Hello, I’m Jake. I am an electrical and software engineer currently living in Minneapolis, MN. I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Cargill on the Cargill Nutrition Cloud product. I previously worked at Kato Engineering on the GenOSys product as a software engineer and manager. I enjoy working on all types of software and hardware systems, from small embedded products to large scale web applications.

Qualifications

• Over 11 years of software and hardware development
• Specialize design techniques and applying them in golang, C#/.NET, TypeScript, React
• Developing software engineering processes/project management using Azure Devops, Azure Pipelines, Azure Repos, GitHub, CircleCI, Appveyor, to implement automated testing, deployment, and code review
• Accomplished in design of systems using Azure, and Kubernetes

Project Management

• Lead the development and feature process for a industrial IoT product with stakeholders in the EU and US
• Designed the development and validation funnel for projects installed at customer sites as well as web based systems
  • Customer or stakeholder makes feature requests
  • Requests are validated for feasibility, timeline, and priority
  • Requests lead to the generation of a specification and requirements around the feature
  • The specification is broken up to logical systems for each a system design is generated
  • From the system design a task list with the requirements of the task an acceptance test are generated
  • Engineers are able to implement the task at this stage
• Managed a team of 2 other engineers
• Developed software process improvements
  • All changes go through code review
  • Large changes were rejected for smaller incremental changes
  • Require unit and integration tests for all changes
  • Linting and testing were completed by CI and enforced for all pull requests
  • Prior to deployment all changes are sent to staging environment for validation and acceptance testing
• Used metrics to drive product improvements, page load times, time spent in queues, processing times etc
• Worked as team lead and architect on large team
  • Propose and evaluate process improvements
  • Serve as mentor to multiple engineers
  • Establish best practices for the code base
  • Participate in planning, and refinement sessions
  • Participate in hiring and interviewing process
  • Work on team priorities and scheduling to meet project timelines

Golang

Gateway Application

• Cross platform application that runs on any system which we put into the field, or in Docker
• Cross compiled on CircleCI using GOOS and GOARCH
• Version and build information linked in on CI using ldflags
• Collect data from industrial devices using Modbus/TCP, Modbus/RTU, or a Custom JSON API
• Application designed using a service oriented architecture using a custom developed publish/subscribe library
• Collected data is sent to Azure IoT Hub using an in house developed golang driver as Azure does not make an SDK available
• Data is sent using a plugable model and encoding system to optimize bandwidth
• Application data is made available locally via JSON API developed using the chi router library
• Configuration information provided by command line options, environment variables, or a configuration file using a system developed internally with its base in the golang library viper
• Run embedded rules engine that was developed internally that allows custom algorithms to be ran on incoming data as it is pulled off monitoring devices
  • Rules that detect alerts have those alerts sent to the cloud and are available over the local JSON API

Data Ingestion System

• These services are ran in Docker on a Kubernetes cluster using Azure Kubernetes Service
• These are done as multiple application reading from Azure Service Bus topics/subscriptions
• Each service can be scaled automatically depending on the size of the queue/subscription it is reading from
• Store and process data as required in Redis, CosmosDB (MongoDB API), Azure Table Storage, Azure Blob Storage
• Data stored in Redis is done to cache hour long blocks of data using lists before they are compressed and stored
  • Using Redis design guidelines we implemented a locking mechanism for processing
  • Using the Lua scripting capabilities of Redis we were able to lock the list and modify keys

Report Generation System

• These services are ran in Docker on a Kubernetes cluster using Azure Kubernetes Service
• Data is access via a custom Map/Reduce type system using Kubernetes internal load balancer to access average, min, max, range, standard deviation elements over a time range in the query
• Using a configuration generated on the web interface reports are generated periodically
• Reports are stored to stored to blob storage as JSON, and HTML documents
• HTML templates generated using golang templating
• Reports are ran in a dedicated Kubernetes pod to maintain information in the event of failure, they are started by a manager service and deleted on successful completion
• Graphs are generated for HTML pages in a format to be displayed using the plot.ly JS library

.NET/C#

NoSql Data De-normalization Performance and Architecture Improvements

• Improve performance during de-normalization process by 13x
• Propose multiple solutions, with internal and external stakeholders
• Design standard tests to measure performance
• Implement multiple proof of concept implementations

API system to access system data

• Implemented as Azure website using ASP.NET
• Swagger generated documentation
• Designed and implemented a Role Based Access Control where each endpoint was protected by a specific permissions granted by organization administrators
• The system was designed using dependency injection to facilitate testing and designing to interfaces
• Migrated to dotnet core 3.1

Web front end for customers to view and access their data

• Implemented as Azure website using ASP.NET MVC and AngularJS
• API client implemented using RestSharp
• Templating done with Razor
• Develop secure system for transferring access codes for gateway device
• Using modern UX standards develop ways to view fleet information, data, configuration, and system status

Industrial Systems

• Design of panel systems for MG set control in projects all over the world
• Using Add On Instructions for functionality is RSLogix 5000 designing modules for portable use
• Specialized in development in IEC 61131 for Wago and Allen Bradley PLCs
• HMI programming and screen design done using human center design methods
• Design system of easy integration into customer Distributed Control Systems, using Ethernet/IP, hardwired contacts or switches, Modbus/TCP, and OPC servers

Embedded Systems

• Multiple Industrial Communication Protocol Solution
  • Selection Anybus CompactCom device to use as a pluggable module in order to enable the customer to select the communication protocol of their network for integration
  • Developed portable C/C++ driver for easy implementation across multiple products
• Development of software architecture to allow for maximum portability between products by re-using tested and verified code
• Design and test system software for robust operation on critical systems
• Design and development of a system using dual Texas Instruments F28335 32 bit processors
  • Design of configurable drivers for device peripherals (I2C, EEPROM, UART, FLASH)
  • Development of communication protocols for use with external devices (USB, RS-232, Paired Processor)
  • RS-232 Boot-loader design
  • Design of various generator protection and control algorithms. One of which is has been patented
• Monitoring device development using Texas Instruments F28335 32 bit processor
  • USB Boot-loader design
• Design of an automatic voltage regulator for brushless generator exciters
  • Optimize control algorithms for sensing and power stage
  • Develop driver software for CANopen, and Modbus/RTU communication
• Design of an NFC reader
• Worked with TI, Microchip, ST, and Atmel micro-controllers
• Used Yocto to build custom Linux images for field devices

Programming Languages

• Proficient in
  • Golang, C#, TypeScript, React, C/C++, IEC 61131
• Familiar with
  • Javascript, HTML, CSS

Frameworks

• Yocto, ASP.NET MVC/Web API, AngularJS, Gorilla, CHI, dotnet core

Tools

• Git, Github, Trello, Rollbar, Appveyor, CircleCI, VSCode, Visual Studio, Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, Azure DevOps, Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, Azure ARM Templates, Github Actions, MongoDB, CosmosDB, Application Insights, Prometheus, Graphana

Experience

Cargill

• Senior Software Engineer - Architect, Team Lead - June 2020-Present

Kato Engineering

• Software Engineering Manager June 2018-April 2020
• Systems Engineering Leader June 2016-June 2018
• Controls Engineer June 2010-June 2016

Education

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN. Attending Sept. 2004-Dec. 2009
• Masters of Science in Software Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Attending Sept 2014-May 2016

Certifications

• Certified Scrum Master August 2014-August 2020