2 min. read • Email this page
Listen to this blog post:
Software built without expertise can pave the way for regulatory liability, systemic risk and your customers heading for the exits
A conversation with Thomson Kneeland
AI/ML Engineer Thomson Kneeland playing double bass about twenty years ago.
Thomson Kneeland is currently Wells Fargo’s lead AI/ML engineer. It’s been amazing to follow this talented fellow’s remarkable career – even including once when I wanted to be sure talking to my son about the Phrygian mode and so did a Google search – Thomson’s video was the top resource.
With concerns around AI misbehavior and misuse, I wanted to learn from Thomson how the bank is able to harness AI while adhering to strong data security practices.
Thomson has worked professionally in computer science, mathematics, physics and music. We discuss what on earth might connect these fields and the kinds of solutions such interconnectedness can bring.
If you become a fan like me, you’ll be interested to know that Thomson maintains both a website at thomsonkneeland.com and he blogs on Substack at AudibleArchitect.
You’ve had such a varied career, can you give some context leading to your current role? Do you see a connecting thread?
I’ve had quite an unconventional career path, moving between music and software engineering. But I find that these disciplines share some core features: systems thinking, pattern recognition and the ability to improvise within the constraints you’re given.
I studied electrical engineering at WPI before pursuing a multi-decade career as a jazz double bassist. As a musician I’ve toured internationally, performed on dozens of albums. I’ve led an experimental jazz group performing my original music. I also ran a jazz booking agency for over a decade. So it’s been a varied musical career, involving not only being an artist, but also business management.
As data science and then machine learning gained momentum, I returned to engineering with a focus on scientific computing and complex systems modeling. This has given me the opportunity to work on the equities trading floor of Deutsche Bank, help build a payment system for high volume mortgage processing, and help manage the back-office accounting infrastructure for a multi-strategy hedge fund. Today I’m a lead engineer in Operations Technology at Wells Fargo, building software systems and agentic AI pipelines to support Middle Office teams …
To read the complete interview, visit our Substack (everything there is free to read).
Lawrence writes about networking and security. His consumer-scam writing has appeared on the Moneywise website. He’s written for Bryley since 2015.
