Nathan J. Kowalczyk
Computer Engineer, Embedded Systems for Industrial Controls
Milwaukee, WI · (414) 555 0139 · name@example.com · linkedin.com/in/nathanjkowalczyk
Key Qualifications
EXPERIENCE
Four years of embedded firmware for motor drives and industrial controllers
INDUSTRIES
Industrial automation, motor drives, factory fieldbus networking
SPECIALTIES
Real time firmware, motor control loops, fieldbus protocols, bootloaders, hardware bring up
SYSTEMS
C and C++, Arm Cortex M microcontrollers, FreeRTOS, Git, Jenkins, Saleae logic analyzers, Jira
CREDENTIALS
Fundamentals of Engineering examination passed, Certified Scrum Master
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Kettle Moraine Technological University
Executive Summary
Embedded systems engineer with four years building firmware and board level software for motor drives and programmable controllers at a 900 person industrial automation company. Owns the firmware for a variable frequency drive family that ships about 40,000 units a year, from bootloader to fieldbus stack. Known for finding timing bugs with a logic analyzer before the test lab does.
Signature Achievements
- Owns the firmware for a drive family shipping about 40,000 units a year with a field failure rate attributed to firmware under 0.1 percent.
- Cut control loop jitter from 18 microseconds to under 3 by moving the current loop to a hardware timer interrupt with direct memory access.
- Brought up three new controller boards from first power on to running firmware inside two weeks each.
- Reduced the firmware build and hardware in the loop test cycle from 55 minutes to 12 by rebuilding the Jenkins pipeline.
- Closed 210 defect tickets over four years with a reopen rate of 4 percent in Jira.
- Wrote the fieldbus conformance test scripts that passed certification on the first submission for two products.
Professional Experience
Embedded Firmware Engineer
Kinnickinnic Drives and Automation, Milwaukee, WI July 2022 to present
900 person industrial automation company; firmware owner for a variable frequency drive family on a team of nine engineers
- Write and maintain C firmware for Arm Cortex M based motor drives under FreeRTOS, including the current and speed control loops.
- Implement and test fieldbus protocol stacks for factory networks and run the conformance suites before certification.
- Bring up new controller boards with the hardware team, checking clocks, power rails and peripheral timing with logic analyzers and oscilloscopes.
- Maintain the bootloader and the secure firmware update path across the product family.
- Review pull requests for the firmware team and maintain the Jenkins hardware in the loop test rig.
Firmware Engineering Cooperative Education Student
Fox River Instrumentation, Appleton, WI May 2020 to December 2021
Three cooperative education terms at a flow meter manufacturer of about 300 people
- Wrote device drivers for temperature and pressure sensors on a Cortex M microcontroller.
- Built a Python test harness that exercised the serial command set of a flow meter overnight.
- Documented register maps and timing diagrams for the sensor interface board.
Certifications and Training
Fundamentals of Engineering examination, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, passed 2022
Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance, certified 2023
Occupational Safety and Health Administration 10 hour general industry card, 2022
Education
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Kettle Moraine Technological University, Milwaukee, 2022
Core Skills
Real time firmware · Motor control loops · Fieldbus protocol stacks · Board bring up · Bootloader design · Logic analyzer debugging · Direct memory access drivers · Hardware in the loop testing · Jenkins pipelines · Firmware code review