💼 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

Led delivery of research-driven software systems across federal, state, and industry partners, translating complex scientific models into operational tools aligned with funding and compliance requirements.

What I Was Responsible For

• IT and system strategy across multiple research initiatives
• Delivery of software platforms for federal and industry stakeholders
• Managing cross-functional teams and external vendors

Key Contributions

• Delivered systems used across federal, state, and industry stakeholders
• Designed a centralized data lake (AWS + Cloudera) for scalable analytics and data integration
• Secured and supported multi-year funding through technical leadership
• Translated complex research models into usable software tools
• Established the platform direction 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
• 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 5-year cooperative agreement in support of operations & maintenance
• Co-wrote and contributed to grant proposals, RFP responses and RFPs

Tools & Technology

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

Categories: experience

Tags: leadership, systems, product-management