Donald Brinkman
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Donald Brinkman

[[PLACEHOLDER_SLOP: hero headline, AI and agentic systems / creator economies / trust and safety register, Signal]]

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[[PLACEHOLDER_SLOP: About heading, Signal]]

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  1. – Research Engineer OptiMetrics, Inc.

    DARPA-funded research in quantum computation, cryptography, and signals intelligence; held TS/SCI clearance.

  2. – Principal Menrva Research

    Independent research practice.

  3. – R&D Program Manager Microsoft Research

    Digital-humanities research and large-scale cultural preservation.

    • AIDS Memorial Quilt: 50,000 panels searchable
    • SXSW Best Educational Technology, 2013
  4. – Senior Program Manager, Bing Relevance & AI Microsoft

    Search relevance and an Office speller shipped at scale.

    • 100M+ users
    • 6% aggregate accuracy lift, 37%+ on tail queries
  5. – Senior Product Manager, Conversational AI Microsoft (AI + Research)

    A conversational AI built 0-to-1: evaluation, human-data pipelines, and the safety operations that kept it live.

    • 2M+ users
    • Safety method peer-reviewed at CHI 2024
  6. – Principal Group Program Manager, Esports Microsoft

    Esports across first-party surfaces; the Smash.gg acquisition revived and integrated.

    • Match-stats experiences to 40M+ MAU
  7. – Director, Creator Partner Program Mojang Studios (Microsoft)

    Policy, enforcement, partnerships, and a unified data instance for a nine-figure creator marketplace.

    • $260M ecosystem, 300+ studios
    • Partner confidence 23% to 87%
  8. – Director, Fortnite Developer Programs Epic Games

    Developer programs and an AI-accelerated pipeline refactor, cut short by a restructuring.

    • 40% of a targeted 70% workflow automation
  9. –present Independent Researcher, Multi-Agent AI Systems Self-directed

    An applied study of agentic ensembles, run as a working method; public essay series.

    Now
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