Fourteen years, two halves
In uniform since 2012. The work splits cleanly in two, and
the first half is the reason the second one is any good.
Now · The Air Force
Development lead, the Air Force's drone unit
Built the unit's development arm from its stand-up — there was no R&D
function before the role, and the technology-scouting-to-integration
pipeline is mine. I direct a research team across computer vision,
language models, edge inference, spectrum and robotics, then converge
separate research lines into integrated flying platforms. I run test and
evaluation end to end, to a standard the operational customer certifies
against.
Alongside it, two applied-research builds inside the service: live
speech-to-text transcription of air traffic control audio, feeding
processed information into operational use; and an EEG-based
brain-computer interface toward an operational use case.
Nine years before that · Ground-based air defence
Where the operational instinct comes from
Platoon command, battery operations, and chief training officer for a
battalion — including training and certifying the service's short-range
ground control intercept controllers. That is where the spectrum, comms
and air-picture background comes from, and it is the reason I design to
the operator rather than to the lab. Someone has to set the thing up in
a field, at night, having not built it.
Defence work is described at capability level throughout.
No platforms, no performance figures, no named partners, no operational
detail. Further detail in conversation, where it belongs.