💼 IT Manager · The Food Protection and Defense Institute (University of Minnesota)

January 01, 2014

Company: Food Protection and Defense Institute Dates: January 2014 - June 2019 Location: St. Paul, Minnesota

Summary

Built and led an IT business unit delivering research-driven software systems across federal, state, and industry partners under principal investigators for FDA, USDA, and DHS-sponsored programs, translating complex scientific models into operational tools aligned with funding, compliance, and long-term operational needs.

What I Was Responsible For

• IT and system strategy across multiple research initiatives
• Delivery of software and data platforms for federal, state, and industry stakeholders
• Managing cross-functional teams, external vendors, and research-to-operations transitions
• Supporting funding, procurement, and pricing work tied to software operations

Key Contributions

• Built and led an IT business unit supporting research-to-operations software programs
• Designed and coordinated a centralized AWS + Cloudera data lake architecture for scalable analytics and data integration
• Developed a platform strategy for data-driven product development, enabling incremental innovation across multiple downstream research and software initiatives from a shared data foundation
• Secured and supported a 5-year cooperative agreement through technical leadership, planning, and operational execution
• Developed pricing models and a standard catalog for federal interagency collaboration software
• Directed vendor transition planning and execution with university and external partners
• Designed data workflows and user experiences informed by researcher, analyst, and stakeholder needs, enabling ad hoc analysis and flexible use of diverse data sources
• Translated complex research models into operational software tools, including work later documented in Datalake technology as a platform for Research Driven Product Development

Systems & Thinking

• Research → product translation
• Data platform architecture
• Balancing compliance, funding, and delivery constraints

Related Work

• Datalake technology as a platform for Research Driven Product Development
• Dashboards and Datalakes with Tableau
• Addressing Variety and Veracity of Data in Ag

Highlights

• Built and led an IT business unit supporting research-to-operations software programs
• Directed transition of research-based models into operationally embedded software solutions with IAAT award recognition
• Participated in strategic planning with research leadership to align technology initiatives with funding objectives and operational impact
• Bridged research, engineering, and stakeholder groups to convert domain expertise into usable software platforms and analytical workflows
• Attended FLU Near You public health hackathon to evaluate emerging syndromic surveillance approaches and data collection models
• Assessed potential applications for food supply and avian influenza monitoring based on participatory surveillance tools
• Led evaluation and coordination of research-oriented data lake architecture design focused on scalable analytics platforms
• Developed standard pricing catalog for Federal interagency collaboration software
• Directed vendor transition planning and execution with university and external partners
• Secured a 5-year cooperative agreement in support of operations and maintenance
• Collaborated with federal agencies and partner organizations on grant proposals and technical reporting to support multi-year funding and adoption

Tools & Technology

AWS, Cloudera, Tableau, SQL, R, data pipelines

Categories: experience

Tags: leadership, systems, product-management