Automating infrastructure design tools to improve safety, quality, and delivery speed
Automation Foundry
OVERVIEW
In the summer of 2023, I joined AECOM as the inaugural digital product leader to found and scale the Automation Foundry - a globally distributed, cross-functional group in the enterprise organization dedicated to transforming manual engineering and design workflows into high-craft digital products. Straddling product management and design, I built a cross-functional development team and established AECOM’s first end-to-end digital development lifecycle. To transition the organization from ad-hoc scripting to enterprise-grade product engineering, my team designed and deployed a universal design system, institutionalized rigorous QA frameworks, and launched a centralized digital product hub for tool discovery, training, and feature federation.
Under this unified operational framework, we scaled the initiative from a nascent concept into the definitive model for enterprise digital delivery at AECOM. By the end of my tenure, the team had shipped approximately 40 unique automation and AI tools accessible via a custom Revit ribbon and standalone desktop applications that served multiple global business lines including Buildings & Places and Water. Ultimately, this engine shifted the organization from reactive development to rapid, scalable innovation, turning deep human insights into high-craft software that redefined how massive infrastructure projects are delivered to clients.
GOALS
Eliminate high-friction, manual workflows and accelerate delivery - save 10,000+ operational hours within the first year
Drive measurable, continuous improvements in data integrity, model quality, and content health
Centralize and scale adoption - streamline global tool discovery, support, and feedback loops, scale regional innovations into global solutions
Standardize enterprise product craft with robust UI/UX standards, a universal design system, and a predictable end-to-end product lifecycle
ROLE
SENIOR MANAGER, PRODUCT & DIGITAL DESIGN @ AECOM
OWNED END-TO-END JOURNEY AND DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE FOR THE ENTERPRISE AUTOMATION TOOL SUITE; LED & MANAGED GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM OF 8 ENGINEERS AND DESIGNERS
SCOPE
CORE DEV TEAM PARTNERING WITH GLOBAL IT, ANALYTICS, CHANGE MANAGEMENT, TECHNICAL PRACTICE GROUPS, BUSINESS LINE STAKEHOLDERS FROM WATER, TRANSPORT, BUILDINGS + PLACES
TEAM
TIMELINE
Q3 2023 - Q1 2026
FIGMA, MIRO, GITHUB, POWERBI, REVIT, COPILOT, CLAUDE, NOTION, CIVIL3D, GRASSHOPPER, DYNAMO, PYTHON || ROADMAPPING, VENDOR & COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS, QUALT & QUANT METHODS
TOOLKIT
FOUNDATION
[AN INHERITED BACKLOG]
Building on the foundation
When I joined Aecom to lead this product space, a kernel of an idea and an effective ‘proof of concept’ existed, led by an BIM engineer with no product experience who had been documenting opportunities, requests, and regional homebaked automation solutions in a Word document backlog, and making powerpoint prototypes to hand over to a recently hired remote vendor dev team.
To date, the team had built six Revit tools being test driven without guidelines or feedback mechanisms by a few small groups - no formal test bed or adoption strategy.
In a global enterprise organization supporting over 50,000 colleagues and $20B in client contracts representing many of the largest built infrastructure projects in the world - we worked on tools to streamline the 2028 Olympics, mitigate residential flood risk, and make essential transit infrastructure safer - I recognized the opportunity to grow not just the catalog of tools, but the impact of the solutions, and the operating model and maturity of the product function in order to deliver these products to business lines.
OPPORTUNITY
100k
HOURS
SPEED - BILLABLE HRS ON DESIGN TASKS THAT COULD BE AUTOMATED
25+
LOCAL SOLUTIONS
SCALE - REGIONAL SOLUTIONS WITH POTENTIAL TO BE SCALED GLOBALLY
MODEL
HEALTH
QUALITY - IMPROVE MODEL HEALTH = HIGHER QUALITY DELIVERABLES WITH SAFER OUTCOMES
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
[BUSINESS + HUMAN NEED]
UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITY
After being handed the reigns and taking over the development Automation Factory had done in the incubation phase, I had to take a step back and understand the impact of the tools - for business within Aecom, for users - potential for scalability, and where a team with limited resources should focus efforts to maximize that impact.
Buildings + Places, the practice within Aecom dedicated to architecture, building engineering, planning and urban design, was an eager collaborator with a list of over 20 regional solutions to be validated. We committed to this domain as a primary space to validate, test, and begin to scale, as we scoped opportunities in additional business practices.
A theme that recurred in conversations with engineers and other “boots on the ground” users was that improving model health was paramount - a primary concern for teams where versioning and multiple contributors could degrade quality over time - and improving model health ensured safer outcomes across the spectrum of delivery. Leadership confirmed this top priority, and showed evidence of upwards of 100k billable hours of manual work each year with potential to be automated - a key reference point for curating our backlog.
“We need to move past manual processes and checklists. By embedding safety standards within the model itself, we can automate audits for life safety compliance and verify egress paths, door swings, and fire compartmentation in seconds.”
BIM Engineer, SOUTH AFRICA
STRUCTURE
[FOUNDATION]
DISCOVERY
[FOUNDATION]
PROCESS
[FOUNDATION]
DESIGN SYSTEMS
FOUNDATION
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
FRAMEWORK
ECOSYSTEM
EVOLUTION
OUTCOMES
FOUNDATION
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
FRAMEWORK
ECOSYSTEM
EVOLUTION
OUTCOMES
FOUNDATION
[HEADING]
A thing or two
A paragraph to write about the project details or about a feature or whatever. Say some stuff here blah blah blah
1 · FOUNDATION
“This is a quote that somebody said about something at a time and place and it was important to pay attention to so we wrote it down and now it lives here on the internet for ever and ever.”
Person or Title, PLACE