Project management, sales, and technology.
B.S., Management Information Systems · Northern Iowa
Where I have Worked
Lead site selection, site acquisition, design, permitting, construction oversight, and inspection. At peak, managed twenty direct reports plus another ten resources, including consultants, vendors, and other non-direct reports.
Project types: inspection oversight for long-haul fiber and ILAs; middle-mile design and permitting; huts — site selection, design, permitting, and construction oversight.
AI conversation review, customer training, support and account management.
Ran hundreds of Sprint and T-Mobile wireless builds across Kansas and Missouri — often 200–500 projects at various stages. Schedule, vendors, SOW, risk, closeout, safety.
Mobile apps: myAPPetite (SaaS for restaurants and bars) and Closeout APP. Product, design, QA.
Clearwire build: constructibility, materials, vendors, daily status, closeout QC.
Eighty Cricket new site builds, $35k–$250k each. Crews, budget, bids, closeouts.
Full sales cycle with Fortune 500 and other accounts. Pre-sold PhoneFactor, later acquired by Microsoft and the foundation for Microsoft Authenticator.
AI Experience
Built and launched My Travel in Color, a public app for mapping travel history — countries, states, counties, roads, flights, cruises, trains, photos, and share/print.
Directed the product in plain language, tested on desktop and mobile, and used an AI agent to inspect the code, add features and APIs, and ship updates. Owned the loop from concept and UX through admin tools, backups, and production fixes.
Using more than a dozen specialized bots to run complete workflows end to end — including quality checks, voting, and token-spend optimization.
Apply AI on client and employer projects to improve efficiency, support ongoing learning, and raise quality — from research and drafting to checks and process improvement.
References
I had the pleasure of having John on my team during my tenure as Implementation Manager at Crown Castle. John was and is a consummate professional who was consistently managing multiple construction projects as well as managing his internal task workload for Crown. During the busiest times of wireless build-outs, John managed his dates, crews, customer expectations and system updates perfectly. Every time. After four years of being John’s manager, I recommend him to any company out there looking for a top tier project manager or construction manager. It was a privilege to watch him work!
John was on my team, or partnered with my team, for most of the last 10 years. Throughout that entire time, I found John to be extremely technically astute, safety focused and willing to go the extra mile for the customer. Always inquisitive, John would do “homework” on the build, the sites and the customer in order present the best possible product to the customer. He’s also courageous and willing to ask the questions that need to be asked. John is a very valuable member of any team he’s on.
John was a construction manager for the Clearwire build out in Minnesota. He was extreme thorough, accountable, and a big factor in our success. He managed his jobs well. I had planned to promote him to a PM, but we didn’t have enough work for another pm.
John was a great asset to Positive Networks in landing and managing some of our largest accounts. He had a strong work ethic and was regularly the first in the office and the last to leave. While not flashy, John was someone that could be counted on to get the job done. John does what he says he will do and his followup was impeccable.
I always enjoyed working with John. We went on a lot of sales calls together, and he was always professional, personable, and well prepared.
You have been the person out front asking the tough questions to make a better situation...even when it is an extremely difficult conversation! Thank you for being a leader!
- “Thanks for all your efforts in the ever changing construction activities this quarter. Your dedication in helping our customers and GCs complete projects for the quarter is much appreciated!” — Kim Ferguson
- “Always hitting the mark when it comes to detail.” — Phil Orasco
- “John thanks for all the help with Dish walks and finding solutions for us.” — Mike Stewart
- “John, Thank you for all you helped accomplish on our shared projects in July.” — Grant Steinhauser
- “I haven't worked with you very long, but I see you killing it every day! Thank you for all you do!” — Ryan Quintel
- “THANK YOU for your help in protecting the portfolio!” — Paul Peckens
- “Thanks for Keeping the TMO's CX rolling!” — Sami Atieh
- “Thanks for the detailed red lines and finding missing materials. Detail goes a long way.” — Ira Warfield
- “Outstanding work in scoping sites.” — Ron Fueherer
- “Nice Job keeping your CX notes up to date and exceeding the recent standard.” — Jeff Smith
- “Thank-you for thinking of the PCs when new processes come in that may affect them.” — Amanda Nowling
- “Thanks for taking care of issues during my PTO.” — Mike Nakkar
- “All, great efforts on all the deliverables you have been supporting to help create the standards and expectation as we move forward to perform direct CX services for TMO!” — Jeffery Race
- “John Schmitz, for having a crew on site for a customer install, fix an issue with the lighting cable for free.” — Mike Romanoski
- John is a detailed orientated Solutions Provider. His knowledge cross' many platforms as well as Project Management. — Michael Harwig, Customer
- John has 3 traits that stand out: Integrity. Eagerness. Hard Work. — Anthony Maughan, Sales Engineer, Positive Networks
Contact
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