Dad Federal Solutions Architect

Zach Forrest

Solutions architect for federal programs. A decade of cybersecurity, ATO, cloud architecture, and data engineering leadership for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Early AI adopter, fine-tuned my first model in 2020. Currently building NilesAI.

I find fulfillment in working hard at work worth doing.

TCV Won
$430M+
Win rate
43%
Architected
$500M+
01

Experience

A decade-plus leading cybersecurity, cloud architecture, and technical solutioning across the VA / FedHealthIT space. Federal growth, AI innovation, and solutioning work across VA, DoD, Treasury, DHS, Air Force, NASA, and Commerce. $500M+ in architected contract value. First Medallia deployment at any U.S. federal agency. Early AI adopter who fine-tuned a first model on a Jetson in 2020.

  1. May 2024 - Present

    Solutions Architect · BDR Solutions LLC

    Federal solutions architecture, AI innovation & capture

    • $422M+ architected
    • VA · DoD · IRS · DHS
    • Led technical solutioning for federal pursuits across VA, DoD/DHA, Treasury/IRS, DHS/FEMA, Air Force, NASA, and Commerce.
    • Architected $422M+ in federal contract value since May 2024, including VA FSC SW Dev ($174M), VA Privacy Compliance Support (Recompete), IRS BTA Agile Web Development (sole source), and DHA EIDS CSO.
    • Founded BDR's AI Community of Practice. Built, developed, and deployed more than a dozen AI solutions across the enterprise. Pioneer AI innovation inside the organization and across the federal community as an early innovator for federal growth.
  2. Jun 2023 - Jun 2024

    Solutions Architect · Sierra7, Inc.

    Federal proposal & capture

    • $8M VA LEAF re-compete win
    • 7 bids led
    • 3 strengths · 1 significant
    • Instrumental in winning the VA LEAF contract re-compete valued at $8M.
    • Led technical solutioning for 7 bids in the year; provided strategic support on 5 additional pursuits.
    • Recognized with 3 strengths and 1 significant strength in government evaluations, with direct impact on solution quality and compliance.
    • Pioneered AI / LLM integration into the solutioning process, measurably lifting bid accuracy and creativity.
  3. Feb 2022 - Jun 2023

    Sr. Cyber Security Specialist & Solution Architect · PingWind Inc. (HUBZone / SDVOSB)

    Federal cyber capture & architecture

    • GSA HACS vehicle secured
    • 7.5 opps/mo at $500K-$18M+
    • 26% corp security lift
    • Led technical solutioning for federal pursuits under the VA T4NG vehicle.
    • Secured the GSA Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) vehicle, driving ~7.5 new opportunities per month at $500K-$18M+ each.
    • Built an AWS Kendra intelligent-search POC that cut proposal information-gathering time 20% and lifted productivity 15% under tight deadlines.
    • Concurrent SME support across two federal programs totaling $81M.
  4. Jan 2017 - Feb 2022

    Principal, InfoSec & Architecture · Halfaker and Associates → SAIC (acquired Jun 2021)

    VA VSIGNALS / VOICE, modernized SaaS on AWS GovCloud. Role continued unchanged through SAIC's acquisition of Halfaker.

    • First federal Medallia deployment
    • Full Cloud ATO in 6 months
    • Fine-tuned first AI model in 2020
    • Tech lead for the first Medallia deployment at the VA, and the first Medallia deployment at any U.S. federal agency.
    • Shepherded the Medallia SaaS platform and the VA through Cloud ATO in 6 months while the program was still in active development.
    • Architecture lead on Trusted Internet Connection implementation, SSO and IAM integration, mobile app deployment for the VA app catalog, and networking workstreams.
    • Reduced certificate-deployment downtime by 80% via a new maintenance process.
    • Maintained ATO through multiple SCA audits and renewals, sustaining a continued 3-year ATO. Influenced future ATO processes for VA leadership across 10+ programs. Exceptional CPARS ratings throughout.
    • Fine-tuned my first image-recognition model in 2020 on an Nvidia Jetson via the fast.ai course. Active member of the firm's AI Community of Practice.
    • First Medallia Certified Professional at Halfaker. Built the internal repository that onboarded future team members.
  5. Sep 2013 - Jan 2017

    Senior Analyst · Analyst · FS Advisory Specialist · PwC

    VA Perceptive Reach, TBI, COMS, RAPTOR, VLER eHealth Exchange, VLER Direct

    • 326% accuracy gain
    • 86-page VistA guide authored
    • Increased Perceptive Reach risk-table precision and accuracy 326% via a Python ICD-code scraping pipeline, future-proofing the system ahead of nationwide code updates.
    • Self-taught HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and Angular 2 to ship dashboard modules and development tasks on program.
    • Rapidly picked up Ruby / Cucumber / Gherkin / Jenkins for test automation, dropping test cycle times significantly.
    • Authored an 86-page clinical system test data population guide for VistA, used to support data efforts for the remainder of the contract.
    • Drafted Requirements Traceability Matrices, Master Test Plans, and Test Evaluation Reports delivered directly to the VA.
02

Projects

Department of Veterans Affairs programs I've served on as tech lead, solutioning lead, or architect.

VA VSIGNALS / VOICE / EMACS

2017 - 2022

Enterprise Measurement and Customer Experience, Veterans Experience Signals

Tech lead and solutioning lead for the VA's flagship Customer Experience Management program, known variously as VSIGNALS, VOICE, and today VA EMACS. A Medallia SaaS platform collecting near-real-time feedback from Veterans, dependents, caregivers, survivors, VA employees, and partner organizations, used to measure trust in VA, surface actionable intelligence for service design, and respond quickly to concerns. Led the first deployment of Medallia at the VA, and the first Medallia deployment at any U.S. federal agency. Shepherded the Medallia SaaS platform and the VA through full Cloud ATO in 6 months while the program was still in active development. Built on AWS GovCloud with Trusted Internet Connections, SSO, and full enterprise integration. System of record: 43VA008.

Agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Role
Tech Lead · Solutioning Lead · Principal InfoSec & Architecture · Halfaker · SAIC
  • First federal Medallia deployment (ever)
  • Full Cloud ATO in 6 months
  • 3-year ATO sustained through multiple SCA audits

VA Perceptive Reach

2015 - 2017

Outreach platform for at-risk Veterans

Built a Python ICD-code scraping pipeline that drove a step-change in the risk table powering outreach to at-risk Veterans, future-proofing the system ahead of the nationwide ICD-10 code migration. Self-taught Angular 2, JavaScript, and Python on-program to ship dashboard modules inside the first sprint.

Agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Role
Senior Analyst · Developer · QA · PwC
  • 326% risk-table accuracy gain
  • Future-proofed for ICD-10

VA VLER eHealth Exchange

2013 - 2015

National health information exchange

Supported nationwide health information exchange between VA and non-VA healthcare providers, enabling Veterans' health records to follow them across care settings. Drafted Requirements Traceability Matrices, Master Test Plans, and authored an 86-page VistA clinical data population guide used for the remainder of the contract.

Agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Role
Analyst · Sr. Process / Data Specialist · PwC
  • 25% testing-cycle reduction
  • 86-page VistA guide authored

VA VLER Direct

2013 - 2015

Secure direct health information exchange

Supported the VLER Direct program, a secure email-based mechanism allowing VA clinicians and trusted non-VA providers to send encrypted health information directly to known recipients. Pulled patient context from the Master Person Index, Cerner Joint Health Information Exchange, and VA care provider systems.

Agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Role
Analyst · Sr. Process / Data Specialist · PwC
  • HIPAA-compliant direct send
  • Encrypted provider-to-provider exchange
Also supported
  • VA CSS · Cybersecurity Services
    PingWind · 2022 - 2023
  • VA TBI · Traumatic Brain Injury tracking
    PwC · 2013 - 2017
  • VA COMS · Chemotherapy Mechanized Ordering & Management System
    PwC · 2013 - 2017
  • VA RAPTOR
    PwC · 2013 - 2017
03

Personal Projects

NilesAI ↗

live beta

Save money. Fight medical overcharges.

An automated medical billing compliance scanner. Upload a bill, EOB, or itemized statement and NilesAI checks it against 2.6M NCCI edits, Medicare fee schedules, and CMS compliance rules, returning a cited findings report in minutes. Built for patients, personal injury attorneys, and insurance claims teams. Every flag cites a specific rule, not an AI guess.

  • OCR
  • LLMs
  • Data engineering
  • CMS rule engines
  • Medicare fee schedules

Scannd ↗

live beta

Monitor your web infrastructure.

Lightweight web security scanning service that runs non-intrusive vulnerability audits against your site (XSS, SQL injection, authentication issues, misconfigurations, data exposure) and returns personalized, actionable reports. No setup, no credit card.

  • Vulnerability scanning
  • Web security
  • Automated audits

AI Community of Practice (BDR)

live

Founder. Driving AI innovation across BDR and the federal community.

Founded BDR's AI Community of Practice. Built, developed, and deployed more than a dozen AI solutions across the enterprise. Pioneers AI innovation both inside the organization and across the broader federal ecosystem, regularly informing proposal strategy and program delivery. Building on a personal AI track record going back to 2020, when I fine-tuned my first image-recognition model on an Nvidia Jetson via fast.ai.

  • LLMs
  • Fine-tuning
  • AI solutioning
  • Data engineering

Software Bill of Materials Scanning System

patent pending

A Rust-built SBOM security scanner.

Invented, architected, and developed an SBOM scanning system in Rust that inspects software dependency chains for security and compliance risk. Filed as U.S. Patent Application 63/385,378 in November 2022.

  • Rust
  • SBOM
  • Supply-chain security
04

Skills

Strategy
  • Solutions Architecture
  • Federal Growth, Innovation & Solutioning
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • AI / LLM Solutioning
  • Technical Evaluation Strengths
Data
  • Databricks
  • Medallion Architecture
  • Data Engineering
  • Data Analysis
  • PostgreSQL
  • SQL / NoSQL
  • Elasticsearch
  • Power BI
  • AWS Kendra
Security & Compliance
  • ATO / FISMA / NIST
  • FedRAMP
  • eMASS
  • IAM / SSO
  • TIC
  • Networking
  • 508 Compliance
  • SBOM / Supply-chain
Cloud & Infra
  • AWS (incl. GovCloud)
  • Azure (VAEC)
  • Docker / Kubernetes
  • Terraform / Ansible
Programming
  • Rust
  • Python
  • JavaScript / TypeScript
  • Dart
  • Angular / React / Vue
Security & QA tooling
  • Nessus
  • Burp Suite
  • Metasploit
  • Wireshark
  • Selenium / Cucumber
  • JMeter
Credentials
  • · B.S. Finance & Management, University of South Carolina
  • · CompTIA Security+
  • · Series 7 (FINRA)
  • · Medallia Certified Professional
  • · U.S. Patent Application 63/385,378: SBOM Scanning System (Pending)
05

References

“Zach's enthusiasm, dedication, and strong work ethic makes him a valuable asset to your organization. He is a true team player.”
Claudine D. Beron, PMP
Chief Executive Officer , Initiate Government Solutions
March 2025 · supported VA DAIMO effort together
↓ download letter (PDF)
“Zach was an excellent leader and mentor. While working under Zach I was an entry level contractor working in cybersecurity for the first time. Zach did a great job of allowing growth and understanding to blossom through experience without direct intervention unless necessary. Zach allowed leadership opportunities while providing his unique understanding of networking and policy requirement for large government contracts. Zach's leadership and guidance helped me advance my career and I would very much like to work with him in the future.” “Zach was an excellent leader and mentor. While working under Zach I was an entry level contractor working in cybersecurity for the first time. Zach did a great job of allowing growth and understanding to blossom through experience without d…”
Matthew Robins
Security Manager · Identity, Access & Governance
July 2022 · reported to Zach directly
“Zach is a mission-focused, team player, with excellent leadership and communication skills, who knows the importance of customer relationship management. At Halfaker/SAIC, Zach served as a vital part of a flagship VA program which leverages a SaaS Customer Experience Management (CEM) tool to survey Veterans and caregivers allowing the VA to identify and provide intervention measures in instances of homelessness and suicide. As the Cyber and Infrastructure Lead, Zach spearheaded the cyber/IA operations on the program, ensuring system availability, integrity, and security compliance with standards such as FISMA and NIST. In fact, Zach was instrumental in the program obtaining the VA's first ATO in the AWS GovCloud. He serves as a great addition to any high-performing team and I highly recommend him.” “Zach is a mission-focused, team player, with excellent leadership and communication skills, who knows the importance of customer relationship management. At Halfaker/SAIC, Zach served as a vital part of a flagship VA program which leverages…”
Jessica Denman
Executive Leader · Federal Health IT
June 2022 · senior to Zach at Halfaker/SAIC
“A few years ago I had the privilege and honor to meet Zach in person, it was for a Medallia training we were sent to in Palo Alto, CA. We were both new to the technology and as teammates. However, Zach demonstrated the great person and professional he is since the moment we first met. From the beginning Zach knew how to take ownership and leadership on all duties he was assigned to, and through the time he successfully performed as our Security and Architecture Team Leader he was capable to deliver and accomplish the mission, always with his very kind personal touch. Any team that has the privilege to have Zach as a member can rest assure that everything will go very well.” “A few years ago I had the privilege and honor to meet Zach in person, it was for a Medallia training we were sent to in Palo Alto, CA. We were both new to the technology and as teammates. However, Zach demonstrated the great person and prof…”
Ricardo Ruiz
Principal Software Engineer
June 2022 · teammate on Security & Architecture
“Zach frequently exceeds expectations and thrives in a very challenging and dynamic work environment. He is always open to learning 'whatever it takes' to get the job done right. From my initial meetings with Zach through today, the transformation is amazing to see.”
Eddie Null
Manager , PwC
“It seems that no matter what obstacle gets put in front of the team, Zach will either find a way to tackle it, go around it, or in a few cases simply remove the obstacle by talking to the client. His professionalism is an example to us all on how to keep composed under stress and high workload… and not lower quality of our work.” “It seems that no matter what obstacle gets put in front of the team, Zach will either find a way to tackle it, go around it, or in a few cases simply remove the obstacle by talking to the client. His professionalism is an example to us all…”
Steve Mahalec
Manager , PwC
“I would like to personally thank Zach for taking on a leading role on the team. He continues to perform at a high-level despite challenges on the engagement. Thank you for continuing to go over and above.”
Darryle Jones, PMP, CSM, ITIL v3
Manager , PwC
“I had the opportunity to work with Zach for a Summer. He was an extremely capable business owner and entrepreneur. He is a natural manager and commands the respect and loyalty of his employees.”
Austin Houdek
Technical Tutor , Porta Solutions
April 2013 · managed Zach directly
06

Off the Clock

Music

Guitar is the long habit. Funk, blues, and some jazz. I also build guitars and amps.

Workshop

Building animatronics and robotics with my son. Soldering iron, 3D printer, a parts bin that grows faster than it shrinks.

Miles

Grew up running. Still enjoy a couple miles here and there.

07

Contact

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