Eric Rhea

Serve well. Decisions that multiply value.

I help leadership teams turn uncertainty into clear, shared bets—across product, engineering, and operations.

Stay in the Loop

How I Operate as a Force Multiplier

I ramp fast across domains.

I quickly learn the landscape across product, engineering, operations, and risk so we can talk in specifics, not abstractions.

I translate across functions.

I help product, engineering, and operations see the same AI decision in their own terms and align on one shared move.

I design durable decisions, not stunts.

We focus on AI decisions that can be governed, monitored, and explained a year from now—not just one-off demos that look good once and then decay.

Eric Rhea

Who's Eric?

Eric Rhea is a Principal Engineer working in modern financial technology platforms. He specializes in API-first architectures, real-time transaction systems, and responsible use of AI and automation in regulated environments.

  • Cross-functional operator: Works across product, engineering, operations, risk, and compliance to align AI decisions that ship.
  • AI-assisted SDLC practitioner: Hands-on experience with agentic workflows, AI pair programming, and automation that actually makes it to production.
  • Observability and governance focus: Builds AI systems designed for monitoring, auditability, and ethical use in real production environments.
  • Pilot-to-production specialist: A pattern of turning experiments and pilots into trustworthy, production-grade capabilities.

I've spent years at the intersection of complex systems and emerging technology—where the playbook doesn't exist yet. I help leadership teams make AI decisions that multiply value, not just add features.

As Seen On

Featured writings, talks, panels, and collaborations.

DMACC
WHO-TV Iowa
Banking as a Service

Talks that Treat AI as a System, Not a Toy

When Shift Happens

About historical leverage shifts—fire, clothing, printing press, steam, AI—and how they change what it means to be human at work.

Synthetic People & Cultures

About agents, synthetic personas, and digital twins—and how they form cultures that feed back into real organizations.

AI in the Back Office

About practical use cases: analysts, product, engineering, operations, and education all being amplified by AI.

If your org feels both "so over" and "so back" at the same time, you're in the right place.

Research & Experiments

Ongoing explorations at the edge of AI, systems thinking, and organizational behavior.

Island Explorer

Experiment

A procedural 3D island generated and explored entirely in the browser — Three.js, Gerstner waves, FPS controls, and zero build tools.

Leadership OS

A compass for how I build, decide, and solve hard problems.

Don't mistake these pages as a glorified ego boasting. I'm far from perfect. I am human. I share these because they will help someone-I'm told by others they've helped them. These principles emerged as patterns in the analysis—not commandments. Use them as tools in your toolbox, adapt what works, discard what doesn't.

How I Wrote This OS

Reverse-engineering a decade of myself—using AI to pattern-mine thousands of decisions and turn instinct into interface.

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Identity & Purpose

Who I am, what I actually do, and the meta-problem I solve for fast-growing companies drowning in hidden complexity.

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Core Beliefs: Humans

How I lead, work with, and grow people in high-complexity systems. Adults, not resources. Clarity beats control.

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Core Beliefs: Systems

The assumptions I carry into every architecture, organization, and decision loop. Systems behave as designed, not as hoped.

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Decision-Making Principles

How I make decisions in complex, fast-moving systems. Make it legible, prefer reversible moves, protect the critical path.

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Leadership & Scale

How I multiply impact without becoming the bottleneck. Turn instinct into frameworks, build deputies, not dependents.

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Anti-Patterns

Where my system breaks—and how I correct it. Every leader has blind spots; the difference is whether you design around them.

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Where to Go Next

For Event Organizers

  • Invite Eric to speak at your event
  • Design a custom session for your org
  • Panel moderation and strategy Q&A
Contact for Speaking

For Curious Humans

  • Get future talk materials
  • Learn experiments you can run with AI right now
  • No spam, just weird and useful
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