Cory Barnes

Professional Summary

Strategic and results-driven IVR Architect & Contact Center Leader with 12+ years of experience delivering AI-powered IVR solutions, optimizing customer experiences, and driving $7M+ in cost savings. Adept at designing and integrating scalable IVR ecosystems, ensuring 99.999% uptime, and improving operational efficiency.

Core Technical Competencies

• NICE CXone, Amazon Connect, Twilio, Genesys
• Custom IVR, API Integration, AI-Assisted Routing
• AWS (Lambda, DynamoDB), REST Frameworks
• HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SecOps, FedRAMP Compliance
• Agile/Scrum, ITIL v4, DevOps, CI/CD

Professional Experience

Lead IVR Solutions Architect (Sep. 2023 – Present)

PingWind | Remote

• Designed & implemented an enterprise IVR ecosystem handling 1M+ monthly calls, reducing SLA breaches by 80% and saving $1.2M annually.
• Developed a secure multi-factor authentication framework, cutting handle time by 60% while ensuring HIPAA/PCI compliance.
• Engineered modular IVR architecture, achieving 70% code reuse and decreasing development cycles by 35%.
• Created a custom GRXML grammar file for IVR-based email authentication, boosting first-call resolution by 40% and CSAT by 25%.

Senior IVR & Contact Center Solutions Architect (Sep. 2022 – Sep. 2023)

Securian Financial | Remote

• Led a $5M+ enterprise contact center transformation, completed 7 months ahead of schedule.
• Designed & deployed a high-availability integration layer, handling 500K+ daily transactions with 99.99% uptime.
• Established an enterprise-wide API framework, cutting integration time by 40% and enabling faster feature deployment.

Senior Unified Communications Architect (Sep. 2020 – Sep. 2022)

Unified Women's Healthcare | Remote

• Led a digital transformation for 65+ healthcare providers across 200+ locations, improving service consistency by 45% and saving $2M annually.
• Implemented 5 enterprise contact centers with tailored healthcare workflows, reducing operational costs by 30%.
• Negotiated UCaaS contracts, achieving a 50% cost reduction while expanding service capabilities.

Senior VoIP Solutions Engineer (Oct. 2019 – Jul. 2020)

Versant Health | Remote

• Executed a cloud migration for 700+ locations, completing 4 months ahead of schedule with zero unplanned downtime.

Lead Telecommunications Engineer (Sep. 2011 – Oct. 2019)

U.S. Air Force | Remote

• Managed a $50M+ global UC deployment across 7 sites, delivering 99.999% uptime for 4,000+ users.
• Engineered a redundant telecommunications infrastructure, supporting multi-national operations.
• Implemented an efficiency program, increasing operational capacity by 30%.

Resume

Blog

Welcome to my blog! I’ll share insights on IVR architecture, AI-powered contact centers, and AWS best practices. Stay tuned for upcoming posts!