Jorge Barrera — Agentic AI Transformation Architect
Agentic AI Transformation Architect

Making autonomous agents survive contact with production.

I lead a 3,000-person airline IT organization from a manual to an agent-native software lifecycle — building the reliability, security, and governance that keep AI agents grounded inside mission-critical systems.

Jorge Barrera
25+ yrs
enterprise architecture
Sabre
Senior Principal II Architect
CEH · ECSA
security & governance
4 continents
delivered · bilingual EN/ES
The problem I solve

Most companies are still running agent demos. The harder problem is making autonomous agents reliable, secure, and governable enough to operate inside real production systems — at scale.

That means strategy, reference architecture, TCO modeling, proof-of-concept validation, and the knowledge-graph and governance groundwork that keeps agents grounded instead of hallucinating in production.

Across 25+ years I've architected the high-availability, high-scale platforms global travel and e-commerce depend on — the same reliability and security fundamentals that decide whether agentic AI survives contact with production.

What I focus on

Four disciplines that turn agent hype into agent infrastructure.

01

Agentic SDLC transformation

Moving engineering organizations from manual to agent-native — the strategy, architecture, and total-cost-of-ownership modeling that make the shift real, not theoretical.

02

Production-grade agent reliability

Evals, knowledge graphs, and grounding that make autonomous systems trustworthy enough to deploy — not just impressive in a demo.

03

Agent security & governance

Securing agents that act with real permissions and tool access — a discipline that matters more every day, backed by a Certified Ethical Hacker / ECSA background.

04

Enterprise & travel domain

25+ years across airline, travel, and global e-commerce platforms — mission-critical, PCI- and GDPR-compliant systems that run 24/7 at global scale.

Selected work

A track record of firsts in travel technology.

View all projects →
Experience

Three decades building systems the world depends on.

From the first online cruise-line reservation systems to agent-native airline IT — a career spent making complex, high-stakes software reliable at scale.

Education
Florida International University — Computer Science
St. Thomas University — Chemistry
United States Air Force Academy
Nov 2019 — Present

Senior Principal II Software Architect

Sabre Corporation

Leading the transformation of Sabre's traditional SDLC into an agentic AI–enabled engineering operating model across a 3,000-person airline IT organization.

2005 — 2019

Consultant, Architect & Senior Development Lead

Radixx International (a Sabre company)

Guided development of high-volume, 24/7 SaaS platforms critical to global airline e-commerce, translating complex business requirements into reliable technical reality.

1999 — 2005

Founder / Vice President

Coral Reef Technologies

Founded a travel-industry software firm — multilingual airline e-commerce, GIS transportation tracking, and a cloud-based concert ticketing platform.

1993 — 1999

Senior Engineer & Team Lead

Ultimate Software · Costa Crociere

Built high-performance payroll/HRMS systems, and was instrumental in bringing the first online cruise-line reservation systems into existence.

In their words
“True visionaries are rare, and loyal executioners are even rarer. Jorge is both. He doesn't just manage projects — he commands them, balancing operational grit with a sharp, forward-thinking strategy.”
Ralph Echemendia
Ralph Echemendia
“The Ethical Hacker” · Keynote Speaker, Board Member & Executive Advisor
Patent
Apparatus & method for providing hyperthermia therapy
US US20160074668A1
Certifications
Google Cloud Digital Leader · AWS Cloud Practitioner · Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) · EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA)
Speaking

Talks for leaders navigating the agent transition.

Available for conferences, executive briefings, and board sessions — in English or Spanish.

01

Beyond the demo

Making autonomous agents production-ready — evals, reliability, and grounding.

02

Agents with permissions

Securing AI that acts — governance for systems that hold real tool access.

03

The economics of agent-native

TCO modeling and the real business case for moving off a manual SDLC.

04

Agents in regulated industries

Running autonomous systems inside PCI- and GDPR-compliant environments.

Aviation

FAA-certified private pilot (high performance), with an early start at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The same instinct for systems that must not fail.

Craft

Music, painting, and 3D printing — hands-on making that keeps the architecture instinct sharp away from the screen.

Based in

Portland, Oregon — bilingual (English / Spanish), having delivered enterprise platforms across four continents.

Let's talk

Building something that needs agents to actually work?

Contact me jorge@jorgebarrera.biz LinkedIn ↗
JB
Jorge Barrera
Agentic AI Transformation Architect · Portland, OR