Anson's Brain

Recent Notes

Resume Overflow

14 min read

Extended technical details that don’t fit on my Resume. See https://ansonbiggs.com/resume for the polished version.

This document contains all historical resume content extracted from git history (225 commits since 2017).

Shield AI (June 2025 - Present)

Autonomy Applications Engineer (Customer Engagement) - Washington, DC

Building the next generation of Autonomous systems. Protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

Developer Workflow Enhancements

  • Implemented Conan lockfile workflows ensuring reproducible SDK builds across isolated deployment environments
  • Maintained Hivemind SDK packaging infrastructure for autonomy teams and partner delivery
  • Worked with docs team to enable all developers to write Hivemind docs, pushed for dozens of small improvements across all documentation

GenAI Initiatives

  • Built GenAI automation tooling adopted by product team for Hivemind repository upgrades, reducing SDK release cycles from weeks to 24 hours while maintaining quality gates
  • Helped steer company towards productive AI use:
    • Lunch and learns on GenAI for various audiences
    • Worked with special projects to build customer-facing AI tools (docs assistant, tooling that makes Hivemind SDK docs available to GenAI)
    • Put a stop to destructive GenAI practices (forcing low-quality AI output into repos and onto customers)
  • Built GenAI tooling to validate Hivemind SDK training materials
  • Built Claude Code workflows for automated SDK upgrades
  • Built Claude SDK tooling that runs AI agents against external training materials, leading to measurable uptick in NPS scores
  • Continuing to push for novel tooling and refusing to accept baseline slop

Customer Engagement

  • Work embedded between two business units to ensure healthy relationship between product and consulting
  • Found critical issues in multiple SDK releases, blocking deployment until issues were corrected - protecting SDK quality for partners operating in classified/isolated environments
  • Improved acceptance testing workflows by offloading critical but automatable work to the test team
  • Used GenAI to handle multiple acceptance testing tasks simultaneously while maintaining normal workload - enabled extremely fast and exhaustive feedback to product and engineering
  • Established automated Hivemind upgrade pipelines with special projects team, providing continuous SDK quality validation before partner releases
    • Hivemind gets free upgrades without engineering effort
    • Engineering gets regular feedback on new SDK development quality
    • Created a sustainable feedback loop between customer-facing and product teams

Consulting (April 2025 - Present)

Self Employed - Remote

AI and Aerospace consulting services.

  • Work with hardware teams to manage technical documentation
  • Have Claude implement all software based on documentation
  • Bridge between traditional aerospace hardware teams and modern AI-assisted development

Blue Origin (June 2023 - April 2025)

Aerospace Applications Software Engineer - Denver, CO

Founding simulation software engineer building a human-rated lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program. Early hire for the Lunar Permanence Business unit, established to fulfill a $3.4 billion NASA contract.

Core member of the software-in-the-loop (SIL) team developing a cutting-edge simulation environment for flight software verification. Bridged traditional aerospace methodologies with modern software practices.

Data & Telemetry

  • Maintained Python-based post-processing pipeline for spacecraft telemetry
  • Custom Docker monitoring with PyArrow
  • Data transformation with Pandas, archiving in HDF5
  • Modified proprietary NASA software for our needs
  • Developed high-performance Python code to efficiently parse and process massive simulation artifacts

Hardware Mocking & Simulation

  • Developed C++ hardware mocking capabilities enabling entirely software simulation environments
  • Built hardware-agnostic interface that enabled mocking without directly interacting with simulation or hardware protocols
  • Pathfinded hardware mocking capabilities that enabled completely software simulation environments

Test Case Management

  • Built bespoke document management software in Python for writing, publishing, and tracking test cases
  • Identified major blockers for customer team, prototyped solution independently
  • Strong emphasis on completely automated tooling
  • Replaced existing method of writing in Markdown tables with no automation
  • Impact: 10x productivity increase for 20-person team

Development Environment & Tooling

  • Owned dev environment for 150-person Flight Software team
  • Consistently pushed for modern tooling while ensuring DO-178C compliance
  • Worked with security and legal to define compliance frameworks enabling cutting-edge tools on secured NASA workloads
  • Evolved workflows to meet demands of growing team
  • Eliminated setup friction and reduced onboarding time from days to an hour
  • Implemented Docker-based solutions that decreased setup time from days to hours

GitLab CI/CD Pipeline Work

  • Developed Pytest collection framework generating child pipelines for resource-intensive simulation tests

  • Tests given Python decorators listing software dependencies → only necessary tests run

  • Impact: Reduced runner utilization by 90% while maintaining hundreds of active tests

  • Created automation tools to retrieve/analyze artifacts from specific jobs for debugging

  • Implemented automated Docker dev container builds with code owner approval workflows

  • Built robustness testing: specify test name + job count → spawns N parallel jobs to catch flaky tests

AI in CI/CD (Early 2024)

  • Integrated AI agents into CI/CD pipeline to catch non-terminating for loops
  • Verification testing required long, complex for loops in Python that could potentially run forever
  • Used Tree-sitter to parse and break down code structure
  • Fed parsed code to GPT-3.5-turbo to analyze whether loops would ever exit
  • Early adoption of LLMs for code analysis in aerospace verification workflows

Reporting & Monitoring

  • Leveraged GitLab Pages for automated system status reports
  • Integrated test results with Grafana and Datadog for long-term performance trending
  • Enabled data-driven decisions and early regression detection

Pipeline Configurations Implemented

  • Scheduled pipelines for routine testing/maintenance
  • Uninterruptible pipelines for critical processes
  • Hardware-specific runners for specialized testing
  • Conditional job execution for draft merge requests
  • Mirrored repository setups for dependent pipelines

Developer Experience

  • Championed fast feedback loops (simulations could take ~1 hour)
  • Built custom linting tools for proprietary file formats lacking traditional tooling
  • Spearheaded high coding standards across flight software and related teams by enforcing standards in CI/CD pipelines

Customer Collaboration

  • Split time working within customer teams to ensure simulation software capabilities met testing requirements
  • Proactively developed features to eliminate critical roadblocks in the verification process
  • Provided ongoing technical guidance

Technologies Used

Python, Pytest, Pandas, NumPy, C++, Docker Compose, Docker Dev Containers, GitLab CI CD, NASA Trick, Kanban

United Launch Alliance (May 2022 - June 2023)

Simulation Software Engineer, Advanced Programs - Denver, CO

Combined aerospace and software background to bridge traditional engineering and software engineering teams, resulting in much more advanced models of real flight hardware than was previously produced.

Vulcan-Centaur Simulation

  • Architected and delivered first high-fidelity C++ simulation model for next-gen Vulcan-Centaur rocket
  • One of the company’s major accomplishments of 2022

Legacy Modernization

  • Modernized legacy monolithic codebase from the 1980s
  • Replaced ~700k lines of unmaintainable FORTRAN with compiled artifacts
  • Stored in Artifactory, deployed using Bamboo CI
  • Impact: Reduced compilation time from 12+ hours to 4 hours (overnight task → same day)
  • Massively improved compilation performance and allowed streamlining tooling to increase developer productivity

Tooling & Automation

  • Introduced team to automated tooling locally
  • Added pipeline checks to merge requests
  • Automated formatting and linting so team could focus on implementation over style
  • Implemented the team’s first CI/CD pipeline to enforce code quality and introduce automated checks

Technologies Used

C++, gTest, MATLAB, FORTRAN, Simulink, Python, Atlassian Suite, Redhat Linux, Agile

Project Leadership

Capstone: Spacecraft Detail Design (2021)

Technical Lead - Prescott, AZ

Proof of concept of the viability of propulsive landings on the surface of the Moon.

Outcome: Successful hardware demonstration despite massive COVID-related challenges affecting the entire project timeline and team coordination.

  • Developed a fully dynamic 6-DOF simulation of a rocket landing in Simulink to design and verify control system before moving to hardware demonstration
  • Demonstrated design with test stand using a real thrust vector control mechanism and a solid rocket motor
  • Rewrote simulation environment in C++ to run on test stand hardware
  • LQR Control system designed to throttle and control attitude of landing vehicle designed in Simulink, then implemented in C++ to run on hardware
  • Hardware in the loop simulation of a rocket landing from a test stand

Orbital Debris Classification (Fall 2021 - Spring 2022)

Undergraduate Research Lead - Prescott, AZ

Close collaboration with ERAU Dean of Engineering, ERAU Engineering Faculty, University Research Institute, and NASA to conduct primary and secondary research.

Publication: ERAU Discovery Day 2022 - Research was intended to be continued toward full publication, but subsequent students did not continue the work.

  • Led research applying machine learning to high-resolution 3D scans of satellite impact debris, developing an innovative Orbital Debris model
  • Developed algorithms in Rust to take point clouds from hi-res 3D scanners and convert them into solid body meshes to compute physical characteristics of debris fragments
  • Implemented advanced dimensionality reduction techniques in Julia that improved classification accuracy and speed by magnitudes over MATLAB
  • Directed study covering Machine Learning methods relevant to the characterization of 3D models and reducing highly dimensional data down to a low enough level to be applied in other applications

Simple Stock Bots (2018 - 2024)

Founder & Lead Developer - Phoenix, AZ

Python project that aims to provide a simple interface to the stock market on various platforms that allow bots. Deployed on Discord and Telegram.

Origin: Evolved from an earlier LED stock ticker hardware project - the physical ticker that reads stock prices like Wall Street trading floors led directly to building the software bot.

  • Developed a stock market bot in Python that delivered real-time data and analysis to 20k monthly active users
  • Utilized an abstracted asset API to manage multiple types of assets from various data sources
  • Managed paid client feature requests with broader platform improvements to maintain a sustainable business model while keeping the product entirely free for over 99% of users
  • Managed a Kubernetes cluster that handled all CI/CD builds and deployments, and load balancing to handle the inconsistent peak loads that comes with stock market activity
  • Used CI/CD to automatically build, publish, and deploy latest commits. Canary and stable releases were automatically managed and rolled out
  • Achieved Discord Verified Bot Developer status (2020)

Earlier Career & Education

The Hub Grill and Bar (2012 - 2021)

Team Leader → Project Manager - Mesa, AZ

Started as a dishwasher and worked my way up to kitchen management and eventually to project management for new restaurants.

Early Role (Expediter, 2012-2017):

  • Leadership position in a restaurant
  • In charge of making sure the front of the house and the back of the house are on the same page
  • Ensured all tickets were executed correctly, in a timely manner, and at the same time to ensure quality
  • Very fast paced environment where communication is paramount

Team Leader:

  • Managed a team of kitchen and serving staff
  • Ensured product quality according to customer specifications
  • Made all documentation for cleaning and stocking restaurant

Growth Period:

  • Assisted growing company from 1 to 3 successful locations
  • Roles ranged from full building remodels to designing menus and other documentation to training full teams of kitchen and serving staff
  • Continued with the company during undergrad in a fast paced team leadership position during summers off from college

Project Management:

  • Coordinated communication with external companies to streamline expansion of franchise to three new locations
  • Developed technical documentation to train and onboard hundreds of employees, ensuring adherence to company values and protocols
  • Led new location openings from empty buildings through construction, menu design, vendor setup, staff hiring/training, and operational handoff
  • Worked closely with teams to promote a positive workplace culture, collaboration, and team building

Redline Racing Division (2018 - 2021)

Secretary / Business Lead - Prescott, AZ

Formula SAE university racing team - designing and building open-wheel formula-style race cars for competition.

  • Made sure sub-teams could collaborate effectively
  • Assisted in managing the team budget
  • Managed team website, marketing, and merchandise
  • Ensured that teams were properly assessed, and the respective performance targets were properly monitored
  • Coordinated organization external relationships with sponsors and the local community

OSTEM

Active Member

Professional association for LGBTQ+ people in the STEM community.

Education

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fall 2017 - May 2022)

Prescott, AZ

  • Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering (Astronautics Concentration) with a minor in Computer Science
  • 1 Year Data Science Directed Study
  • Summer Study Abroad for Mathematics in Iceland (2018)
  • Relevant Coursework: Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics and Control, Mathematics Optimization Methods, Machine Learning Directed Study

Mesa Community College (2015 - 2017)

Attended community college for 2 years before transferring to Embry-Riddle. During this time, pursued a degree in Electronic Engineering but attained no degree. Gained general EE foundations that informed later embedded systems and hardware integration work.

Desert Ridge High School (2014)

Played football and did competitions with industrial technology class until the end of 2012.

Early Projects & Achievements

NVIDIA Tegra K1 CUDA Vision Challenge (2015)

Top 50 Finalist

Competition which involved building a computer vision platform using a small dev board from NVIDIA which had a built-in GPU.

  • Built a project to teach the computer to identify food using OpenCV with Python
  • Scraped pictures of food from the internet for training data
  • Concept: implementing cameras in restaurants to ensure food was prepared properly before being delivered to guests
  • Made it into the top 50 contestants but ran into issues that were ahead of skill set at the time
  • NVIDIA sent additional development boards upon reaching top 50
  • Great learning experience being forced to teach myself almost the entire way through

Home Server / Homelab

Ongoing Personal Project (2015 - Present)

Originally a 25TB FreeNAS server, now expanded to 35TB and serving as the backbone for personal infrastructure.

Original Purpose:

  • Personal data hoarding server
  • Hosted years worth of Linux ISO files for multiple distributions, available for others to download
  • Maintained a full offline copy of Wikipedia
  • Learned extensively about different filesystems and command line interface usage

Current Use:

  • 35TB storage capacity
  • Acts as GitLab runner for CI/CD pipelines
  • Homelab for hosting all personal projects
  • Self-hosted infrastructure for development and experimentation

Arduino & Raspberry Pi Projects

Various

  • Built various electronics projects, most cannibalized to build new projects
  • LED stock ticker project that reads off stock prices (like Wall Street trading floors) - this project directly evolved into Simple Stock Bots
  • Learned to work with open source projects on GitHub
  • Sourced LED panels from China to make projects affordable
  • Experience with Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, Teensy, PlatformIO

Technical Writeups & Blog Posts

Aerospace & Simulation Projects

From projects.ansonbiggs.com

Personal Projects & Commentary

From notes.ansonbiggs.com

Historical Skills & Tools

Languages (Current & Past)

Python, C++, Julia, Rust, MATLAB, Simulink, FORTRAN, LaTeX, Regex, Shell, Markdown, Mermaid, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Lua, VHDL, Java

Python Libraries

Pytest, Plotly, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Makie, Jupyter, SymPy, UV, Pip, Requests, Serverless, DASK, CUDA, MkDocs, Ruff, Black, flake8, Sphinx, FastAPI

Simulation/Aerospace

NASA Trick, 6-DOF Dynamics, Hardware/Software in the Loop, Control Systems, GNC Algorithms, Space Mechanics, Communication Links, DDS, MQTT

DevOps/Tools

Linux, WSL, Docker Compose, Development Containers, Kubernetes, Serverless, GitLab CI CD, Datadog, Jira, Confluence, Jama, Artifactory, Bamboo CI

Hardware/Embedded

Arduino, PlatformIO, Teensy, ESP8266, ESP32, Raspberry Pi, Tegra K1, Hardware Integration, Microcontroller programming

CAD & 3D Printing

Fusion 360, CATIA, SolidWorks, Blender, 3D Printing, Cura

Removed from Resume Over Time

  • VIVADO (FPGA toolchain)
  • VHDL (hardware description)
  • Office Software: Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Visio, Skype, Google Workspace
  • Product & Project Management: Stakeholder communication, requirement gathering, user research, product roadmapping, cross-functional team leadership

Profile Summaries Over Time

2025 (Shield AI):

Aerospace & Autonomy Software Engineer

2024 (Blue Origin):

Aerospace Simulation Software Engineer with a strong foundation in both aerospace engineering and modern software development. Specializes in creating simulations and models for verification of space flight systems. Combines technical proficiency with a passion for pushing the boundaries of space exploration, contributing to humanity’s multiplanetary future.

2022 (ULA):

Software Engineer with a strong Aerospace Engineering background working at United Launch Alliance on simulation and modeling of next generation flight systems for the Vulcan Centaur Rocket.

2021 (Student):

I am an undergraduate Aerospace Engineering student with a focus on Astronautics and a minor in Computer Science studying at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. I am passionate about space and problem-solving using programming. I have a massive code portfolio in dozens of languages over a decade; many of my projects have thousands of monthly active users.

2017 (Early):

A Position as an engineer or related internship position which challenges me and allows me to build my career as an Aerospace Engineer.

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