Wendell BarnesLinkedIn

Group Manager, Automation & Intelligence · Adobe

I create capacity through intelligent automation.

I lead teams that turn AI and automation into trusted, scalable business capabilities—creating capacity, strengthening control, and giving people more time for work that requires judgment.

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Strategy
Scale
Outcomes
People
Wendell Barnes
Wendell BarnesUtah, United States

Working at the intersection of

  • Automation
  • Applied AI
  • Data
  • Delivery systems

Career progression

From financial operations to intelligent automation

My career has progressed from accounting and revenue operations, through contract operations and enterprise execution, into intelligent automation and AI-enabled delivery. That operating foundation shapes how I lead today: with business context, disciplined execution, and controls built in.

Current chapter

Adobe

Oct 2010–PresentLehi, Utah

At Adobe, I progressed through order management and contract operations into my current work across automation and intelligence.

  1. Group Manager, Automation & Intelligence

    Dec 2023–Present

    Lead a global organization responsible for intelligent automation, AI-enabled solutions, data engineering, DevOps enablement, and process improvement.

  2. Senior Manager, Contract Operations

    Aug 2021–Dec 2023

    Led a global team responsible for timely, accurate, policy-compliant execution of enterprise sales agreements, enabling invoicing, provisioning, revenue recognition, and downstream operations.

  3. Contract Operations Manager

    Mar 2014–Jul 2021

    Managed contract operations before advancing to Senior Manager.

  4. Supervisor, Order Management

    Oct 2010–Mar 2014

    Managed a team of five interpreting contracts for billing and revenue recognition.

Foundation

Omniture

Jun 2006–Oct 2010Orem, Utah

At Omniture, I built my foundation in revenue recognition, account reconciliation, and financial operations. I progressed from Accountant to Senior Accountant and transitioned to Adobe following its acquisition of Omniture.

  1. Senior Accountant

    Oct 2008–Oct 2010

  2. Accountant

    Jun 2006–Oct 2008
View complete work history on LinkedIn

Selected work

Leadership in practice

Two examples of how I set direction, align stakeholders, and hold delivery accountable for adoption, capacity, control, and durable business value.

Jun 2025

Contract Cancellation Automation

Turning recurring manual effort into capacity

Business challenge

A recurring contract cancellation process required substantial manual effort, consuming capacity that could be directed toward higher-value activities.

What I led

I sponsored and prioritized the opportunity, established the expected business outcome, aligned stakeholders, and maintained delivery accountability while the team designed, tested, and implemented automation for the existing cancellation process.

Leadership takeaway

Automation success is measured not by how many bots are deployed, but by sustainable capacity, adoption, control, and business value.

  • Intelligent Automation
  • Capacity Creation
  • Delivery Leadership
  • Operational Controls

Mar 2024

Piper: AI-Assisted Document Intelligence

Looking beyond perceived accuracy to adoption

Business challenge

Order Management users manually compared, extracted, interpreted, and translated information from complex documents before making decisions. The opportunity was not simply to process documents faster, but to make document analysis more consistent and useful within the existing workflow.

What I led

I set the initiative’s direction and priorities, aligned stakeholders, and maintained accountability for delivery and adoption. The team developed an AI-assisted capability for document comparison, extraction, translation, and support for human decision-making. We gathered feedback from Order Management users to understand perceived accuracy and self-reported use.

Leadership takeaway

AI creates value only when users understand the output, trust the process, and incorporate the capability into their work.

  • Applied AI
  • Document Intelligence
  • Product Leadership
  • User Adoption
  • Change Management

Areas of expertise

Building capabilities that last

Technology creates leverage when the operating model around it is clear, accountable, and designed to learn.

Intelligent Automation and RPA

Building portfolios around capacity, adoption, control, and business outcomes.

Applied AI and Generative AI

Translating emerging capabilities into governed, practical workflows.

Business Process Transformation

Improving how work flows before deciding what to automate.

Data Solutions and Analytics

Connecting trusted data and useful insight to operational decisions.

Product and Portfolio Leadership

Aligning priorities, ownership, and delivery around business value.

DevOps Enablement and Governance

Embedding repeatability, control, and auditability into delivery.

Agile Delivery Systems

Creating clearer feedback loops, visibility, and accountability.

Risk, Controls, and Auditability

Treating assurance as a design input rather than a final checkpoint.

Distributed Team Leadership

Building clarity and shared ownership across functions and locations.

Organizational Design and Capability Building

Developing teams and operating models that can scale responsibly.

Leadership approach

Build the conditions for people to do their best work

Clear outcomes, meaningful authority, visible risk, and systems that reinforce good decisions.

  1. 01

    Create clarity before adding process

    Make outcomes, decisions, and ownership visible before introducing another ceremony.

  2. 02

    Give experts meaningful authority

    Place decisions close to the people with the strongest context.

  3. 03

    Measure outcomes, not activity

    Focus on capacity, adoption, control, and business value—not output for its own sake.

  4. 04

    Build governance into delivery

    Treat risk, controls, and auditability as part of the design.

  5. 05

    Scale what works

    Prove value in real workflows, learn from use, and then standardize.

  6. 06

    Surface risk early

    Make constraints visible while there is still time to respond well.

  7. 07

    Develop people through ownership

    Give people clear outcomes, meaningful responsibility, and room to lead.

  8. 08

    Create capacity for higher-value work

    Use automation to return time to judgment, creativity, and better decisions.

About

Where strategy, technology, and execution meet

I help organizations translate business problems into practical opportunities for intelligent automation and applied AI. The work goes beyond selecting tools or shipping isolated solutions. I build the teams, operating models, standards, and accountability needed to make those solutions useful, sustainable, and scalable.

I bring cross-functional teams together around clear outcomes, visible priorities, and early risk signals. I balance innovation with governance, controls, adoption, and the realities of operating at scale. I develop people through ownership, giving experts meaningful authority while maintaining shared accountability.

I believe good automation does more than complete a task faster. It creates capacity, improves control, and gives people more time for work that requires judgment.

— Wendell Barnes

Start a conversation

Let’s talk about how AI, automation, and better delivery systems can create capacity in your organization.

I welcome conversations with executives, technology leaders, recruiters, and collaborators working to turn emerging capabilities into durable business value.

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