Staff Aerospace Software Engineer · Jacobs · Washington, DC
Mission Software · Cross-Program Technical Leadership · Engineering Systems · Developer Experience
Hands-on software engineering, architecture, integration, developer tooling, and technical leadership across teams and aerospace programs.
I'm a Staff Aerospace Software Engineer at Jacobs, working across mission-software teams, repositories, partner organizations, and deployment environments.
My role combines hands-on development with increasingly cross-program technical leadership:
- Mission software — Python services, distributed systems, messaging, shared interfaces, and orchestration
- Engineering systems — CI/CD, repository standards, dependency management, testing, security gates, and release automation
- Developer experience — shorter feedback loops, repeatable local workflows, consistent tooling, and paved-road engineering practices
- Architecture & integration — interface design, technical reviews, cross-team dependencies, and integration strategy
- Technical leadership — mentoring, onboarding, engineering standards, delivery planning, and coordination across team boundaries
Much of the work I do professionally is not public, so descriptions here intentionally stay at the engineering-practice and system level.
I build small tools around recurring software-delivery problems.
| Project | Purpose |
|---|---|
| bb-run | Run Bitbucket Pipelines locally and catch CI failures before pushing. |
| testrisk | Rank high-value Python test gaps using coverage, AST analysis, and git history. |
| pipeguard | Policy-as-code validation for Bitbucket Pipelines and CI standards. |
The common goal is simple:
Make good engineering practices fast, repeatable, and easy to verify.
I lead technical execution for a core aerospace software effort spanning roughly 20 repositories, multiple deployment environments, and a team of approximately 10 engineers, while expanding technical leadership across additional programs and partner teams.
Current work includes:
- Python-based mission services
- distributed integration and messaging
- RabbitMQ / ActiveMQ interoperability
- service orchestration
- shared data and interface contracts
- automated testing and quality gates
- release governance
- cross-repository engineering standards
- integration and release readiness
A large part of my work is improving the system around the software.
That means reducing the distance between:
works on my machine
and:
ready to integrate, release, deploy, and support
I focus on reusable CI/CD, automated validation, repository conventions, dependency management, local developer workflows, security checks, and standards that can scale across independently developed services.
Before Jacobs, I spent nearly eight years supporting NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a Lead Software Engineer.
Selected work included:
- Global Water & Flood Mapping — AWS-based near-real-time satellite-derived flood and surface-water products
- NASA Earth Observatory — modernization of one of NASA's major public Earth-science platforms
- LAADS DAAC — search, ordering, and near-real-time access to scientific data
- Scientific workflow modernization — containerization, CI/CD, and Kubernetes-based delivery
- Scientific data systems — file, metadata, registry, and discovery platforms
The NASA Earth Observatory team received a NASA Group Achievement Award.
Frederick S. Policelli · Albert J. Kettner · Karl M. Hill · Devon V. Maloney
Peer-reviewed research describing a NASA-supported system for delivering near-real-time, high-resolution satellite-derived water and flood products worldwide.
CRediT contribution: Software (Equal) · Writing – review & editing (Equal)
Languages
Python · TypeScript · Java · Bash
Distributed Systems & Integration
RabbitMQ · ActiveMQ · REST · JSON · service orchestration · shared interfaces
Cloud & Containers
AWS · Docker · Kubernetes · Helm
Python & Developer Tooling
uv · pytest · Ruff · mypy · pre-commit
CI/CD
Bitbucket Pipelines · GitLab CI/CD · GitHub Actions
Quality & Security
automated testing · coverage · static analysis · dependency auditing · secret detection · container scanning
Good software engineering is more than writing good code.
The best teams have:
- clear interfaces
- fast feedback
- strong automated tests
- repeatable delivery
- visible quality standards
- low-friction developer workflows
- enough governance to keep independently developed systems compatible
I like working on both sides of that problem: the software itself and the engineering environment that helps teams build it well.
PSM II · PSD I · PSPO I · SAFe Agilist · CSM