Richmond, VA

Kyle Johnson

I spend my days on how a large organization puts AI to work, and my spare hours on small tools and essays that do one thing well.

Richmond, Virginia. Marine Corps sergeant, then computer science and statistics at Columbia, then six years as a data scientist at Meta. In 2024 I founded Monument Labs, a small studio that spent two years shipping AI products for real workflows and now keeps them running for the people who use them. Today I work on AI strategy and architecture inside a large enterprise. I believe in talking to users, rapid iteration, and building software that solves real problems.

Portfolio

What I've built

Ara

A platform that transforms data scientists' analyses into compelling visual stories. A GitHub-like ecosystem for data professionals to showcase their work, build reputation, and share insights.

Rock River Research (exited)

A UK-based consulting firm specializing in AI integration for enterprise executives.

Before

Background

  1. Meta

    2018–2024

    Senior Data Scientist

    Reality Labs Trust, Business Integrity, FAIR Machine Translation, Community Integrity Counter-Terrorism, Marketplace Feed Performance.

  2. Columbia University

    2016–2018

    Full Stack Machine Learning Engineer

    Laboratory for Intergroup Relations and the Social Mind. Developed algorithms to identify unique linguistic traits in marginalized groups and built full-stack web applications.

  3. Columbia University

    2014–2018

    B.A., Computer Science + Statistics, Mandarin Chinese

  4. United States Marine Corps

    2009–2014

    Sergeant

    2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion and Combat Logistics Regiment 37, Okinawa, Japan.

In public

Talks & writing

Theme Generator

Interactive tool

Generate a full VS Code color theme from a short prompt and export it as .jsonc or an extension zip.

Metropolis–Hastings MCMC

Interactive essay

A scroll-through walkthrough of Metropolis–Hastings sampling with an inline animated figure.

Vibe Coding Jam

University of Richmond · Innovation Studio · 2 hours

A hands-on workshop teaching software as a medium for expressing ideas. Build interactive web experiences using natural language and AI tools. No traditional coding experience required.

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Vibe Coding Workshop

University of Richmond · Oct 21, 2025

A hands-on workshop teaching students how to build and deploy their first web app in two hours. No coding experience required. If you can describe what you want, AI can help you build it.

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Vibe Coding Your MVP

Lighthouse Network Founder Summit · Sep 19, 2025

How AI-powered development tools are transforming the startup landscape, enabling founders to build and validate MVPs faster than ever before.

Signal

Press & mentions

The R Prize, AI Ready RVA

2026

Helping promote The R Prize, an initiative from AI Ready RVA, a non-profit I'm proud to be part of. The competition advances AI innovation and education in the Richmond region.

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Currently

On the nightstand

Off the clock

I live in Richmond with my daughter Josie. Outside of tech, I'm into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (purple belt), portrait photography, and reading my way through Cormac McCarthy's collection.