I'm Patrick Schroeder, a Senior Technical Program Manager running global software development programs. Lately, I've been investing my free time heavily into building. Most recently, I took a personal tool from idea to a "shipped" Mac app in a single day using AI coding collaborators.
The next phase of my career is about integrating AI where it changes how whole systems work, rather than just building flashy demos. Having spent years driving execution at scale, I know exactly where the friction lives, which handoffs break, and what "done" actually costs. That's the problem space I want to lead on next.
I've always been an early adopter and a relentless tinkerer, whether that means troubleshooting mechanics around the house, optimizing my finances, or taking things apart just to make them run better. That same instinct drove me to build a tool that makes every screenshot I've ever taken searchable. Now, it's pointed squarely at how AI reshapes the way we build.
A curated gallery of some of my projects.
My first "shipped" app, built in a day with AI. It OCRs every screenshot you take into a local, private, full-text search index, so you can find any price, link, or message you ever captured just by searching a word. Python, Tesseract, SQLite FTS5, in a Mac menu-bar app.
Read moreAn AI workflow that repairs broken Jira dashboards, filters, gadgets, and field references after a major platform migration. GitHub Copilot drives Playwright browser automation inside VS Code, doing real operational work instead of just generating text. Demo'ed to fellow employees, who called it "fantastic" and "a really good idea," then immediately asked how to package it so they could reuse it.
Replaced hours of manual spreadsheet updates with a local-first data pipeline. It pulls live brokerage data through the SnapTrade API, merges years of transaction history into a single SQLite source of truth, and regenerates fully formatted Google Sheets and dashboards on a weekly cron. Idempotent and hands-off, so the numbers stay current on their own.
Read more Build / TinkerA cheap, good-looking, kid-friendly waterer for our backyard flock: a 5-gallon bucket mounted to the coop, gravity-feeding an angled PVC line the birds drink from. Built from parts on hand, with a couple of hard-won lessons about what a plastic bucket will and won't let you do.
Read the buildThoughts on software, optimizing, "hardware" development, and life in general.
A $60 part fixed the boys' broken scooter, but the real cost was 20 hours of my summer. What our purchases quietly take from us.
A cheap, kid-friendly, gravity-fed chicken waterer built from a 5-gallon bucket, plus two lessons learned the hard way.
I built my first app in a day: a private tool that OCRs every screenshot so you can search them by any text. The real story is how AI turned a wall into a doorway.
A few kind words from people I've worked with.
"Patrick, I wanted to personally recognize you for your amazing leadership, thoughtfulness, collaboration, communication, and most of all kindness. Your positive force makes it a pleasure to work with you."
"I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for your leadership in keeping the Campaigns tribe on track. Thank you, Patrick, for helping us connect the dots."
"Your consistent provision of detailed information and your dedication to helping us move forward have not gone unnoticed. Your support has significantly impacted our efficiency and clarity. It's a pleasure working with you."
"You take the time to understand the details for each new project and provide the essential glue that keeps the team functioning at a high level."