Applied physicist and engineer, 15+ years. Put me on a messy, physical, high-consequence problem that crosses disciplines and has to ship — not demo.
Recent: 6 years at Agilent building production ML over instrument telemetry: fleet-wide failure prediction, and a RAG/LLM system for 300+ field engineers taken from prototype to production (including the confidence logic for when it answers vs. hands off to a human). Cut data-prep time 8x.
Before that I built scientific instruments from scratch (a fiber-based STED nanoscope and an OCT microscope) so I know data from the sensor up, not just after it lands in a warehouse. Earlier: DoD hardware reliability (former TS/SCI), precision timing, published detector-physics work.
Strongest where software meets the physical world: instrumentation, sensor data, ML that has to be right because being wrong has consequences. I own problems end to end, and I'll tell you when the result isn't trustworthy yet.
Open to full-time or contract. Health/medical-device mission a strong plus.
Remote: Yes (also open to onsite in Boulder County)
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Python, SQL, applied ML, RAG/LLM systems, embeddings, signal processing, data pipelines, instrumentation, optics/photonics, C++, MATLAB, AWS
Résumé/CV: heffern.net/rob
Email: Robert.Heffern@gmail.com
Applied physicist and engineer, 15+ years. Put me on a messy, physical,
high-consequence problem that crosses disciplines and has to ship — not demo.
Recent: 6 years at Agilent building production ML over instrument telemetry —
fleet-wide failure prediction, and a RAG/LLM system for 300+ field engineers taken
from prototype to production (including the confidence logic for when it answers vs.
hands off to a human). Cut data-prep time 8x.
Before that I built scientific instruments from scratch — a fiber-based STED
nanoscope and an OCT microscope — so I know data from the sensor up, not just after
it lands in a warehouse. Earlier: DoD hardware reliability (former TS/SCI), precision
timing, published detector-physics work.
Strongest where software meets the physical world: instrumentation, sensor data, ML
that has to be right because being wrong has consequences. I own problems end to end,
and I'll tell you when the result isn't trustworthy yet.
Open to full-time or contract. Health/medical-device mission a strong plus.
AI/ML on extremely high precision and accuracy instrument signals for failure prediction, resolution, and monitoring (can tell when your machine fails before it fails)
MS in Bioengineering with a thesis in nanoscopic bio - optics (put nanoscopes on gerbils to watch inside brain cells)
With my background in engineering and experience developing novel tools and designs, I am excited to help you on the bleeding edge to improve the world. My 13+ years of experience in bioengineering, applied physics, and research makes me a good fit for you, and I look forward to discussing the future.
MS in Bioengineering with an emphasis on nanoscopic bio - optics. AI/Ml on high precision instrument signals for failure mode prediction and resolution. With my background in engineering and experience developing novel tools and designs, I am excited to help you on the bleeding edge to improve the world. My 12+ years of experience in bioengineering, applied physics, and research makes me a good fit for your company, and I look forward to discussing the future with you.
MS in Bioengineering with an emphasis on nanoscopic bio - optics. AI/Ml on high precision instrument signals for failure mode prediction and resolution. With my background in engineering and experience developing novel tools and designs, I am excited to help you on the bleeding edge to improve the world. My 12+ years of experience in bioengineering, applied physics, and research makes me a good fit for your company, and I look forward to discussing the future with you.
John is a crazy good optical engineer if even 10% of what he says is true. You want a 10x optical engineer, you've found him.
Getting a full metrology lab up and running from scratch in under 7 years would make most R1 professors proud. To do so in under 2 years at a commercial lab is actually amazing.
To then build the relationships up with Thorlabs/Edmunds/Ziess is also pretty amazing. I've tried working with all three of their sales reps before. It's like pulling teeth! And that's with bio-optics. Let alone all the crazy regs and laws that would go along with space-based optics at scale. This is very seriously very impressive!
The bit about having a 20-something shadow him for 2 weeks to 'learn metrology' actually made me laugh out loud. To give the SWEs here an idea, it would be like having an 8 year old try to 'learn Linux' in 2 weeks. Whoever told the kid to try to do that is also so out of their depth that they should be fired too. Metrology, especially optical metrology, is a lifetime of learning and work. Even then, you're still mostly winging it into your 60s.
Optics is Captial-H Hard. It's one of the three domains of physics that smart people never touch, and only fools try to make a living out of (the other two being acoustics and fluids). You can spend a lifetime trying to get alignment on a set of elements or you can get lucky and do it in a few hours. I cannot stress enough how difficult non-theoreticl optics is.
Also, take a note here. By the end, SpaceX is trying to get 5-6 people to do the job of just one somewhat older person. Like, even they think the guy is at least a 5x engineer.
I want to buy a Theranos Edison machine and am willing to pay. If you know anyone that has one, parts of one, or anything like that, my email is in my bio and I am very happy to talk to you.
I intend to take a small portion of it, melt it into steel ingots, and include it in 'Order of the Engineer' rings for myself and my colleagues who are also engineers.
We are looking for physical equipment in which engineers screwed up and the general public paid a high price for it, as a reminder to ourselves that our work is meaningful and is one of service to the people we serve with our efforts. If you know of any equipment that may fit that bill, I am looking to pay for that too.
I want to buy a Theranos Edison machine and am willing to pay. If you know anyone that has one, parts of one, or anything like that, my email is in my bio and I am very happy to talk to you.
I intend to take a small portion of it, melt it into steel ingots, and include it in 'Order of the Engineer' rings for myself and my colleagues who are also engineers.
We are looking for physical equipment in which engineers screwed up and the general public paid a high price for it, as a reminder to ourselves that our work is meaningful and is one of service to the people we serve with our efforts. If you know of any equipment that may fit that bill, I am looking to pay for that too.
Maybe a very long shot but in an earlier thread from a year or so ago about a similar topic, this HN user mentioned being in a Theranos facility during liquidation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29791488
We've not been able to source any 'failures' outside of some fragments of the space shuttles that fell on people's land.
We're looking to get as many failures as we can before melting down out rings, casting in the debris in appropriate masses and compositions (they still needs to be steel rings at the end), and then reforging/casting the rings for all of us, with enough of an ingot left over to continue the process as 'failures' continue onward.
It's entirely symbolic, but does take effort and time.
MS in Bioengineering with an emphasis on nanoscopic bio - optics. AI/Ml on high precision instrument signals for failure mode prediction and resolution. With my background in engineering and experience developing novel tools and designs, I am excited to help you on the bleeding edge to improve the world. My 12+ years of experience in bioengineering, applied physics, and research makes me a good fit for your company, and I look forward to discussing the future with you.
Parliament of Owls, Pounce of Kittens, Murder of Crows - the terms of venery are for animals.
But what about other things?
What do you call a group of Roses, or Snowflakes, or Lawyers?
Well, I couldn't figure it out, so I put it to a vote.
Simple ELO scoring, Endless mode is always on, and there is a Daily Contest for you to compete in (Wordle for wordsmiths, I guess).
I'd love to hear any and all feedback on it.
https://venery.palaich.net/vote
reply