Justin Bench

Technology Operations & Enablement Leader

Anybody can run the demo.

I BUILD THE ONE THAT STILL
WORKS ON MONDAY

800+Integrators and technicians trained and certified across four facilities

35 / 40%Faster time to productivity and fewer assembly defects, through standardized process

4Continents of global hardware deployment led, from beta through field

Full-day workshop leader · CAST 2026 Sponsor · Association for Software Testing Fine-tuned models, self-hosted Published on open-weight AI

25 years taking complex technology out of engineering and making it work for the people who use it. Now applying that to AI. Open to senior operations and enablement roles; consulting through 3th Floor Studios.

[email protected]

Justin Bench

Technology Operations & Enablement Leader

3th Floor Studios

Where I've Done It

Smart Home & Building Automation

Companies

Control4Savant LiteTouchGroove

Markets

Dealer & integrator channel
Custom residential integration
Commercial smart building
Lighting & AV control

Results

800+ integrators and technicians certified through recurring hands-on cohorts
Train-the-Trainer across four facilities, holding delivery quality consistent company-wide
Created "Training Shorts" — short-form video that cut maintenance hours and support calls
Built an NPI process aligning sales, operations and support before product shipped

Global IoT & Hardware Deployment

Companies

HalioKinestral Technologies

Markets

Commercial real estate & government
Hospitality & enterprise
North America, Europe, Taiwan, Thailand
Electrochromic smart glass

Results

Directed a team of seven across support, beta and field training on a ~$200K budget
25–30% productivity gain from an entry-level development program, cutting payroll and vendor spend
Authored the complete documentation library and the company's first field installation protocol
Ran 100+ cellular accounts for remote field router deployment

Seven-year tenure through the Kinestral-to-Halio rebrand. Halio closed its doors in June 2024.

Hospitality & Enterprise Networks

Companies

Control4 HospitalityiBahn STSNPackard Bell NEC

Markets

Hotels, resorts & casinos
Retail & condominium
In-room broadband & IP networks
U.S. and international properties

Results

Led automation for MGM CityCenter, Las Vegas — at the time the largest privately held construction project in the U.S., carrying one of the largest private IP networks ever built
Ran worldwide hotel retrofits, coordinating every trade and material through one-to-four-week deployments
Built hotel staff training that let properties run and troubleshoot themselves, cutting ongoing support cost
Converted red-flag accounts into top producers

Applied AI & Operations

Companies

3th Floor StudiosCrosswind Aerial

Markets

Small & mid-market business
Commercial technology
Agriculture & field services
Systems integrators

Results

AI adoption strategy for the IT organization of a $400M+ multinational agriculture enterprise
3,700+ article knowledge base modernized for a commercial technology client, with verification that checks output against source instead of trusting it
Built a document conversion pipeline for a company whose acquisitions left it with no single format — AI layer over inconsistent legacy source
Replaced hours of daily paperwork with structured capture and generated documents for a field services operation
Runs private inference on owned hardware, so client data never leaves the building and per-seat cost goes to zero

In The Field

CAST 2026 — full-day workshop

Ran a full-day workshop at the Association for Software Testing's annual conference on testing and evaluating AI systems you don't control. Cocoa Beach, August 2026.

AST sponsor

3th Floor Studios sponsors the Association for Software Testing, alongside GitLab and Keysight. Small shop, same table.

Built a model for testers to break

Fine-tuned a compact open-weight model on testing material and handed it to practitioners to poke holes in — including the association's founder. Evaluation you can't fake.

Writing in public

Ongoing published record of the work — architecture, costs and failures included. "Rent the Frontier, or Own the Basement" and others. It has directly produced client engagements.

What I'm Hired For

AI adoption, honestly scoped

Discovery first. I find out what your people actually do all day, then tell you which parts AI should touch and which it shouldn't. Often the answer is smaller and cheaper than expected.

Documentation & knowledge systems

Extraction, migration and modernization of the support content, SOPs and technical libraries a business has outgrown — with verification built in, not bolted on.

Operations automation

Field capture, structured job and pricing data, generated documents, drafted communications. Built to survive no signal, two languages and a bad Monday.

Training & enablement programs

Curriculum, certification, LMS and Train-the-Trainer for companies adding a service line or scaling a workforce. Twenty-five years of doing exactly this.

How I Work

Verification over trust

Generated output gets checked against source before it ships. A pipeline without an evaluation layer isn't a feature, it's a liability waiting for a date.

Structured data for anything load-bearing

Prices, quantities and identities live in a database with exact values. Retrieval is for prose. A confident approximation of a number is worse than no number.

Humans on the send button

Systems draft, assemble and queue. A person approves anything that leaves the building carrying a price or a commitment.

Own the stack where it matters

Self-hosted inference where privacy, cost or control justify it. Somebody else's API where they don't. Decided on merit, not ideology.

What People Say

"This guy is the diamond in the rough you've been looking for. He's spent the majority of his career bringing method to the madness in startup environments, and it's a strength that shines on every team he's a part of. He's the critical thinker and the problem solver you need to bust through the gunk and get to awesome. I would hire him in a second."

Gwen IarussiTechnology Transformation & Efficiency Catalyst

Worked together across three companies

"Without a doubt Justin is an 'A' player and someone I'll always look to recruit onto my team. Justin has the ability to manage everyday team members while interacting with executives on projects."

Jim GistDirector, Retail & Hospitality — Control4

Direct manager

"Justin has excellent management skills, including managing people, projects and budget. He leads by example, with a drive to deliver technical information in a way that can be understood by even the most beginner on the team. His approach is contagious and creates a team environment with high quality deliverables."

Angela LarsonSVP GTM & Business Operations — Savant Systems

People · Projects · Budget

"I spent 74 straight days on a project that required Justin to remain focused and flexible in schedule, 24x7. His ability to think outside the box and intelligently communicate internally and with the client were greatly appreciated. I'd work with Justin again in a heartbeat."

Thomas J. Dolaskie IVChief Operating Officer

Client side

"A great boss, and a good friend."

Brian CrowderControl4

Reported to Justin

"Justin defies the old adage 'Jack of all trades' — because he is a master of all. I worked with Justin as he evolved from role to role, easily adapting and meeting the needs of a growing start-up. His technical abilities are amazing, his ability to teach is second to none."

Benjamin Mahoney, CPTMTraining & Enablement Professional

Training & enablement peer

"An individual in a technical arena who can manage not only to please, but to impress senior executives in the hospitality industry clearly has a talent. Detail oriented, with an absolutely bulletproof follow-through drive that is a rare find. Justin is an absolute one of a kind."

Randy RichesSr. Director, Network Operations & Security — Ken Garff Automotive

Enterprise IT leadership

"I have worked with Justin for a long time. In that time he has not only always done everything he was asked to do, but he always finds a way to make it better than I expected."

Eric SmithCo-Founder & CTO — SAVI IQ

Senior leadership

"Justin exhibited a great customer focus and ownership of problems. He set an excellent example for his peers, demonstrating informal leadership within the team. He could be counted on to put the customer's needs first in getting the job done."

Cris MartinezCustomer Care Leadership — iBahn

Customer operations

"Justin is a pleasure to work with. He has a great attitude and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done well. Justin is very skilled and complements his skills with a strong work ethic."

David ShakeFractional CTO — helps integrators build low-voltage divisions

Integrator channel

Let's talk about what's actually broken.

Most of what gets sold as an AI problem is a process problem with no documentation. I'm happy to tell you which one you have before anybody signs anything.

[email protected] LinkedIn 385.630.3755