In addition to maintaining my duties as an Engineering Uplink Lead, Tactical Downlink Lead, and Data Management Engineer discussed below, I now serve as the Team Chief for the 60-70 people that make up the Engineering Operations team. In this role, I provide technical leadership for mission operations efforts that fall within our team's responsibilities, including assessing rover status, diagnosing and resolving anomalies, monitoring data to understand long-term performance trends, and providing command sequences for operations. I also provide organizational leadership by ensuring subsystem teams are adequately staffed/trained and team members are supported so they can do their best work.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission uses the Curiosity rover to explore Mars. The Engineering Operations team is responsible for assessing rover status, coordinating the resolution of anomalies, monitoring data to understand performance trends, and providing command sequences for daily operations. The specialties of engineers on the team vary widely. The four roles/areas where I focus are:Tactical Downlink Lead (TDL) / Engineering Uplink Lead (EUL) - As TDL, I lead nine subsystem chairs in assessing data from the rover to understand how it performed while executing the sequences that were previously sent. After gaining a thorough understanding of the state of the rover, I provide the uplink team with a report of the rover’s current state and any restrictions that need to be imposed when planning future activities. The EUL is a similar role, but on the uplink planning team. In addition to incorporating input from the TDL into the next plan, I am responsible for generating and validating sequences that fall under the responsibility of Engineering Operations.Data Management Engineer - In this role, I analyze downlink data to determine the state of the rover’s file system and compare it to the science and engineering data that has been received and archived in the operational database. By doing this analysis, I can provide insight to the rest of the operations team on how well the rover is performing in these areas and generate sequences for the next plan that will delete, re-transmit, or re-prioritize files.Flight Software - The Flight Software team is responsible for building, testing, and maintaining the embedded avionics software. I build and test key features, patch vulnerabilities, and plan the installation of updates.Team Tools Software Developer - As a team tools developer, I design, build, and maintain software tools that make it easier and more efficient for engineers and scientists to operate the rover and work together as a team.

While in this role, I was assigned to several mission teams to create, manage, and analyze the business plans used to design and build spacecraft and science instruments. Every project at JPL is extremely fascinating, and I was able to work on things like building small sub-orbital proof-of-concept instruments, large earth-orbiting satellites, specialized sensors for a European Space Agency mission, and even a helicopter that is specially designed to fly autonomously on Mars. In addition to my project planning responsibilities, my ability to understand the subtle relationships between technical details and the project's financial and schedule data was crucial to my success. The insights I gained from analyzing data informed how project managers allocated resources and how the laboratory as a whole managed its portfolio of projects.

AircraftLogs (acquired by Satcom Direct in 2016) was a start-up company that provided web-based data management software and consulting to corporate and government flight departments. I led implementation projects and software enhancements that were classified under Advanced Operations, which describes clients who have a complex flight department and an extensive need for system customization. Managing these efforts required me to evaluate the client's needs, design the appropriate system logic and user interface, and construct and manage the test plan. I enjoyed these projects because I got involved early and helped my team and the client through every phase from project proposal to training and implementation.I also provided analytical and technical expertise for unique projects including database fixes, complex data migrations, and the use of data analysis and business intelligence tools to study and report client and industry trends. This was always interesting work because many flight departments didn't have the proper systems or technical expertise to organize and learn from their data prior to working with us, so there were always interesting discoveries to be made!

My time as a graduate assistant was split between two roles. In the first, I served as President of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s (NIFA) 2013 and 2014 Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON). The annual flight competition hosts over 400 aviation students from universities around the nation. The President oversees the planning and execution of the flight competition including selecting board-members, budgeting, airport operations coordination, sponsor relations, and managing SAFECON accounts.In my second role, I served as Post Advisor and Leader for the Aviation Exploring post, a group of self-selected high school students that are interested in learning about careers in aviation.

I gained experience in leading small project teams during system installation and test events on several types of ships. I enjoyed these projects despite the tight schedule and budget constraints because of the unique challenges posed by working on systems as massive and complex as aircraft carriers.Along the way, I took several classes to receive formal training and Defense Acquisition Certifications in Systems Engineering, Test & Evaluation, and Program Management.

While working as a tutor, I learned that I was skilled at communicating complex technical concepts to those without a solid understanding of the material. In the process, I helped several student-athletes excel in various levels of calculus and physics.