Executive Brief
Christopher Cook
Enterprise AI & Engineering Leader · Director and Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence
Charleston, SC · ccook21@outlook.com · linkedin.com/in/christopherclaudecook · christopherclaudecook.com
Positioning
AI and engineering executive who turns AI strategy into operational capability: secure AI platforms, governance that lets systems ship in high-consequence settings, and the teams that run them. Founded an AI department, delivered DoD-approved production AI, and remains hands-on in LLM evaluation, agentic systems, and locally deployed models.
Scope
1 → 10 core
core AI engineers in the department I founded; programs of 30+ run by project managers I directed
~$7M
in consecutive DoD contracts on one AI program I procured and led
5 / 5
performance rating, five consecutive years
Three strongest accomplishments
- 1.
Founded and scaled an AI department
Started the ORBIS AI function as its first engineer, grew it to ten core engineers, and led programs of 30+ through the project managers I directed, working directly with the C-suite. Rated 5/5 for five consecutive years.
- 2.
Production AI approved by the Department of Defense
Procured and led three consecutive DoD contracts, about $7M, for radiographic defect recognition approved for shipyard integration on submarine builds.
- 3.
Language models deployed where no commercial API was allowed
Designed, trained, and deployed locally secured LLMs for workflow control, with model-access controls, segregated environments, and human oversight built in.
Career highlights
| Dates | Role |
|---|---|
| Jun 2026 – Present | AI Safety, Red-Teaming & Evaluation Consultant, Self-employedAdversarial evaluation of frontier AI models for clients across high-consequence domains. |
| Jan 2026 – Jun 2026 | Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence, Frontier Design LLCAI products, data platform, and service structure for an AI consulting and proposal firm. |
| Aug 2020 – Jan 2026 | Director of Artificial Intelligence, ORBIS, Inc.Founded and led the AI function of a defense engineering and R&D firm, from strategy through production delivery. |
| 2007 – 2020 | Earlier: Programmer Analyst, Lincoln Land Community College; Data Analyst / Programmer, State of Illinois; Teaching Assistant, Mathematics & Computer Science, University of Illinois Springfield; Sonar Technician (Submarines), Third Class Petty Officer, U.S. Navy · USS Rhode Island |
Education
M.S., AI Software Engineering; M.A., History (Warfare and Behavioral Economics); B.A., Theoretical and Abstract Mathematics; University of Illinois Springfield.
Case studies, full resume, and writing: christopherclaudecook.com