Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Commonwealth Connections Academy

Software Engineer I at Microsoft

Leads Last Mile’s technology development and data support strategy and implementation, partnering with senior leadership to set organizational goals and approach in these areas, then owning the development, implementation, delivery and ongoing management of the strategy.

Last Mile’s technology strategy is currently focused on building a tech stack that supports the end-to-end student grantmaking process, fund development, and the data infrastructure that enables performance monitoring, ongoing process improvements, financial management and research and evaluation.  

Responsible for “owning” Last Mile’s tech stack and responsible for articulating overall tech strategy, enhancement plans, and corresponding business processes; developing and implementing staff tech stack training; partnering with core business functions (student grantmaking, student engagement), business support functions (bookkeeping and accounting), and research & evaluation professionals related to data needs; and supporting executive fundraising and management reporting needs. The Last Mile lead working with contracted technology development teams.

Last Mile Education Fund

Technology and Data Systems Manager

AS A SOFTWARE ENGINEER:
Worked on Azure's Spark offerings within HDInsight and Azure Synapse Analytics; worked on Azure Synapse Analytics in the Resource Provisioning (RP) team; currently working on Azure Stream Analytics. 

Languages/Tools Used & Familiarity Gained: HDInsight and Azure Synapse Analytics, Hadoop Stack, YARN, anaconda for Python, Scala. Existing Skills Furthered: Java, Git/Bash, UNIX, Azure DevOps, Azure portal and CLI operations, PowerShell, Scrum/agile.

PASSION PROJECTS (RECRUITING/DIGITAL SOURCING):
• Currently pursuing LinkedIn Certification; extensive familiarity with Headtrax, Workday, Yello, etc; 
• Presented to Kathleen Hogan on D&I efforts at the 2015 NCWIT Summit and again in 2016, advising the Explorer Program.
• Digitally sourced and referred 976 Intern and FTE candidates, 98% of whom were women, POC, or persons with disabilities.
• Developed a novel pipeline over several years of Intern and FTE candidates, especially traditionally disadvantaged candidates. 
• Supported candidates from high potential pipelines, leading to ~3 out of every 4 candidates making final round interviews.
• Provided mentoring during Intern Summers & FTE decision-making, leading to a nearly 100% offer acceptance rate (2 documented declines from post-referral surveys.)
• Performed extensive data analysis on candidate pools every year; experience with graduate-level probability, statistics, modeling. 
• Developed extensive data analysis platform skills as a 3x Intern in Azure Data and as a FTE SWE for ~1.5 years; math major.
• Practiced at producing technical documentation and technical writing; certified in formal writing skills, including Grantwriting.
• Experienced at holding mock interview sessions for prospective candidates, including mock phone and Codility screenings.

Microsoft

Software Engineer I

Worked across three codebases (framework, service, and portal layers) to develop the latest feature of Azure Stream Analytics within the Azure Data Group, enabling multiple top customer asks of Blob Output:
- Designed the grammar of and worked to enable a flexible path pattern that allows customers to align with a variety of downstream pipelines, including the Hive Streaming partition convention.
- Implemented support for custom date formats in Blob output.
- Implemented support for custom time formats in Blob output.
- Supported customers through a private preview of a closely related feature, custom column partitioning in Blob output.
- Supported users of the feature developed last summer, which enabled multiple compression algorithms for streaming inputs to ASA jobs.
- Fixed miscellaneous repair items as needed.

Visual Studio, C#, TypeScript, .NET, git, TFS

Software Engineering Intern

- Worked across three codebases (framework, service, and portal layers) to develop the latest feature of Azure Stream Analytics within the Azure Data Group, enabling multiple compression algorithms for streaming inputs.
- Built out back-end support to enable streaming job outputs with CSV serialization and without headers.
- Sent and achieved sign-off on four code reviews and two design documents to deploy to production-level.

Visual Studio, C#, TypeScript, .NET, git, TFS

- Developed a metrics tracking dashboard with a team of 3 other Explorer interns for the COSMOS Scope big data team within Azure Data Group. 
- Developed internal development tools in C# for internal big data platforms.
- Developed a stream analytics ‘playground’ for new customers in C#.

Explorer Intern

- Supports the ERAU office for the ASSURE FAA Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Dr. Richard Stansbury as the ERAU director. 
- Performs routine office administrative duties.
- Assists in a number of other start-up efforts for the ASSURE office including outreach, social media, proposal development, graphic design, etc. 
- Working in the IT - Business Intelligence office at Embry-Riddle as a Data Analyst.
- Develop and manage the website for the Women's Engineering Institute at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University under Dr. Shafagh Jafer.
- Craft grant applications for cost center funding; won over $16,000 in funding in the spring 2017 semester.
- Engage and mentor students through the internship, scholarship, etc search and application/interviewing processes. 
- Working as a Teaching Assistant for SE300, Software Engineering Practices, under Dr. Shafagh Jafer. 
- Assist in introducing students to the fundamental principles and methodologies of large-scale software development. 
- Guide project teams through a software development process and support team project activities such as team building, planning, requirements analysis and specification, design, testing, and the use of tools.
- Tutoring students who use College of Business tutoring lab services on a variety of fundamental topics including math, physics, finance, accounting, writing, and more. 

Java, Scrum, git, SQL/MySql, Eclipse

Undergraduate Research/Teaching Assistant

Vehicle Engineering: Falcon Engineering intern (Landing Legs team)
Vehicle Engineering: Vehicle Analysis intern (Crew Dragon structural certification team)

June 15, 2015 - August 21, 2015

SpaceX

Propulsion/Vehicle Engineering Intern

Worked on systems engineering for the High Altitude Long Endurance suite of unmanned systems as an intern in the Aerospace Systems sector.

April 13, 2015 - June 13, 2015

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Technical Intern

Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (Office of Naval Research, Aurora Flight Sciences)
- Modeled mounting positions for a LiDAR sensor on a light military helicopter using Solidworks.
- Performed occlusion studies and compiled a report for future internal research purposes and/or for use in future contract presentations.

Intelligent Autonomous Aerial Vehicles in the National Airspace (NASA Langley)
- Charted project requirements using FreeMind and performed validation and verification tests under the Systems Engineering team lead.

Courtney Thurston-Del Buono 💻