Aaron Grando

Recent Work

Mod Op, 2024–2026. I was a founding member of the Innovation team at Mod Op, a roughly 500-person agency, and led its first product engineering group. I owned six products in the AI portfolio from concept through launch, and helped shape the platform story that became Orion.

PLATFORM CASE STUDY Orion and Nexus: the AI operating layer Nexus gave the agency one place for company and client knowledge, with access rules that carried into its agents and its chat workspace. I led product and technical direction, starting with the accounts and configuration our first product needed and growing it as other teams needed the same things.
95% employee adoption · 700+ agents reported by Mod Op at Orion's July 2026 launch
Digiday put Orion's avoided licensing costs at roughly $3M that August.

Brand Agents AI assistants with a client's approved brand knowledge, voice, and goals already in place. I helped shape the product and wrote its launch story. In use since April 2025, with more than 200 client-specific agents deployed by August 2026.

GEO by Mod Op Shows a brand how it appears in AI-generated answers. I took it from a hackathon prototype to production with the agency's search and strategy teams, turning weekslong manual audits into a free automated audit and a paid program that pairs deeper analysis with the search team's work. Internal use began in June 2026 and Mod Op launched it publicly that August. Try the free audit.

Launchpad I built Launchpad so our engineers could deploy prototypes without waiting on someone else to set up hosting, and shipped it the morning our first hackathon began. The cross-team sprints I organized in February and March 2026 produced more than 60 working prototypes. Launchpad also gave colleagues an internal directory where they could try the work and leave feedback.

Mod Heat Finds the news and cultural moments relevant to a client, then uses Brand Agents to generate ideas for how the brand could respond. I originated the concept, pitched it to the executive team, and shipped it with my team in November 2024 as Mod Op Innovation’s first product release.

Audience Lab Audience simulations for creative pretesting, built from customer and buyer data as digital twins. I started prototyping it in 2023, before Mod Op acquired RTO+P, and directed the production release in May 2026, which uses Semantic Similarity Rating. I onboarded the strategists who now run it in client-facing creative development.

Earlier Work & Selected Clients

RTO+P, 2010–2024. I joined as a developer, was promoted to tech lead and then technology director, and went on to lead the agency's digital experience and technology practice, managing the design and engineering teams that delivered it. I was the senior technical voice in pitches and client work, on campaign platforms, ecommerce, branded social products, and experiments with AR and other emerging technology.

NBCUniversal, the Philadelphia 76ers, Bethesda Softworks, Under Armour, Planet Fitness, NFL Films, Sheetz, Swarovski, Stanley Black+Decker, Dietz & Watson, Sparkling Ice, Visit Philadelphia, Drexel University, Rival Bros., and Honeysuckle Provisions.