal is simple: build operational systems that scale, apply AI where it removes friction, and help teams focus on the work that actually matters.If you\'re working on scaling complex operations or exploring practical AI adoption, I’d enjoy connecting.

Experience

1. Director of Data & Operations

   Riverside Insights

   May 2025 — Present

   Lead teams responsible for Data Integration, Data Enablement, and Scoring Operations supporting multiple assessment platforms used by school districts nationwide.Focused on identifying operational bottlenecks and implementing systems, automation, and AI tools that reduce manual work, improve data reliability, and enable teams to execute complex workflows consistently.Founding member of Riverside’s CX AI Taskforce, identifying high-impact AI opportunities and guiding adoption of enterprise AI tools across customer operations.Leading internal evaluation and advocacy for Glean as an enterprise AI knowledge platform to improve knowledge retrieval, workflow automation, and cross-team productivity across CX, Engineering, and Product teams.Defined operational vision and priorities for Data Integration and Scoring Operations, aligning improvement work around reducing manual effort, improving system reliability, and increasing operational resilience.Core contributor to the DataManager Rostering Automation pilot, helping design validation rules, transformation logic, and workflows used to process district roster data automatically.Designed and built two internal operational systems using AI-assisted development:– Barcode Submission Preflight – validates order forms and roster files, auto-corrects safe formatting issues, and flags ambiguous cases for analyst review, reducing manual investigation and lowering risk of costly barcode reprints.– Roster Transformation Utility – converts district roster submissions into system-ready imports using normalization, validation, and deduplication logic, reducing spreadsheet cleanup and improving consistency across analysts.Introduced AI tools such as Adobe Acrobat AI and NotebookLM to accelerate document analysis, knowledge retrieval, and team training workflows.Established responsible AI usage guidelines aligned with FERPA and SOC2 requirements to ensure student PII is never exposed to external AI systems.

Education

• Brigham Young University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Communications with an Emphasis in Advertising

  2017 — 2020

• Brigham Young University

  Minor, Business

  2017 — 2020

• Western Governors University

  Master of Business Administration - MBA, Business Administration and Management, General