{"version":1,"id":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/api\/site.json","generated_at":"2026-08-18T14:53:50+00:00","canonical":"https:\/\/karlhill.com","person":{"name":"Karl Hill","job_title":"Staff Aerospace Software Engineer","employer":"Jacobs","location":"Washington, DC","email":"karlhillx@gmail.com","tagline":"Aerospace Mission Software \u00b7 Platform Engineering \u00b7 DevSecOps","bio":"Eight years shipping NASA Earth science platforms under real operational pressure. Now leading cloud-native mission software delivery in aerospace at Jacobs \u2014 planning, DevSecOps, and release discipline across constrained environments. Targeting Engineering Manager and Staff+ platform leadership roles in aerospace, defense, and federal mission software.","availability":"Open to Engineering Manager & Staff+ roles in aerospace, defense & federal mission software","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com","image":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/img\/webp\/profile.webp"},"seeking":"Open to Engineering Manager & Staff+ roles in aerospace, defense & federal mission software","now":{"url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/now","updated":"August 12, 2026","focus":[{"title":"Engineering leadership trajectory","body":"Practicing the manager craft now: coaching, prioritization, stakeholder trust, and team systems that outlast heroics \u2014 aimed at EM roles in mission software."},{"title":"Aerospace mission software delivery","body":"At Jacobs, owning cloud-native mission simulation and telemetry services \u2014 multi-environment release readiness, DevSecOps, and integration risk when mission failure is expensive."},{"title":"Writing the leadership craft","body":"Publishing the Engineering Manager craft series \u2014 Staff\u2192EM first 90 days, saying no under roadmap pressure, and performance feedback without politics."}]},"experience":[{"title":"Staff Aerospace Software Engineer","company":"Jacobs","location":"Chantilly, VA","period":"Sept 2025 \u2014 Present","current":true,"highlights":["Lead cross-functional engineering execution across cloud-native mission services, CI\/CD pipelines, multi-repo delivery, release readiness, and integration risk management.","Guide team execution, onboarding, coaching, and delivery discipline while strengthening engineering quality, ownership, and accountability.","Coordinate multi-environment release readiness across isolated and integrated systems, reducing late-stage integration risk and improving baseline alignment and traceability.","Establish and enforce engineering standards \u2014 repo and branch governance, PR\/review practices, Definition of Done, and documentation \u2014 to reduce integration risk across multi-repo and multi-environment systems.","Drive DevSecOps and release governance through CI\/CD, automated testing, quality gates, and security checks to shorten feedback loops and improve system reliability.","Translate mission and operational needs into roadmaps and sequenced delivery plans, communicating status and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences."]},{"title":"Lead Software Engineer","company":"SSAI \/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center","location":"Greenbelt, MD","period":"Dec 2017 \u2014 Sept 2025","current":false,"highlights":["Architected NASA's cloud-based Flood Mapping System on AWS, delivering near real-time, satellite-derived flood products to support disaster response.","Built a high-performance file and metadata platform on Ceph, improving virtual directory mapping and accelerating discovery and access for large scientific datasets.","Rebuilt NASA Earth Observatory's high-traffic web platform, supporting ~1.5M monthly visitors while improving performance, UX, and SEO.","Delivered an automated content registry workflow, boosting data collection efficiency by ~60% and accelerating researcher access to new datasets.","Implemented DevSecOps delivery with GitLab CI\/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes, enabling automated deployments, repeatable releases, and reliable stakeholder approvals.","Led Agile delivery across teams and stakeholders, translating mission needs into roadmaps, sequencing dependencies, and driving consistent delivery."]},{"title":"Senior Software Engineer","company":"InformedDNA","location":"Washington, D.C.","period":"Jan 2016 \u2014 Dec 2017","current":false,"highlights":["Architected and delivered a Laravel-based case management platform, reducing operational costs by $30K\/year.","Led CRM enhancements that improved retention and contributed ~15% revenue growth through better lifecycle workflows and reporting.","Built and optimized APIs to improve database efficiency, reduce operational overhead, and increase application performance and reliability.","Spearheaded platform upgrades and security process improvements, doubling incident response efficiency and strengthening operational readiness."]},{"title":"Senior Software Engineer","company":"Ticomix, Inc.","location":"Washington, D.C.","period":"Jun 2012 \u2014 Mar 2015","current":false,"highlights":["Delivered SugarCRM solutions for 20+ clients (including Virginia Department of Transportation, Washington Redskins, and Kastle Systems), improving sales operations, visibility, and team productivity.","Drove execution discipline to cut backlog ~90%, improving delivery predictability, product quality, and customer satisfaction.","Built a lightweight opportunity-identification application that helped customers surface and prioritize new business opportunities.","Collaborated effectively on distributed teams \u2014 clear async communication, strong documentation, and reliable delivery across\u00a0time\u00a0zones."]},{"title":"Earlier Engineering Experience","company":"Sabre Corporation \u00b7 Dante Inc. \u00b7 Visitar Inc. \u00b7 Verizon Business","location":null,"period":"1997 \u2014 2012","current":false,"highlights":["Held software engineering and principal engineering roles across travel, enterprise CRM, telecommunications, managed security services, and large-scale client platforms.","Built Java, PHP, CRM, telephony, and internal operations systems for enterprise clients including Comcast, Mastercard, Verizon\/MCI, and global travel customers.","Delivered production systems, workflow automation, client onboarding platforms, API integrations, and reliability improvements \u2014 including Finium, the multi-tenant managed-security platform that enabled a $105M acquisition.","Helped mature engineering practices through Scrum adoption, testing discipline, code quality, junior developer mentoring, and cross-functional delivery."]}],"case_studies":[{"slug":"flood-mapping-system","title":"Flood Mapping System","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/flood-mapping-system","live_url":"https:\/\/floodmapping.gsfc.nasa.gov\/","description":"Mission-critical geospatial platform generating near-real-time flood inundation maps during active global disaster events. Architected the fully automated pipeline \u2014 from raw satellite sensor ingestion through geospatial product generation, dissemination, and integration with international emergency-management networks \u2014 engineered for fault tolerance and reliability when latency is measured in hours, not sprints.","lede":"Near real-time flood inundation mapping from satellite data \u2014 built so disaster responders get trustworthy products in hours, without overnight engineering heroics.","tags":["Python","Docker","AWS"]},{"slug":"nasa-earth-observatory","title":"NASA Earth Observatory","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/nasa-earth-observatory","live_url":"https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov","description":"Flagship science-communication platform serving 1.5M+ monthly visitors with satellite imagery and Earth science data. Led the architectural overhaul of the publishing pipeline \u2014 re-platforming editorial workflows for distributed content teams and hardening the delivery layer for accessibility, performance, and search at scale. Set the technical direction that turned ad-hoc story production into a repeatable, self-service system built to evolve for the next decade.","lede":"A flagship NASA science communication platform serving 1.5M+ monthly visitors \u2014 rebuilt so editors ship without waiting on engineering, and the stack stays maintainable for the next decade.","tags":["Laravel","AWS"]},{"slug":"direct-readout-laboratory","title":"Direct Readout Laboratory","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/direct-readout-laboratory","live_url":"https:\/\/directreadout.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov","description":"Real-time scientific data-processing hub ingesting multi-instrument sensor streams from polar-orbiting satellites. Designed the ingestion and reformatting architecture that transforms raw downlinks into Level-0 through Level-2 geophysical products, sustaining 24\/7 distribution to operational centers and a global network of registered direct-broadcast ground stations.","lede":"A scientific data hub ingesting multi-instrument satellite streams and distributing geophysical products to a global network of ground stations.","tags":["PHP","Linux","NGINX"]},{"slug":"esscor","title":"ESSCOR","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/esscor","live_url":"\/work\/esscor","description":"Earth science data-discovery platform unifying archival and near-real-time remote-sensing holdings into a single searchable, standards-compliant catalog. Designed granule-level access controls and a governed metadata model that streamlined discovery, ordering, and delivery for researchers across federal agencies and partner institutions.","lede":"A discovery portal unifying archival and near real-time remote sensing holdings into a searchable, standards-compliant catalog.","tags":["PHP","MySQL","ElasticSearch"]},{"slug":"informeddna-platform","title":"InformedDNA Platform","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/informeddna-platform","live_url":"https:\/\/idnaportal.com\/","description":"Clinical-genomics workflow platform orchestrating case management, genetic-counseling routing, and billing reconciliation across distributed care teams. Consolidated fragmented, manual operations into a single governed system \u2014 role-based access, end-to-end audit trails, and automated documentation pipelines \u2014 cutting per-case operational overhead by $30K annually.","lede":"A clinical genomics workflow platform that unified case management, counseling routing, and billing across distributed care teams.","tags":["Laravel","MySQL","RESTful APIs"]},{"slug":"finium","title":"Finium","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/work\/finium","live_url":"\/work\/finium","description":"Enterprise managed-security platform running multi-tenant client operations across a national carrier network for a Fortune 500 provider. Owned the services that automated provisioning, monitoring, and incident-response orchestration \u2014 scaling operations 10\u00d7 and directly enabling a $105M acquisition.","lede":"An enterprise managed security services platform that scaled client operations across a national carrier network.","tags":["Java","SQL Server","Security"]}],"writing":[{"slug":"performance-feedback-without-politics","title":"Performance Feedback Without Politics","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/performance-feedback-without-politics","date":"2026-07-25","excerpt":"Useful feedback is specific, timely, and about observed work \u2014 not personality theater. The goal is growth and clarity, not a paper trail built in panic.","tags":["leadership","engineering","management","teams"]},{"slug":"saying-no-roadmap-pressure","title":"Saying No to Roadmap Pressure Without Losing Trust","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/saying-no-roadmap-pressure","date":"2026-07-18","excerpt":"Stakeholders do not need unlimited yes. They need engineering partners who make tradeoffs visible early \u2014 and keep their word when priorities collide.","tags":["leadership","engineering","delivery","product"]},{"slug":"staff-to-em-first-90-days","title":"Staff IC to Engineering Manager: What Changes in the First 90 Days","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/staff-to-em-first-90-days","date":"2026-07-10","excerpt":"The Staff-to-EM transition is not a promotion into more architecture. It is a shift from being the strongest contributor to building a team that no longer needs you to be.","tags":["leadership","engineering","management","career"]},{"slug":"release-governance","title":"What 20 Years Taught Me About Release Governance","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/release-governance","date":"2026-05-15","excerpt":"Release governance is not bureaucracy. Done well, it is how engineering protects trust \u2014 how teams make sure what they build can actually be deployed, supported, reproduced, explained, secured, and operated.","tags":["engineering","leadership","governance","devops"]},{"slug":"leading-teams","title":"The Unglamorous Work of Leading Engineering Teams","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/leading-teams","date":"2026-03-10","excerpt":"High-performing teams are rarely the result of a single brilliant hire. They are the product of consistent standards, honest feedback, and the quiet operational work that makes delivery predictable.","tags":["leadership","engineering","teams"]},{"slug":"science-data-automation","title":"Why Automation Matters More When the Data Is Mission-Critical","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/science-data-automation","date":"2026-02-18","excerpt":"In Earth science and disaster-response systems, manual workflows do not just waste time \u2014 they delay decisions. Automation is how you turn raw sensor streams into something operational teams can actually use.","tags":["engineering","automation","nasa","platforms"]}],"series":[{"id":"em-craft","title":"Engineering Manager craft","description":"The Staff\u2192EM bridge: first 90 days, saying no under roadmap pressure, and feedback without politics.","posts":[{"slug":"staff-to-em-first-90-days","title":"Staff IC to Engineering Manager: What Changes in the First 90 Days","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/staff-to-em-first-90-days"},{"slug":"saying-no-roadmap-pressure","title":"Saying No to Roadmap Pressure Without Losing Trust","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/saying-no-roadmap-pressure"},{"slug":"performance-feedback-without-politics","title":"Performance Feedback Without Politics","url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/blog\/performance-feedback-without-politics"}]}],"kit":{"url":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/kit","resume_html":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/resume","resume_pdf":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/files\/Karl-Hill-Resume.pdf","booking":"https:\/\/calendly.com\/karlhill","content_credentials":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/api\/credentials.json"},"feeds":{"atom":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/feed.xml","json":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/feed.json","llms":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/llms.txt","llms_full":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/llms-full.txt","sitemap":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/sitemap.xml","webmention":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/webmention","commands":"https:\/\/karlhill.com\/api\/commands.json"},"profiles":[{"label":"LinkedIn","url":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/khill\/"},{"label":"GitHub","url":"https:\/\/github.com\/karlhillx"},{"label":"X \/ Twitter","url":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/karl_hill\/"},{"label":"ORCID","url":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-6847-3368"},{"label":"ResearchGate","url":"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Karl-Hill-2"},{"label":"Google Scholar","url":"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=ykw3hstDPLcC"}]}