Blair VanderLugt

Blair VanderLugt has a diverse work experience, starting with a role as a Research Assistant at the University of Maine from 2011 to 2013. During this time, Blair wrote technical reports, managed data in an Access database, and assisted with survey design.

In 2014, Blair worked as a Research Associate at NOAA, where they developed web-based data visualization using R Shiny, introduced the team to Git version control, and assisted with the switch from Subversion.

Blair then joined Nordstrom in 2015 as an Engineer, first working in the Inventory - Data and Services team from 2016 to 2017. In this role, Blair acquired data from diverse systems, developed Java services for delivering data, and used Jira for coordination. They then moved to the Big Data Team - Enterprise Information, where they developed Chef cookbooks and AWS Cloudformation, defined data models for a Hadoop cluster, and provisioned a secure cluster with connections to Tableau.

Continuing their career, Blair joined Pelotech in 2017 as a Software Developer, focusing on building Code-As-Infrastructure delivery pipelines, deploying containerized microservices on AWS using Terraform, and managing AWS networking rules and environments.

In 2018, Blair transitioned to Microsoft as an SDE II, owning and enhancing the Azure Portal experience for the Time Series Insights team. They worked with knockout.js and TypeScript, collaborated with designers and UX researchers, and implemented features based on Azure design guidance.

Blair's next position was with Grassroots Economics in 2020, where they served as a DevOps and team lead. Their responsibilities included managing deployment and operations for Python microservices on Kubernetes, building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, and leading a globally distributed team.

Most recently, Blair joined Pocket Network Inc. in 2022 as an Infrastructure Engineer. They facilitated the launch of a new software stack written in Go and deployed on Kubernetes, deployed infrastructure using Terraform, and created Helm charts for applications.

Overall, Blair VanderLugt has demonstrated expertise in infrastructure engineering, DevOps, software development, data management, and visualization throughout their career.

Blair VanderLugt pursued higher education at the University of Maine, where they obtained a Master of Science (MS) degree in Resource Economics and Policy from 2011 to 2013. Prior to that, they attended Boise State University from 2009 to 2011, earning a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Economics.