Will Blackmon Email & Phone Number

Houston, Tx, Us

Houston, Texas, Us

Lead the development and delivery of innovative data-driven products and services across a range of industries, including Oil and Gas, Digital Heritage, Media and Entertainment, and Biotech. Leveraging Ovation Data's over 45 years of experience and expertise in data transformation, analytics, hosting, and security, I am responsible for the following:• Identifying, defining, and driving the development of commercial products and solutions that address complex data challenges in diverse industry verticals.• Recruiting and mentoring a high-performing software engineering team, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.• Defining product specifications, solution roadmaps, and data models to ensure workflows and data interactions meet modern standards for electronic data storage and management.• Facilitating the end-to-end software commercialization process, applying Agile methodologies to ensure iterative development and timely delivery.

Professional Development in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine LearningRice University - Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing StudiesCompleted an intensive, programming-focused 6-month AI & Machine Learning Certificate at Rice University developing hands-on expertise in data science, programming, & AI model development.Skills• Data Extraction: RESTful APIs, JSON, Requests, BeautifulSoup• Feature Engineering: Scaling, Encoding, Dimensionality Reduction - Principal Component Analysis (PCA)• Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA): Correlation Analysis, Feature Importance, Data Visualization (Seaborn, Matplotlib)• Model Evaluation & Optimization: Hyperparameter Tuning (GridSearchCV), Cross-validation (k-fold), Performance Metrics (Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1 Score, MSE)• Unsupervised Machine Learning: K-means Clustering• Supervised Machine Learning: Regression (Linear, Ridge, Lasso), Classification (Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression, k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), SVM, Decision Trees, Random Forest)• Neural Networks & Deep Learning: TensorFlow, Keras, RNNs, CNNs, Multi-branch Networks, Transformers• Time-Series Forecasting: Predictive Trend Analysis (Prophet)• Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLTK, TF-IDF, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers (BERT)For Sample Projects, please see linked Portfolio.Technologies, Tools, Libraries: Python, Jupyter Notebook, VS Code, Google Colab, Anaconda, Git Bash, Git/GitHub, Pandas, Seaborn, Matplotlib, scikit-learn, TensorFlow, Keras, NumPy, SciPy, Pickle.

Austin, Tx, Us

• Software Development Team Leadership: Led (20+) engineers in the bi-weekly delivery of a suite of APIs, SDKs, IDE plugins, and diagnostic tools crucial for the preparation and delivery of hardware products to partner companies. Provided support for development teams through discovery, design, implementation, testing, and delivery.• Led Customer-Facing Software Definition, Design, Development and Delivery: Led business stakeholders and cross-functional teams in the definition, development and delivery of customer-facing software solutions, supporting 10-15 new product launches annually. Established trusted relationships with stakeholders, managing a common backlog, maintaining roadmaps, and prioritizing and planning competing feature requests for all supported products. • Talent Acquisition and Development: Hired and developed (20) local software engineers, successfully transitioning from an outsourced, global team of 50+ engineers. Established hiring, on-boarding, training, career development processes.• Agile Transformation and Coaching: Orchestrated Agile transformation for development teams, introducing Agile Scrum ceremonies, formal acceptance criteria, and formal design processes. • CI/CD Implementation and Quality Enhancement: Led teams in the modernization and automation efforts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices, transforming an MVP/Proof-of-Concept application into a componentized, scalable, production-ready suite of customer-facing applications. Significantly reduced the average build/test/release cycle time from 2 weeks to 2 hours.Programming Languages: Java, JavaFX, OpenJFX, Python; Testing Frameworks: Junit, Squish, TestFX; Version Control, Collaboration Tools: Git, Gerrit; Build and Automation Tools: Jenkins, Gradle; Artifact Management: Artifactory; Code Quality, Security Analysis: SonarQube, BlackDuck; Project Management and Documentation: Jira, Confluence

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

• Software Development Team Leadership: Led global teams of (40+) software developers and testers in the design, development, testing and bi-weekly deployment of IBM’s e-config Global Configuration and Sales Application, used by 15,000 personnel worldwide and generating $13B in the sales of IBM hardware, software and services.• Led Customer-Facing Software Definition, Design, Development and Delivery: Managed client/stakeholder relationships, prioritized business requirement backlogs, led conflict resolution, and managed development team workloads to ensure quality and on-time delivery of IBM Product announcements worldwide.• Agile Transformation and Coaching: Planned and led Agile Transformation for worldwide team of (40+) engineers, introducing Scrum ceremonies and concepts, new tools (Jira, Jenkins), and training (8) Scrum Masters and (2) Product Owners.Programming Languages: Java, Configuration Modeling Language (CML), Visual C++, PERL; Development Tools and Frameworks: MS Project, VISIO, Eclipse, Trilogy/Versata SalesBuilder, CodeWright, MS Visual Studio, GitHub, CMVC

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

• Team Leadership and Development: Led teams in the development and data modeling of Configuration and Sales Tools from Proof-of-Concept to production. Led team of (20) engineers in Singapore for a new Linux Clusters product line (2007-2010). Led team of (5) engineers in Belarus for a new IBM xSeries product (2005-2006).• Software Development: Designed and developed IBM’s Configuration and Sales applications for IBM iSeries, pSeries, and PowerSeries servers. Performed data modeling, data migration and logic programming (2001-2004).• Technical Training: Authored and co-led Java development training for (50+) developers.Programming Languages: Java, Configuration Modeling Language (CML), Visual C++, SQL, JavaScript, PERLWeb Technologies: HTML (with CSS and PHP), XML; Development Tools and Frameworks: Websphere, Rational Team Concert, IBM DB2, Trilogy / Versata SalesBuilder, Selectica™ Configuration Engine, CodeWright, MS Visual Studio

Austin, Tx, Us

• Developed and maintained customer-facing sales software for EMC Corporation's Configuration and Quoting sales tool. EMC’s Sales tool served a direct sales force of 6,000 worldwide users and generated $8B yearly. • Completed on-site configuration deployments, from inception to turnover, working with EMC Sales, Marketing, and Engineering personnel to identify business goals, gather requirements, create technical and functional specifications, coordinate project plans and schedules.

Medford, Massachusetts, Us

ATX Technologies provides wireless, location-based voice and data communication services for automobile manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and BMW.• Led cross-functional team in the design and development of a telematics mobile/wireless Internet website.• Performed competitive research, developed marketing roadmaps, developed project plans, and wrote functional specifications for wireless services.• Performed field tests, evaluations, and demonstrations of new technologies and wireless devices (internet phones, pagers, PDAs) and wireless data and voice delivery platforms (SMS, WAP, VXML).

Based In Paris. Part Of Every Heart & Home., Fr

Managed capital projects and led a three-shift, 60-personnel department in rapid, automated manufacturing. Responsible for the production and quality control of 1.2 million lighters daily.• Managed $500K alteration to high-speed machines while maintaining production requirements.• Managed division process design and ISO-9000 quality control procedures.

Washington, Dc, Us

Naval officer on Los Angeles class nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine. Directed submarine's daily tactical operations and nuclear plant daily operations and maintenance, training, and quality control. • As Communications Officer, led a division of electronics technicians in the operation and maintenance of submarine's wireless communication systems, navigation systems, and electronic surveillance equipment.• Coordinated operations and maintenance of experimental wireless communications gear during extended deployment to the Persian Gulf, including $3.0M alteration to communications systems.• As Anti-Terrorist Officer, conducted ship's intelligence planning and implemented anti-terrorist projects in the Middle East.• As Mechanical Division Manager (MPA), led a division of nuclear-trained mechanics in the operation and maintenance of mechanical systems and electronic controls of a submarine's nuclear reactor plant. Conducted engineering lectures and nuclear operator interviews to qualify nuclear operators. • Planned and coordinated $1.0 million maintenance project on turbine generators and major hydraulic valves.• Awarded (3) Navy Achievement Medals for exemplary leadership and exceptional completion of duties.• USS Providence (SSN-719) Junior Officer of the Year, 1997.• Certified Naval Nuclear Power Engineer, 1995.• Top Secret/SCI clearance (no longer active).

Certificate, Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Mechanical Engineering

Cybersecurity Artificial Intelligence (Cs_Ai) Certificate, Cybersecurity Artificial Intelligence

U.S. Naval Nuclear Engineer, Nuclear Engineering