case study
Goal Zero
Engineering Manager → Sr. Software/Firmware (IoT)
2013 — 2025
tl;dr
- [1]Grew from engineering associate to software engineering manager over 12 years at Goal Zero.
- [2]Architected the event-driven AWS IoT platform behind the connected Yeti portable-power line.
- [3]Built and led the team that ships firmware, cloud, mobile, and now applied-AI tooling across the combined Goal Zero / BioLite org.
Context
Goal Zero was founded in 2009 in Bluffdale, UT, and acquired by NRG Energy on September 18, 2014. I joined in 2013 as an engineering associate writing JavaScript and Jennic-microcontroller firmware, and stayed through every product generation that followed — lead-acid 8-bit PIC builds, the first lithium platforms, the connected Yeti line, and the post-NRG / pre-BioLite era of cloud-native rebuild.
What I built
Across roles, the work spanned three layers:
- Embedded — firmware for lithium and lead-acid power stations, solar chargers, and an early generation on Jennic; later 8-bit PIC and ARM platforms.
- Cloud — secure REST APIs for fleet management, then a migration to event-driven microservices (AWS Lambda, IoT Core, SNS, CloudWatch, DynamoDB) handling millions of device events per day.
- Mobile — React Native apps on iOS and Android with AWS backend integration and real-time device telemetry.
Engineering leadership
As supervisor and then manager I led the migration to event-driven microservices, rolled out comprehensive CI/CD with GitHub Actions and Infrastructure-as-Code (Serverless Framework), and established cloud-development standards and architectural patterns enforced across distributed teams. Deployment time dropped ~65%; automated testing crossed 80% coverage on the systems we own.
Navajo Nation give-back
Goal Zero has run a give-back program on the Navajo Nation for years. Public anchors:
- “Share the Sun — The Navajo Solar Project,” partnered with the Honnold Foundation, Eagle Energy, The North Face, and Clif Bar.
- September 2022 humanitarian mission with photographer Mylo Fowler and Heart of America — the latter has delivered 10,000+ home learning kits to Navajo families since 2020.
- “Skip the Grid,” a Cal Poly student-led project (March 2025) that brought solar-power systems to 40+ off-grid Navajo homes.
Outcomes
The connected portable-power product line ships globally; the platform behind it scales to millions of device events per day with high availability. Internally, the patterns and CI/CD infrastructure built here became the baseline for the combined Goal Zero / BioLite engineering org after the 2025 acquisition.