I lead the technical operations at UNB Libraries:

a team of developers, and the frameworks and delivery pipelines driving our knowledge infrastructure: 150+ services. I also design the library's AI architecture and help shape its governance, translating policy into technical solutions.

15 years in technical operations · former computational chemistry researcher and university instructor

Email [email protected]

About

My background and education are in science, specifically computational physical chemistry. I first worked as a researcher and university instructor. Designing and automating the laboratory equipment for research turned a long-standing interest in software development into a career and, eventually, into managing technical operations.

My teaching background influences how I lead: I enjoy mentoring team members and explaining technical concepts. I write executive summaries and strategy documents to make complex subjects accessible and to inform policy decisions. I also lead seminars on implementation and systems thinking, and provide practical training on infrastructure and workflows.

Since 2023, much of my work has focused on AI in software development and academic library services. I am a founding member of the library's Emerging Technologies Team and its AI Guidance and Implementation Committee.

Outside work, I'm interested in how new technologies can preserve history by telling stories and world-building in unique ways. I explore that through ambient media, sound design, and procedural storytelling. I also enjoy woodworking and making binaural field recordings.

Experience

UNB Libraries: Senior technical operations manager.
Elemental CodeWorks: Founder. Accessible web applications, including projects that support Indigenous language and culture revitalization.
Academia: Ph.D., researcher and university instructor, computational physical chemistry.
Full history: LinkedIn

Committee service

Emerging Technologies Team: Founding member, UNB Libraries, 2024–present.
AI Guidance and Implementation Committee: Founding member, UNB Libraries, 2024–present.

How I lead

Governance in the platform: Governance belongs in the platform, not only in policy. This is especially true in AI, where the landscape can change extremely fast. At UNB Libraries, our LLM applications access inference through a shared gateway, and a policy change made there takes effect for every application.
On-prem by default, cloud where it fits: I generally prefer on-premises infrastructure for its advantages in data control/sovereignty and more predictable costs. Cloud/XaaS services have strengths of their own: scalability and reduced maintenance. I'm pragmatic, though, choosing options that make sense for the project.
Static where possible: I prefer planning applications with static frameworks wherever dynamic functionality isn't needed. They're easier to deploy and maintain, with fewer opportunities for things to go wrong.
Documentation is engineering: I treat documentation as part of infrastructure. Effective, up-to-date documentation establishes a team's standards and gives members a reliable 'source of truth' for operating and recovering from failures. Toward that end, I believe it is essential to give the team an extremely low-barrier entry point for keeping their documentation accurate.
Shrink time to first change: The effectiveness of workflows can reasonably be measured by how quickly a new developer can ship a significant change. I created and maintain Dockworker to shorten that time: one workflow for every project, whatever its framework.
Teach from first principles: I teach fundamentals instead of offering solutions. My goal is to foster independent technical problem-solving within the team, so members understand WHY something works and can apply that knowledge to future problems.
Open by default: I believe knowledge, software development, and documentation should be freely available wherever they can be.

Projects

UNB Libraries

AI, scale and governance
UNB Libraries' applications access LLMs through a shared gateway API. It routes requests to local or external providers, centrally managing permissions and enforcing governance policies. I designed the architecture and led its implementation. AI policies change rapidly, and new decisions can now be applied across every application with a single configuration change.
Shared service platform
When I joined, UNB Libraries' infrastructure had evolved into disparate grant-funded systems and one-off builds. Applications were often patched or edited directly on live servers. In 2016, I led an effort to move these applications into version control and containers, orchestrated on an on-prem Kubernetes cluster. The cluster has supported our library services ever since, through multiple in-place upgrades from Kubernetes 1.9 to 1.37. Today, it underpins most of our services.
Dockworker
A single technical entry point and a consistent, unified workflow for developers, site builders, and operations engineers, regardless of the application framework. Previously, every project we supported had its own setup and unique requirements for local development. I designed Dockworker, which now underpins more than 75 projects and allows developers to ship meaningful changes in days.
New Brunswick Historical Newspapers Project
A unified interface to UNB Libraries' current and historical newspaper collections: nearly 50,000 issues and 325,000 pages from New Brunswick and around the world, digitized from microfilm and print, OCR-indexed, and available as both page images and full text. I designed the infrastructure, code, and image ingest workflows. I have maintained and evolved them since 2019, including keeping the application available under sustained automated crawling (the subject of a 2026 talk).
UNB Scholar
UNB Libraries' institutional repository, preserving and providing open access to nearly 11,000 works by the UNB community. I designed the infrastructure and workflows and have managed and evolved the service since 2015, including three major platform upgrades; I'm currently leading the evaluation of DSpace 11 as its next platform.
Peskotomuhkati-Wolastoqey Language Portal
A dictionary of the Peskotomuhkati-Wolastoqey (Passamaquoddy-Maliseet) language with audio recordings, example phrases, and video. I designed the infrastructure and workflows, including a speaker audio recording interface, media delivery, and search for a non-English orthography. The project was created in partnership with many stakeholders, including two speaker communities in Canada and the United States.

Personal interest

docker-rtmp-multistream
Streams live video to YouTube, Twitch and other platforms at the same time.
docker-mariadb-snapshot
Scheduled MariaDB and MySQL database snapshots, with automated rotation and retention.
scavnet
Simulates radio transmissions of audio vignettes, so stories unfold over variable timelines.

Presentations

Oct 2026: Keeping the Web Open Under Automated Load
Jul 2026: State of AI Development Tools: Working Deliberately in 2026
Apr 2025: State of AI Development Tools: Update and Practical Workflows in 2025
Jan 2024: Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to Improve Library Interfaces
Sep 2023: Case Study: Practical Applications of Generative AI in Academic Libraries
Jul 2023: Generative AI and Developer Productivity: Capabilities, Integration, and Risks

Contact

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Jacob Sanford
GitHub: JacobSanford