# D Scarnecchia (@scarnecchia.net)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/scarnecchia.net
Headline: Senior Technical Project Manager II at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

## About

Highly experienced Senior Technical Project Manager with a track record of delivering complex software and methods development projects on time and within budget. Systems architect and builder of open-source moderation services that makes social networks safer. Skilled communicator and researcher with deep technical knowledge, dedicated to bridging technical and operational teams and collaborating with diverse stakeholders to deliver meaningful results in critical operational contexts.

## Career

- **Senior Technical Project Manager II at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute** (Dec 2024 - Present)
  Full-time · Hybrid
  Technical Project Manager for the Data Quality Assurance Tools and Analytic Querying Tools teams, drafting business, user, functional, and technical requirements across both portfolios. Responsible for delivery of a $5–7 million annual portfolio representing 15% of the FDA Sentinel Initiative's annual budget, and for preparing the organization's data quality assurance infrastructure for the Sentinel RFP.
  
  \- Managed and mentored team of two technical project managers
  \- Managed research teams developing machine learning methods to detect cannabis use, venous thromboembolism, and encapsulated bacterial infections from unstructured clinical notes and EHR data, delivering demonstration projects for FDA's Real World Evidence program
  \- Managed implementation of FDA Sentinel's Real World Evidence Data Enterprise (RWE-DE), adding 25 million linked claims-EHR patient lives to the distributed database
  \- Delivered production QA data aggregation pipeline in Python via AI agent-assisted development, cutting storage to 10% of the legacy SAS pipeline and enabling Power BI characterization of the Sentinel Distributed Database
  \- Leading project assessing viability of adopting OMOP Common Data Model within HPHCI
  \- Technical advisor to internal pilot project converting health data querying tools from SAS to Python, enabling use of routine querying tools with Apache Spark and Databricks
  \- Designed architecture and drafted technical requirements for automating cross-ETL quality assurance checks, reducing time-to-data-delivery
  \- Led modernization of Sentinel's Mother-Infant Identification Program Package: drafted functional requirements, managed team delivering methodological updates and software implementation
  \- Pioneered use of Sentinel's common data model and tools for transnational drug safety research across the United States, Canada, UK, and Denmark
  \- Delivered updated Sentinel Common Data Model to FDA, coordinating upgrade of 14 external data partners
- **Senior Technical Project Manager I at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute** (Mar 2022 - Dec 2024)
  Boston, Massachusetts, US
- **Technical Project Manager II at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute** (Nov 2020 - Mar 2022)
  Boston, Massachusetts, US
- **Technical Project Manager at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute** (Oct 2019 - Oct 2020)
- **Independent Consultant at Self** (Aug 2015 - Oct 2019)
  Member, Data Science and Ethics Group (a nascent inter-agency working group focused on the risks posed to displaced persons by advanced data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence)
  
  \- Ethics Reviewer, Humanitarian Data Science Review
  \- Freelance cartographic, network, and data visualizations for political risk clientele
- **Researcher—Standards and Ethics, Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative** (Dec 2016 - Dec 2018)
  Researched governance and management issues related to the use of ICTs and information in humanitarian response with a particular focus on standards and ethics, and the impact of technology on humanitarian crises and affected populations.
  
  \- Investigated the safe, ethical, and rights-based use of digital ICTs and data in humanitarian settings through scholarly research and field assessments:
    \- Co-authored a rights-based approach for assessing digital technology and data use during humanitarian crises, as well as the subsequent obligations necessary for humanitarian agencies to realize these rights 
    \- Developed an assessment template and capacity development curriculum to help organizations understand the scope of the digital technology use and associated risks 
    \- Created and facilitated workshops on the use of digital information and communication technologies for humanitarian practitioners
  \- Engaged with internal and external stakeholders to support the Signal Program’s research aims: 
    \- Collaborated across institutions to help produce interdisciplinary work on topics ranging from GDPR compliance to the impact of disinformation on the Syria conflict 
    \- Facilitated workshops and panels on future technological threats to the humanitarian system 
    \- Promoted the Signal Program’s research through digital outreach, public speaking, and written communications
    \- Designed promotional materials, including posters for speaking engagements and event invitations, as well as document layout for research reports
  \- Held Signal Program corporate card, made team travel arrangements, and managed reimbursements per University guidelines
- **Senior Consultant at Digital Aurora, Inc.** (Jan 2015 - Dec 2016)
  Developed strategies with pharmaceutical industry clients for the generation of real-world evidence for drug safety surveillance and health economics and outcomes research
  
  \- Wrote landscape reports monitoring policy changes and industry trends and assessed the business impacts and opportunities of emerging technologies
  \- Designed research frameworks, governance policies, and procedures for the creation of multi-stakeholder distributed research networks using real-world evidence to monitor drug safety and effectiveness
  \- Convened industry, healthcare, academia, and government actors to build organizations which met the varied regulatory and business needs of stakeholders, including:
  • the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC), a $8M, multi-stakeholder distributed research network to monitor the safety and effectiveness of biologics and biosimilars
  • a three-year, $18M research plan for the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) drug safety methods public private partnership
- **Product Designer at The Hudson Standard** (Oct 2013 - Dec 2014)
  Hudson, New York, US
- **Project Manager at Digital Aurora, Inc.** (Jan 2012 - Dec 2014)
  Manchester, Vermont, US
- **Intern at National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance** (Sep 2010 - Dec 2010)
- **Research Analyst at Digital Aurora, Inc.** (Jan 2006 - Aug 2009)
  Remote
- **North American Order Manager at MathWorks** (Aug 2004 - Dec 2005)
  Natick, Massachusetts, US

## Projects

- **Skywatch Blue** — https://bsky.app/profile/skywatch.blue (Feb 2024 - Present)
  @skywatch.blue is one of the largest and best-known community labelers on Bluesky and the ATProto network, leveraging the Osprey rules engine and agent based workflows to handle high volumes of user-created reports, and providing trusted safety signals for third-party ATProto infrastructure providers, such as selfhosted.social and npmx.social 
  
  \- Designed and built Skywatch's original labeling and moderation infrastructure, a Typescript-based rules engine, operating it in production from 2024 before migrating the service to the Osprey rules engine in 2026
  \- Deploy and operate the Osprey rules engine for automated report triage and threat detection across the ATProto network 
  \- Built statistical sidecar services for anomaly detection (network clustering, overdispersion scanning, first-mover analysis) supporting large-scale coordinated inauthentic behavior investigations, such as high-volume inauthentic fundraising networks 
  \- Built and maintain MCP tools and agent skills enabling LLM-assisted moderation at scale, reducing manual investigation workload
  \- Recipient, ATProto Community Fund Grant
- **Every Child Is Our Child** — http://everychildisourchild.wordpress.com/ (Jun 2010 - Aug 2010)
  Website creation for the Manya Krobo Queen Mothers Association.
- **Standards Advisory Service** — http://digitalaurorainc.com (Sep 2005 - Aug 2009)
  Multi-Company Advisory Service on Healthcare Information Technology and Life Sciences Informatics Standards and Strategy

## Talks & sessions

### [Two Years of @skywatch.blue: Lessons Learned for Community Labelers](https://sifa.id/p/scarnecchia.net/talk/two-years-of-skywatch-blue-lessons-learned-for-community-lab-3mpyfypzuk225)
_30 min_
What has it been like to run a large community labeler over the course of two years? I'll focus heavily on lessons learned, including reflections on what and who it serves, the missteps and pitfalls made along the way, and what I would do differently if I were to start all over again.

I'll reflect on how I've come to view community labeling is distinct from Trust & Safety or moderation and the role it can still play in the ecosystem, along with thoughts on what directions the labeler ecosystem might explore in the future.
### Weaponization of Information
- Digital Risk in Situations of Armed Conflict · Dec 2018 · London, UK · Host · In person
### Crisis Code: Humanitarian Protection in the Digital Age
- swissnex San Francisco · Sep 2018 · San Francisco, CA · Panelist · In person
### Understanding the role of hate speech and fake news as factors in spirals of violence in situations of conflict and armed violence
- RightsCon 2018 · May 2018 · Toronto, ON · Panelist · In person
### Tech + Humanitarian Action: Accelerating Global Crisis Response
- ICRC Collaborative Platform at swissnex Boston · Mar 2018 · Cambridge, MA · Panelist · In person
### Use of ICTs and Data by Civilian Populations Affected by Armed Conflict
- Data For Policy 2017 · Sep 2017 · London, UK · Panelist · In person
### Use of ICTs and Data by Civilian Populations Affected by Armed Conflict
- Data For Policy 2017 · Sep 2017 · London, UK · Panelist · In person
### Friend or troll? Solving the internet’s information dilemma
- German American Conference at Harvard 2018 · Cambridge, MA · Host · In person
### Towards Common Humanitarian Standards for the Use of ICTs
- Humanitarian ICT Forum · Mountainview, CA · Workshop · In person
### Digital Security and Cyber-Resilience in Complex Country Contexts
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency Headquarters · Amman, Jordan · Workshop · In person
### Integrating Responsible, Rights-Based Data Governance into UNRWA Operations
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency Headquarters · Amman, Jordan · Workshop · In person

## Publications

- Labeler Relay (Aug 2026)
- pyAggregate (Jul 2026)
- Information Forklift Certified Organizations — scarnecchia.net (Jul 2026) https://scarnecchia.net/writing/agentic-development/
- Dii familiares — scarnecchia.net (Mar 2026) https://scarnecchia.net/writing/dii-familiares/
- The FDA Sentinel Real World Evidence Data Enterprise (RWE‐DE) — PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY (Oct 2024) https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.70028
- Valsartan, Losartan and Irbesartan use in the USA, UK, Canada and Denmark after the nitrosamine recalls: a descriptive cohort study — BMJ Open (Apr 2023) https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/4/e070985.abstract
- Impact of angiotensin-receptor-blocker (ARB) recalls due to nitrosamine contamination on arb utilization in the US, Canada, and Denmark — PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY (Sep 2022)
- The Signal Code: Ethical Obligations for Humanitarian Information Activities.” — Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (May 2018) https://hhi.harvard.edu/publications/signal-code-ethical-obligations-humanitarian-information-activities
- Ecosystem or Echo-System? Exploring Content Sharing across Alternative Media Domains — Proceedings of the 12th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM-18) (Apr 2018) https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM18/paper/view/17836
- Humanitarian data breaches: the real scandal is our collective inaction — IRIN (Dec 2017) https://www.irinnews.org/opinion/2017/12/08/humanitarian-data-breaches-real-scandal-our-collective-inaction
- A Rights-based Approach to Information in Humanitarian Assistance — PLOS Currents Disasters (Sep 2017) http://currents.plos.org/disasters/article/a-rights-based-approach-to-information-in-humanitarian-assistance/

## Skills

### Technical
- Claude Code
- Cloud Computing
- Data Governance
- Git
- Jira
- Python
- R (Programming Language)
- RStudio
- SQL
- TypeScript
### Business
- Agile Methodologies
- Management
- Product Management
- Strategic Planning
- Technical Project Management
### Creative
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Design
### Interpersonal
- Leadership
- Public Speaking
- Stakeholder Management
- Teamwork
### Community
- Trust and Safety
### Other
- Agile & Waterfall Methodologies
- Animal Husbandry
- Bitbucket
- Collaboration Tools
- Confluence
- GIS
- Policy Analysis
- Quantitative Analysis
- SAS (Programming Language)
- SAS (Software)

## Education

- **University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)** — Master of Public & International Affairs, Human Security (Aug 2009 - Apr 2011)
- **State University of New York at Albany** — BA, History (Aug 2000 - Dec 2003)

## Involvement

### Volunteering
- American Red Cross - Massachusetts (Oct 2018 - Oct 2019)
  Disaster Action Team: Trainee
- Róisín Dubh Farm (Mar 2013 - Dec 2015)
  West Rupert, Vermont, US
  Goat Dairy Operations and Animal Care
  Skills: Animal Husbandry
- Manchester Riverwalk (May 2013 - Dec 2014)
  Manchester, Vermont, US
  Governance and Development Committees

## Links

- Personal Github: https://github.com/scarnecchia (verified)
- Field Notes: https://notes.numina.systems (verified)
- Tangled: https://tangled.org/scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz
- Sifa: https://sifa.id/p/scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz