Atlas UP

Head of Business Development

•	Drive the development and implementation of customer-centric strategies that identify and expand membership and retention for an SaaS productivity software startup utilizing AI to increase productivity and insights; to date, this has entailed creating targeted customer acquisition campaigns, developing innovative programs and initiatives to engage and onboard customers, and analyzing both customer and industry data to identify trends and opportunities for attracting high-value members. 

•	Team effectively with customers to understand needs and develop sustainable solutions that leverage the latest AI technology to improve business productivity and support long-term membership.
 
•	Oversee the performance of a team of customer success professionals to ascertain all activities related to customer satisfaction are executed effectively and efficiently.

•	Provide vital guidance and leadership to the senior leadership, in addition to delivering staff support to functional areas to enable workers to properly perform essential functions.

•	Ensure funds for membership and programs are appropriately managed.

•	Approve projects, programs and major activities of staff related to programs.

•	Foster and maintain strong and productive relationships with both internal and external partners.

Chief Membership Officer

KITEWIRE Inc. (KITEWIRE Mobility)

•	Championed transformation of The Office of Naval Research, The Army Research Laboratory, the US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and other organizations by implementing Kitewire’s data-driven SaaS technology, which enabled analytics and real-time data capture of critical investment portfolios. 

•	Facilitated development of a new methodology mapping the relationship between project execution and strategic guidance to optimize investments in key technology areas.  

•	Responsible for significantly reducing the time required to generate insights needed to support senior leaders with decisive decision making, while simultaneously reducing workforce workload by reducing extraneous administration tasks via data automations. 

•	Recognized for making a major impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of Defense's Science and Technology organizations.

Deputy CEO

Deputy CEO, Director for Science and Technology

•	Tasked with developing and managing a leading-edge analytic capability using bibliometrics to support the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Office of Technical Intelligence; this featured horizon scanning and early identification of technology areas, organizations, and individuals of significant military value to the United States. 

•	United with senior Pentagon officials to understand military and acquisition requirements, and developed a scalable solution that utilized advanced analytics techniques to extract insights from large volumes of open-source data. 

•	Fulfilled a vital role in the accreditation and implementation of this capability within secure military hosting environments; and developed strategies for integration of this analysis into the OSD Reliance 21 Strategic Planning framework; this effort enabled the Office of the Secretary of Defense to stay ahead of emerging trends and identify key technology and research areas significantly impacting future military strategy.

Director for Science and Technology

US Army

•	Accountable for having directly supported the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology in shaping long-term goals and objectives for Army investment; this was achieved by conducting and facilitating a range of technology wargames.  

•	Carried out a Future Problems and Challenges Wargame to shape the Army’s basic research investment areas.  

•	Aided development of a Future Technology Concept Wargame for Small Arms Overmatch for the Chief of Staff of the Army.  

•	Supervised Army engineering programs and facilitated integration with experimentation and demonstration events. 

•	Acted as an expert advisor in technology coordination and information sharing across the federal community.  

•	Excelled in brokering relationships with key organizations to include TRADOC, DHS, the Intelligence Community, The Naval Post Graduate School, and West Point Military Academy.

Director, Technology Wargaming Implementation

Developed and executed the US Army’s international Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (IED) engagement strategy for research and technology.  Established and led 12 technology information exchange agreements between the US Department of Defense and foreign partners which provided critical information exchanges in support of wartime operations and long term technology development.  Presented on US Counter-IED technology investments at NATO HQ and other international forums. Served as the principle US technical lead in developing a multi-national Counter-IED investment strategy for the Conference of America's Armies.

International Relations Lead, RDECOM Counter-IED Task Force

Served as an expert technical advisor and coordinator of US Army investments in Counter-IED research and development activities. Briefed Army senior leadership and scientific community on the feasibility of promising technologies in support of urgent Warfighter requirements.  Authored and supported policy guidance to include the technical input in the US Army’s Counter-IED Strategy Document, Counter-IED reports to Congress (HASC and SASC), TRADOC's General Officer Steering Committee; and the international engagement strategy for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation. Supported the Joint IED Defeat Organization in assessing the feasibility and application of technology advancements and scientific studies in areas of protection, detection, neutralization and prediction.  Developed and recommended plans for future Counter-IED initiatives, proposals, and activities.

Director, RDECOM Counter-IED Task Force

Supported the Director in executing the mission of the laboratory to provide world class sensors for the Department of Defense. Monitored engineering projects in optics, radars, lasers, modeling and simulation from industry, academia and government agencies for the Director and his staff.  Provided internal administrative support and conflict resolution between the front office and external agencies.

Executive Officer to the Director, Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate

Developed and executed the short and long term plans of the Special Operations Low Intensity Conflict Humanitarian Deming Program to counter explosive threats through unique engineering efforts in electrical, mechanical, and robotic technologies.  Served as a Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for both US and international contracts.  Developed, executed and monitored program budgets, proposal selections and contract creation.  Conducted oversea technology assessments and equipment training to include the development of support packages and logistic strategies.  Provided direct technical support, training and troubleshooting for operators working in hostile environments.

Project Lead, Humanitarian Demining Program, SO/LIC

Responsible for building and equipment maintenance of the Harrisburg hub and its sixteen satellite facilities. Designed engineering drawings for the construction of new structures, renovations and equipment installation.  Conducted auditing in support of federal and state requirements.

Engineering Supervisor

As a forward-thinking strategist and change agent with over 20 years of professional experience spanning government, business, and military sectors, I empower organizations to embrace the future with resilience and innovation. Recognized for my adeptness in leveraging technical and operational prowess, I champion the paradigm shift from fear of change to harnessing it as a tool for progress. With an unwavering commitment to exceed performance goals, I endeavor to maximize operational output through efficient resource utilization, thus ensuring the holistic growth of individuals and organizations alike.

Currently serving as the Chief Membership Officer at Atlas UP, my vision extends beyond conventional leadership. I take pride in spearheading customer-centric strategies that fuel membership growth and retention for our SaaS productivity software startup. Through targeted customer acquisition campaigns, innovative member engagement, and meticulous industry data analysis, I aim to cultivate a culture of adaptability and continuous learning. By overseeing the performance of customer success teams, I ensure satisfaction and efficiency are not mere metrics, but a lived reality for our clients.

In a world rapidly evolving through technology, my professional pillars encompass strategic development, customer experience, international relations, and tech tools, emphasizing the importance of security requirements and product development. I balance these with an unwavering focus on team leadership excellence, ensuring a culture of transparency and accountability in driving business forward with minimal expenditures.

My colleagues perceive me as a visionary, a seasoned technical and operations executive with an eye for detail and a finger on the pulse of future trends. With a knack for delivering superior solutions that yield positive results, my approach is founded on a firm belief in people's potential for change and progress. It is my conviction that every individual and organization can become their best selves when we view change not as a challenge, but as an opportunity for growth and transformation.

Nathan Burkholder

AtlasUp is a new startup ready to make waves in the AI space. We leverage Large Language Model capabilities to access, interpret, and analyze business information. As Senior Software Engineer, I regularly:

•  Utilize cutting edge generative-AI technologies including: State of the art LLM Models, Retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search with vector database embeddings

• Integrate with modern gen-ai tooling like LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pinecone, pgvector, OpenAI function calling, llm evaluation and observability platforms

•  Implement a fully featured chatbot web application using Python Django framework, React, and PostgresSQL.

•  Propose, plan, and implement large features independently and as a small team.

•  Design and implement backend architecture, database models, and api schemas.

•  Design frontend architecture and create dynamic and effective User Experiences with React.

• Participate in demos and pitches with investors.

• Improve culture and collaborative processes of a small but high-velocity team.

Senior AI Software Engineer

Sweetgrass Natural Foods

I founded Sweetgrass Natural Foods with my wife in 2011 with the goal to provide healthful, locally sourced, regionally unique foods to everyone. For 12 years we grew our farmer's market brand into a beloved local company offered in Kroger, Whole Foods, and many natural and local food markets.

In 2023 we decided to transfer ownership of Sweetgrass Natural Foods to our long-time employee manager and his family so that they can continue the mission and bring renewed energy to the company.

Co-Founder

Contra

As Technical Team Lead I directly contributed to our platform's technical progress and managed the additional responsibilities of leading a team of 5 engineers. As a fully distributed team, building a strong culture of trust was a unique challenge that we overcame in a democratic and inclusive way. 

My successes included:
• Building strong team and organization culture by successfully implementing effective agile processes like monthly retros, swarm project grooming, collaborative team culture identification, roadmap planning etc
• On-boarding and mentoring new and less experienced engineers. Building their confidence and developing good habits to support them in their career
• Working closely with Product Management and Design to create strong alignment on current and future initiatives. Providing technical lift estimations and identifying risks early in project design stages.
• Participating in the interview and hiring process to build a strong engineering team.

Senior Software Engineer Technical Lead

As a Senior Software Engineer in an early stage, creative services marketplace startup I:
• Designed and implemented api contracts for top of funnel client experience
• Designed database schema to support scalable and comprehensible models
• Identified and reduced technical debt. Participated in architectural design decisions.
• Utilized Temporalio Workflows for asynchronous and scheduled jobs
• Delivered integrations with Crunchbase, Outreach, and Pipedrive platforms to support client success teams

Senior Backend Software Engineer

Xometry

• Proposed, architected, and led the development of a greenfield top-of-funnel marketplace experience.
• Managed  a squad of 4 developers that made significant contributions across multiple services. Focused on building a strong squad culture and a high functioning team.
• Mentored and encouraged team skill progression by offering learning sessions, individualized constructive code reviews, and lots of code pairing.
• Designed effective API surfaces and appropriate microservice architecture.
• Submitted significant UI/UX design feedback leading to many Product improvements.
• Revamped Jira ticket structure and process to improve transparency to stakeholders and developer quality of life, resulting in better task tracking and developer-product efficiency.
• Cross-functional collaboration with product designers, the sales team, and upper management to create solutions that enhance the long-term business strategy
• Participated in the interview and hiring process of new employees.

Senior Software Engineer Team Lead

• Implemented an e-commerce application in PHP/Laravel offering over 1 million SKUs.
• Designed complex GraphQL and SQL schemas for greenfield marketplace platform.
• Managed cloud resources with Terraform and Kubernetes deployments with Helm.
• Created new services in a transitioning micro-service architecture.

Software Engineer

Ogden Publications

At Ogden Publications I provided web development services. Diving deep into back end code and cleaning up and making responsive/mobile-first the front end user experience.

Key Accomplishments include:
• Designed and developed Wordpress site for www.motherearthnewsfair.com
• Created custom plugin to import remote data from Smartsheets to Wordpress database.
• Refactored front-end code to make www.motherearthnews.com fully responsive and mobile-ready
• Troubleshooting for marketing html emails to make them responsive and mobile-ready.

Web Developer

Gahn Softworks

Software Design, Development, and Strategy.

As a contract developer under my own Gahn Softworks LLC I independently designed and developed software in close communication with clients. 

Experiences and skills developed:
• Discussed customer needs and developed project requirements and milestones.
• Developed software solutions designed to solve customer problems
• Presented and trained solutions to clients and their employees.
• Observed on-site usage of software in order to improve performance and stability.
• Performed remote troubleshooting and maintenance.
• Wrote operating manual and help documents.

My largest project was a SQL-driven inventory tracking software for meat processing plants. This software was designed to process hundreds of sequential entries in an environment with little assumptions of stable connectivity. Each entry was lot tracked through the processing facility and into retail where the inventory tracking provided the ability for focused recall of products. The interface was design to be safely used by operators with little tech experience or understanding.

Other projects included dynamic web forms, Wordpress CMS custom websites, PHP template programming, and more.

Owner

Vizrt

As a professional services engineer for Vizrt, a leading developer of real time dynamic on-air graphics, I worked with customers to create custom solutions for diverse needs such as integration, data pushing, and troubleshooting. I operated independently in direct collaboration with important clients such as CNN and QVC.

Responsibilities included:
• Communicated professionally with clients to determine needs, propose solutions, and set expectations and milestones.
• Represented Vizrt while travelling to client's headquarters to discuss and implement solutions.
• Developed code-based solutions with c#, javascript, java, vb, and proprietary technologies.
• Committed support and troubleshooting for client's software and hardware.
• Worked both independently and within a small team to achieve customer deadlines.

Professional Services Engineer

My personal work in entrepreneurship lends me a product/customer focused mindset in developing software tools and has allowed me to experience many types of challenges that apply to any industry.

A long career in various forms of software development organizations and industries has allowed me to develop empathy for customers and co-workers, both technical and non-technical. 

My personality is strongly opinionated but flexible. I am passionate about high quality user experience but also how we can achieve that with sound software practices and positive developer experience.

taplio

The Battle

Nathan Burkholder

Jacob Gahn

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?