# Tom Slankard > Staff Engineer at Ouster Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/tomslankard My favorite thing about being an engineer is that I get to learn something every day. I also love mentoring engineers, teaching software design principals and computer science concepts, and of course, writing code. I have over twenty years of professional experience in dozens of programming languages, frameworks, and technologies. Most of my experience is in network and systems programming on Linux, embedded systems, mapping and GIS, GNSS and LiDAR, desktop GUI applications for scientific visualization, scalable cloud APIs, databases, and infrastructure, automated software testing and build systems, and even game development. The technologies I use most frequently are Linux, C++, C, Python, Java, Scala, Bash, JavaScript, HTTP, TCP/IP, UDP, OpenGL, various SQLs, AWS, Jenkins, and Docker. ## Work Experience ### Staff Software Engineer @ Ouster Jan 2023 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States I lead a team that designs and creates APIs and tools for configuring LiDAR devices and working with their data. ### Principal Engineer @ Velodyne Lidar Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 I design and create user-space LiDAR device drivers, 3D data visualization applications, and numerous UDP and HTTP based network tools in C++ for Debian-based Linux. I also create software to build, test, and package software products using Python and Bash on Docker and Jenkins infrastructure, "aka CI/CD". I also develop technical requirements for software from business requirements, lead the architecture and implementation of software components, design automated test infrastructure and code coverage visualization, mentor and train engineers, and interview new hires. ### Principal Engineer @ HERE Technologies Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | Berkeley, CA I oversaw software architecture, planning, and development for a twelve-person team that developed for cloud, embedded systems, and Linux, including userspace software drivers for GNSS (e.g. GPS receivers) and LiDAR, full-stack GIS and analytics applications, large-scale data platforms, and more. We used Python, C++, Java, Scala, ElasticSearch, Docker, PostgresSQL, AWS, Jenkins, Docker, Splunk, and Kafka. I also worked as a researcher focusing on logistics and local routing algorithms as as the traveling salesman problem, route inspection problem, and similar. ### Senior Software Architect @ HERE Technologies Jan 2012 – Jan 2018 | Berkeley, CA I developed distributed web services and other applications in Scala, Java, Python, C, and C++, using numerous data stores such as PostgresSQL, MySQL, Redis, Cassandra, and deploying to numerous Amazon Web Services. I worked closely with research engineers to build reliable, modular software for producing high accuracy GIS and LiDAR data products at scale. I designed distributed/reactive "actor-model" services and applications, working with multiple teams to integrate systems comprising multiple programming languages, frameworks, and operating systems. I taught engineers best practices and participated in multi-team architecture and engineering practice committees. I acted as Scrum Master and Product Owner for a five-person development team, wrote specifications and proposals, and worked with stakeholders to collect requirements and write user stories. ### Software Engineer @ RespiraWorks Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Berkeley, California, United States I volunteered as a part-time DevOps and QA engineer, helping produce an open source medical ventilator using C, C++, Docker, and Jenkins. ### Software Architect @ earthmine inc. Jan 2008 – Jan 2012 | Berkeley, CA I designed and implemented a novel random-access 3D data compression technique for fast geolocation of placemarks in street-level mapping data. I also developed image processing and 3D graphics software using C, C++ and OpenGL, cloud-based server deployments and associated software tools, libraries for mobile devices and other platforms, including Apple iPhone, Adobe Flash/Flex, and HTML5/JavaScript/WebGL. I designed and built full-stack cloud-based HTTP APIs, high performance HTTP server software and utilities using Java, Python, PHP, Bash, and produced customer and developer outreach sites and tools. I designed and developed new software products for cloud and desktop, collaborating with software engineers on software design, concurrent software, and interprocess communication protocols. I was also responsible for establishing company-wide coding and software design best practices, source code management procedures, issue tracking, and project management tools. ### Consultant @ Western Sales Co. Jan 2000 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco, CA I designed and developed multi-relational web-accessible databases for tracking invoices, managing product inventory, and servicing customer requests using PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, Java Servlets, and Apache. ### Grad Student Researcher @ UC Davis Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 I collaborated on a substantial number of image processing, computer graphics, and scientific visualization research projects, including work with Los Alamos National Laboratory, The Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization (IDAV,) and the UC Davis Geotechnical Facility. ### Graduate Student Researcher @ Los Alamos National Laboratory Jan 2005 – Jan 2005 | Los Alamos, NM I designed, developed, and researched scientific visualization and image processing applications and techniques for materials science and crystallography. ## Education ### B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering University of California, Davis ### Bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering University of California, Davis ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tom-slankard-7282043 --- Source: https://flows.cv/tomslankard JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/tomslankard/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-12