Jim Hester

Jim Hester is a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix, specializing in R-focused infrastructure. He has been with Netflix since December 2021, where he plays a pivotal role in advocating for the R user community and collaborating with various platform and infrastructure teams, including those focused on big data and machine learning. His responsibilities include integrating R with Netflix's data ecosystem, making informed investment decisions regarding R, and developing packages that facilitate access to data through R.1

Hester is also an active member of the R open-source community, maintaining over 20 CRAN packages, some of which he has managed for more than eight years. His contributions to open-source projects are significant, and he works to enhance the capabilities available to R users within Netflix.1

Professional Background

• Previous Experience:
  • Software Engineer at RStudio, Inc. (2016 - 2021): He was a founding member of the tidyverse team, focusing on improving R as a tool for data science and maintaining numerous open-source packages.
  • Systems Analyst/Programmer at Fred Hutch (2015): Worked on algorithm development and package maintenance within the Bioconductor project.
  • Data Scientist at Explorys, Inc. (2013 - 2015): Developed predictive models related to healthcare data.
  • Program Analyst at Cleveland Clinic (2008 - 2013): Led bioinformatics analysis in research involving next-generation sequencing.1

Education

• B.S. in Biotechnology from Kent State University (2005 - 2008)
• Certificate in Bioinformatics from Stanford University (2010 - 2011).1

Jim Hester's extensive experience in software engineering and his commitment to the R community position him as a key contributor to data science initiatives at Netflix.