Mason Slaughter

Summary

Builder-operator with hands-on experience shipping production software and AI systems for real customers, from fine-tuning transformer-based classifiers to deploying full websites and booking systems for local businesses. Background in skilled trades and customer-facing service roles built strong diagnostic instincts and the ability to translate technical work into plain language for non-technical clients. Seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer role where shipping fast in front of customers is the job.

Technical Skills

Languages & Web: Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Astro (static site framework)

AI/ML: Transformer fine-tuning (DeBERTa-v3-large), Hugging Face, Dataset curation, Classifier evaluation (FPR-budget thresholding)

Deployment & Tooling: Render, Vercel, Stripe billing, Clerk billing, Git

Other: WCAG accessibility remediation, Compliance implementation (CA Automatic Renewal Law)

Professional Experience

Plumbing Technician — Paradise Home Services — Emerald Coast, FL

Mar 2025 – Present

Perform residential service calls: diagnostics, repairs, and installations directly in customers' homes.
Translate technical findings into plain-language recommendations for homeowners; pursuing Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor license (DBPR/CILB).

Keyholder / Food Runner — Dewey Destin's — Navarre, FL

Mar 2023 – Mar 2025

Oversaw food-running staff during service; handled POS operations, order-taking, and high-volume customer service.

Lube Technician — Hampton Hyundai

Apr 2024 – Jun 2024

Performed oil changes, tire rotations, and multi-point inspections; completed the Hyundai LMS training program.

Shift Lead — Ronny's Car Wash

May 2021 – Mar 2023

Led shift operations and equipment upkeep; first job promoted to a leadership role at 17.

Technical Projects & Ventures

AI-Text Detection Platform — ClearTextAI Inc. (SaaS)

2025 – Present

Contribute to a deep-learning classifier for AI-generated text detection: DeBERTa-v3-large fine-tuning pipeline with curated academic corpora and false-positive-rate budget thresholding.
Built and shipped the production marketing site (Astro static site); led WCAG accessibility fixes and California ARL compliance disclosures.
Evaluated and architected billing/discount infrastructure across Clerk Billing and Stripe Checkout.

Killer Whale — Authorized-pentest toolkit (solo project)

2026 – Present

Built a full-stack control surface (Python/Flask backend with server-sent-event streaming, vanilla-JS dashboard) that orchestrates recon, web-app, TLS, and packet-capture tooling and chains them into one-click workflows.
Designed a defense-first safety model: no targeted tool runs unless the host is on an authorization allowlist, offensive tools stay locked behind a Lab Mode switch, and a scoped sudoers allowlist runs root tools without running the app as root.
Generates per-target findings with plain-English run summaries, exportable as a Markdown report.

Web Design & Booking Systems — wiredbyfriday.com (solo venture)