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Systems Engineer · Technical Lead · Veteran
Steven Brown
TS/SCI-cleared systems engineer, combat veteran and technical lead. I build robust applications end to end, from requirements to release. Today I lead cloud and AI-enabled development on a 20-year Army Program of Record, with 30+ capabilities delivered in three years.
- TS / SCI & Polygraph
- AWS Solutions Architect
- CompTIA Security+
- Certified Agile / SAFe
- Agentic Engineer
- Technical Instructor
- Excellent Communication
- Lifetime Learner
- English / Russian
Background
About
I'm a systems engineer in Orlando, Florida. My path into tech ran through a decade of signals intelligence and electronic warfare in the U.S. Army, from a Special Forces SOT-A in the 3rd Special Forces Group to leading a collection team in the 173rd Airborne. Today I engineer the training systems that prepare the next generation of those operators.
At AIT Engineering I'm the lead cloud engineer and a Feature Owner on the Army's Intelligence Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer (IEWTPT), where I also brought in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and LLM-driven, agentic automation. Outside the program I run Bliztek, my web development company, and I'm rebuilding Trainstead, a personal-training studio platform, on Angular and Go. I hold the AWS Solutions Architect and CompTIA Security+ certifications and work in the cloud almost daily.
I believe in being part of something bigger than myself, so let's connect! If you are interested in knowing more about my professional skills, take a gander at my portfolio, or contact me for my resume. I built this site with love using NextJS, Markdown (MDX), and Tailwind CSS. I hope you like it!
How I work
My Work
Four principles behind every project, from government systems to small-business sites.
- 01
Secure
Security first: applications hardened against vulnerabilities and unauthorized access.
TS/SCI systems work · CompTIA Security+
- 02
Efficient
Code tuned for speed and resource use, so applications stay fast as they grow.
Cloud migration of a 20-year Program of Record
- 03
Intuitive
Interfaces designed so users feel at home from the first click.
UX lead on a real-time geospatial mapping app
- 04
Accessible
Experiences that are open and engaging for every user.
Every page here passes an automated accessibility gauntlet
Writing
My Blog
Systems, algorithms and the web, measured where it matters.
Career
My Experience
- Present3 yr 5 moMay 2023
System Engineer / SIGINT & EW Subject Matter Expert
AIT Engineering · Orlando, Florida
May 2023 to present
- Lead cloud engineer for IEWTPT, a 20-year Army Program of Record, migrating the trainer to a scalable cloud architecture. Ran the program's first cloud pilot for a National Guard exercise, stimulating cloud-hosted and on-premises systems from one deployment to prove a distributed exercise can run entirely from the cloud.
- Feature Owner for high-visibility training capabilities, delivering 30+ capabilities in three years. Served as acting technical lead through a leadership transition, coordinating four software teams plus systems and UX to keep eight priority features on schedule.
- Spearheaded the program's first Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) effort, reverse-engineering a mature 20-year system into a SysML model in MagicDraw: an authoritative source of truth that improved requirements traceability and aligned engineers, government stakeholders and users.
- Introduced LLM-driven and agentic automation into the development workflow, compressing delivery timelines while raising the quality and consistency of engineering artifacts.
- AWS
- MagicDraw
- Ollama / vLLM
- Qdrant RAG
- GitLab CI
- Jira / Confluence
- May 20238 moSep 2022
Front End Developer & UX Designer
CAE, Inc · Orlando, Florida
Sep 2022 to May 2023
- Designed and implemented intuitive, scalable user interfaces for a new geospatial mapping application using Angular, TypeScript and OpenLayers.
- Developed components and services against REST APIs (GeoServer and .NET) and web sockets with SignalR, delivering fluid real-time data visualization.
- Mentored junior developers through code review and pairing, establishing the Angular and TypeScript conventions the team built against.
- Angular
- TypeScript
- OpenLayers
- .NET
- Figma
- Nov 20223 yr 2 moSep 2019
SIGINT Collection Team Sergeant
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, U.S. Army · Vicenza, Italy
Sep 2019 to Nov 2022
- Led a Signals Intelligence Collection Team in the Army's contingency response force for Europe, directing collection operations against threat communications and producing intercept reporting for brigade and theater consumers.
- Trained and certified the team through Military Intelligence Training Strategy (MITS) Tiers I, II and III, bringing new members to standard on systems employment and validating the team against Army collective requirements.
- Selected as Battalion Digital Training Management System (DTMS) Master Trainer and authored the standard operating procedure for the Russian Linguist Unit Language Training Program.
- U.S. Army · Airborne
- SIGINT / EW
- Apr 20182 yr 7 moSep 2015
Assistant Team Leader, Special Operations Team-Alpha
3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), U.S. Army · Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Sep 2015 to Apr 2018
- Deployed on a five-person Special Operations Team-Alpha, the SIGINT and EW element supporting a 450-Soldier Special Forces battalion across the AFRICOM and CENTCOM areas of responsibility; accountable for $1M in SIGINT and EW equipment.
- Assumed leadership of SOT-A 3102, a billet two grades senior, in Kenya; led the team through 15 combat operations and directed six linguists to deliver near real-time collection analysis and reporting.
- Appointed the battalion's Tactical SIGINT Curriculum Developer and Group-wide instructor; authored the modules that became the unit's standing training baseline and certified Soldiers on program-of-record collection systems, saving the Group $20K in external training.
- U.S. Army · Airborne
- SIGINT / EW
Education
Degrees & training
4.0GPAB.S. · 2022 to 2024
Web Development
Full Sail University
- Advanced Achievement Award, one per graduating degree program
- 4 Course Director awards
Salutatorian- 4.0GPA
A.S. · 2017 to 2019
Web Design & Development
Full Sail University
- Web applications in C# and ES6 JavaScript to Airbnb standards
Salutatorian 
3.73GPAA.S. · 2018 to 2019
Russian
Defense Language Institute
- Section leader, accountable for 12 students
Graduated with Honors
Toolbox
My Skills
Technologies I have shipped with, by number of projects, plus the tools I work in every day.
- TailwindCSS8
- NextJS6
- TypeScript6
- GitHub5
- Sanity4
- AWS SES3
- MongoDB3
- Go2
- GraphQL2
- SFTP1
- SSH1
- Auth01
- Docker1
- Docker Compose1
- Kubernetes1
- React1
- Vite1
- Cesium1
- Node.js1
- Express1
- Stripe1
- GatsbyJS1
Also in the toolbox
- Angular
- Go
- PostgreSQL
- Terraform
- Cloudflare
- Vercel
- MagicDraw
- Ollama / vLLM
- Qdrant RAG
- GitLab CI
- Proxmox Homelab
- Figma
- Jira / Confluence
- Visual Studio Code
Channel open · 145.500 MHz
Let's connect
If you've made it this far, you're exactly who I want to hear from. A new project, a role, or a friendly chat: reach out on social media or through the contact page.