M. Knudson
PhD · PHR · Highland, Utah

Michael Knudson

Philologist, HR leader, and full-stack engineer.

  • Academia
  • HR
  • Tech

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About

One life, three branches.

I started as a philologist, studying how meaning survives across languages and cultures, and spent seven years teaching it at the university level. That same instinct for structure and clarity drew me into software, where I build tools that make complicated systems easier to use, and then into HR, where I’ve supported a fully remote workforce across 31 states. Across all of it, my work is the same: making complex things clear for the people who depend on them.

  • PhilologyPhD in Scandinavian Studies — Old Norse and the medieval North
  • TeachingSeven years as a university professor
  • HRPHR — people operations and technological drive for a distributed workforce
  • EngineeringFull-stack software and data science, built for HR and beyond
01 · Philology

Academia

Old Norse, Icelandic, and the North Atlantic Community — read closely and taught clearly.

Credentials

PhD, Scandinavian Studies

Philology and Medieval Studies. Specialist in cross-cultural and religious interactions. Seven years as a university professor.

Languages

  • Old Norse
  • Norwegian
  • Icelandic
  • Swedish
  • Danish
  • German
  • Faroese
  • Old English
  • Medieval Welsh
  • Latin
  • More +

Teaching & programs

  • Helped create an interdisciplinary course at St. Olaf College meeting elective and core requirements
  • Helped plan visiting lectures and programs, including Queen Sonja of Norway’s visit to St. Olaf College
  • Managed students, TAs, and fellow instructors

Selected work

Benedictine Presence in the Literature of Þingeyrar (PhD Dissertation), UW-Madison, 2023

"Where Fact Meets Fiction: The Scandinavian Historical Roots in the Middle English Romance Havelok the Dane", Memory and Identity in the Medieval and Early Modern World, 2022

Who Walks the Left-hand Path? A Case Study in Understanding the Perception of Guðníðingr in Thirteenth-Century Iceland (MLitt Dissertation), University of Aberdeen, 2016

02 · People

Human Resources

Compliance, compensation, and the human side of a distributed workforce driven by data.

Scope

~350 people, 31 states, fully remote

As sole HR specialist, owned compensation, benefits, payroll, and multi-state compliance.

Built

  • Redesigned the recruiting pipeline for transparency and audit-readiness
  • Redesigned FMLA and leave management
  • Ran performance reviews and recognition programs

Leadership

  • Advised supervisors and directors on performance and corrective action
  • Trained incoming HR leaders and specialists, including a new SVP of HR
  • Founder of Norrœna Solutions, an HR consultancy & platform
  • PHR
  • Multi-state compliance
  • Comp & benefits
  • Employee relations
  • People analytics
  • FMLA / Leave
  • Payroll
  • Employee Lifecycle
  • AI & Automation
  • HRIS
  • Microsoft 365
  • Process Improvement & Analysis
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Organizational Development
  • more +
03 · Systems

Technology

Full-stack software and data science for HR and beyond — built end to end, from schema to interface. Freelancing since 2024; currently building toward ML engineering.

Frontend

HTML, CSS, React, TypeScript, Javascript, Vite, Tailwind, Astro

Backend & data

Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, MQTT

Integrations

Headless CMS (Sanity), Stripe payments, AI assistants

Projects

Things I’ve built.

  • Tech · HRIn development

    Bifröst

    An HR platform with Mímir, an integrated AI assistant. Being rebuilt from the ground up under Norrœna Solutions.

    React · TypeScript · FastAPI · PostgreSQL
  • HR · TechActive

    Mímir compliance

    Weekly multi-state labor-law monitoring that produces leadership-ready reports in Word and Markdown.

    Automated research & reporting
  • TechShipped

    Client sites

    Full-stack sites with self-serve content management for Nursify and RISE, plus a Stripe-backed CRM for Stroke Survivor Bootcamp.

    Astro · Sanity · Stripe
  • TechPlanning

    Iðunn

    A garden-monitoring platform: sensors over MQTT into TimescaleDB, built around a hydroponic tower named Yggdrasill.

    MQTT · TimescaleDB
  • TechPersonal

    Huginn

    A daily learning app for the road to ML engineering — CS, math, and machine-learning fundamentals with saved progress.

  • AcademiaIn-development

    Norrœna

    A digital humanities project creating digital learners’ editions of the Norse prose and poetic corpus, a course in Old Norse, and resources for the study of Old Norse and Old Icelandic.

    React, TypeScript, FastAPI, PostgreSQL
Posts

Notes & essays.

  • [DATE][POST TITLE]Academia
  • [DATE][POST TITLE]HR
  • [DATE][POST TITLE]Tech
CV

Curriculum Vitae

All three paths, on a single page.

Download PDF

Experience

  1. Founder & HR ConsultantNorrœna Solutions2026 – Present
  2. Freelance Full-Stack DeveloperClient sites for Nursify, RISE, and Stroke Survivor Bootcamp2024 – Present
  3. HR SpecialistNational Benefit Services — sole HR specialist for ~350 remote employees across 31 states2024 – 2026
  4. University FacultyUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison | Brigham Young University | Yale University | St. Olaf College — seven years of teaching2017 – 2023
  5. Senior Genealogical Researcher & TranslatorNorwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library — Madison, WI2019 – 2021
  6. Private Language InstructorNorwegian language; Icelandic language — Madison, WI2016 – 2022
  7. Quality Control Auditor & Team LeadAncestry.com — Provo, UT2012 – 2015
  8. Norwegian-English TranslatorSelf-Employed — legal, historical, journalistic, business, genealogical, and personal translation; Norwegian-English and English-Norwegian2011 – Present

Education

  1. PhD, Scandinavian Studies—Philology & Medieval StudiesUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison2023
  2. Viking and Medieval Scandinavian Studies & Celtic StudiesUniversity of Aberdeen2016
  3. European Studies & Scandinavian StudiesBrigham Young University2015

Certification

  1. PHR — Professional in Human ResourcesHR Certification Institute (HRCI)2023
  2. Full-Stack Software Development CertificationsCoding Temple2022