Metric tons CO₂e mitigated
Led software engineering for the aerial monitoring and analytics platform whose auditable measurements supported programs credited with mitigating 256 BCF of methane.
Brett Heliker
Platform, Data & Applied AI Climate & Complex Systems
Portland, Oregon 530.680.5820 bheliker@gmail.com
Systems-oriented engineering executive with 20+ years turning research-intensive, operationally complex technology into reliable platforms, scalable organizations, and measurable business outcomes. Leads across software, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, geospatial systems, AI/ML, IoT, hardware, and customer-facing products. A trusted translation layer among executives, product, operations, scientists, customers, and engineering teams—combining architectural judgment with disciplined execution and calm, accountable leadership.
Platform strategyPlatform convergence, architecture alignment, integration surfaces
Engineering leadershipMulti-team organizations, leader development, distributed execution
Operational scaleReliability, observability, automation, cost and risk reduction
Data + AIGeospatial pipelines, production AI/ML, governance, developer leverage
Product + GTMProduct councils, feasibility, customer translation, enterprise solutions
Complex systemsAerospace, sensing, IoT, cloud, hardware/software integration
Impact
Enterprise customers served
Built IoT and data-ingestion capabilities across energy, fleet, and defense; rapid R&D and proof-of-market programs supported six-plus multimillion-dollar deals and two new revenue lines.
Lower production and fielding cost
Led a multidisciplinary sensing-platform program that also improved reliability and throughput by 10×, helping establish the economics for a successful technology spinout.
Faster geospatial delivery
Reduced a six-month, $1.8M terrain-generation cycle to under four weeks and $100K through new geospatial collection and processing workflows.
Experience
Director of Software Engineering
2022–Present Remote · Portland, OR
Methane mitigation, geospatial analytics, and mission-critical environmental data systems
- Direct a multi-team engineering organization across data pipeline, applications, and infrastructure; own technical strategy for reliability, AI integration, automation, cost control, and platform unification.
- Replaced reactive firefighting and concentrated system knowledge with observability, shared ownership, documentation, cross-training, and repeatable operational support.
- Designed a three-team structure, developed emerging leaders, delegated tactical ownership, and established delivery cadences that enabled the organization to scale.
- Lead technical strategy within the Product Council, connecting architecture, feasibility, investment sequencing, go-to-market priorities, and customer commitments.
- Partner with executive leadership on organizational design, staffing, risk, technical diligence, and integration planning; sustained delivery through restructuring and leadership change.
Solutions Architect
2020–2022 Remote
Enterprise AI/ML production operations
- Designed reusable AI/ML integration frameworks and customer deployment patterns for production model serving, monitoring, tuning, and enterprise adoption.
- Translated business problems into deployable AI solutions through readiness assessments, proofs of concept and maturity, early implementations, technical advisory, demos, notebooks, documentation, and talks.
Director of Solutions Engineering / IoT Systems Architect
2015–2019 Chicago, IL
Industrial IoT and asset-integrity platform
- Recruited and led teams delivering IoT hardware, cloud architecture, data ingestion, device management, and machine-learning integration for 20+ enterprise customers.
- Created and led the Sales & Solutions Engineering function; after one year, opportunities involving a Sales Engineer were 60% more likely to close.
- Directed R&D and special-project teams whose rapid systems supported six-plus multimillion-dollar deals and opened two revenue lines; reduced recurring customer costs by six figures.
Director, Instrumentation & Simulation Technology
2004–2014 Menlo Park, CA
Aerospace and defense R&D, real-time sensing, and geospatial training systems · TS clearance
- Led multidisciplinary R&D for FlexTrain real-time asset tracking; reduced production and fielding cost 80% and improved reliability and throughput 10×, helping establish the economics for a successful spinout.
- Introduced geospatial and virtual-terrain workflows that reduced data collection and terrain-generation delivery from six months/$1.8M to under four weeks/$100K per project.
- Productized human-machine interaction and ontology-driven simulation concepts; bridged research, systems architecture, field operations, manufacturing, and program leadership.
Selected Ventures & Advisory
explor.pro
Founding Technical Lead
Architected the full-stack and application foundation, established the technology roadmap, assembled a remote development team, and directed delivery of a production-quality cycling-platform MVP in under six months.
gearbeta.com
Founder / Technical Advisor
Built a consumer gear-longevity platform from concept through architecture, implementation, recruiting, investment, partnerships, and sustainment.
Chalkd
Product & Technical Advisor
Supported product strategy, sales, design, implementation, and architecture for a climbing-tracking platform—and served as its first and most demanding customer.
Keg-Minder
Architect & CTO
Owned the complete engineering system: hardware design and production, sensing and IoT infrastructure, cloud services, and the customer-facing website.
Matterport
Engineering Consultant
Provided hypothesis-driven engineering consultation on prototype hardware design, manufacturability, production readiness, and ruggedization.
Adjacent Applications
Engineering & Technology Advisor
Directed native mobile and web engineering, shaped technology strategy, recruited technical talent, and advised on product and social-media execution.
Patents, Papers & Presentations
Patents
Mesh Network Routing Based on Availability of Assets
Anticipates when an asset in a mesh network is likely to become unavailable and updates routing for other assets in response, preserving network continuity.
Local Analytics Device
Places high-capacity analytics at an industrial asset so predictive models can detect abnormal conditions and initiate preventive or remedial workflows without relying solely on a remote system.
Provisioning a Local Analytics Device
Describes securely provisioning a local analytics device to interact with a remote computing system on behalf of its connected industrial asset.
Papers
Self-Aware Virtual Environment (SAVE)
A next-generation learning-system design for an interactive, adaptive, and discoverable virtual environment built on an ontology-driven geographic information system.
Human-Collective Training for Tactical Operations
A learning-theory-based framework for repeatable scripted and unscripted training intended to improve team and crew tactical operations through a crawl-walk-run progression.
Presentations
Selected talks and demonstrations on production AI/ML, edge inference, unstructured data, and enterprise integration.
Education
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2004 B.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2003
Systems engineering, Kalman filtering, control theory, spacecraft systems, and communications. Lecturer to 400+ students in aerospace, spacecraft design, systems theory, and advanced dynamics.
Engineering leadership for the systems where software meets science, operations, and the physical world.