Kevin La Ra

Engineering & Technical Program Leader — Embedded Software, Microprocessors, Aerospace, Systems Engineering Driving Toward AI-Enabled Autonomous Aerospace Systems and Space Compute

MSEE / MBA · U.S. Navy Officer Veteran, Information Warfare · Previous TS/SCI Clearance · Pilot: Comm/Inst and UAS
2X Ironman and 12X 70.3 Iroman finisher

Summary

Over the last 30 years, my career has moved back and forth across the various layers of computing, from the silicon itself, up through embedded software, and eventually into leading the teams and programs that build these systems. Along the way I’ve worked on everything from RAID controller chips at Intel, to cockpit software at Garmin, to rocket software at Northrop Grumman, to flight computers at Boeing, and finally to microcontrollers at Microchip. I love to learn, picking up an MBA after my MS in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech, as well as a leadership program from Stanford. And my career started by serving six years in the US Navy as an information warfare officer.

What I am working toward now is bringing all of that together: leading engineering teams and technical programs, and applying AI to autonomous aerospace and space systems, such as aircraft like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), drones, satellites, and robotics. I am especially drawn to space compute right now. Putting AI data centers into satellite constellations is a fascinating engineering feat. There is a lot of interesting design work to do in systems engineering, power, thermal, and compute architecture at orbital scale. That is what pulled me back into graduate school for the past two years. I have been digging into AI/ML, computer vision, robotics, computer architecture, and reconfigurable computing to make sure my technical depth keeps pace with where cutting-edge industry is headed.

Core Technical Areas

• Technical Program and Team Leadership
• AI-Enabled Autonomous Systems (Aerospace, Defense, Robotics)
• AI and Accelerated Computing Systems (GPUs, SoCs, FPGA platforms)
• Space Compute and Orbital Systems
• Embedded and Real-Time Software (ARM, RTOS, avionics)
• Computer Architecture and Hardware/Software Co-Design
• Computer Vision, Sensor Fusion & Planning Algorithms
• Programming: C, C++, Python, Assembly
• Systems Architecture and Requirements Engineering
• Silicon Validation, Bring-Up and Verification
• Agile Technical Leadership (Scrum Master, Product Owner)
• Financial Modeling, Cost Modeling and EVMS
• Defense and Aerospace Systems

Selected Industry Experience

Northrop Grumman — Requirements Thread Lead / Senior Principal Systems Engineer

• Thread lead for a large missile program (Sentinel ICBM). Worked directly with the US Air Force and senior Northrop architects to refine top-level requirements, allocate them to segments, and create initial and lower-level verification plans.

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Northrop Grumman — Senior Principal Engineer (Software & Systems)

• Deputy software lead for a multi-billion dollar government ICBM missile interceptor program, coordinating flight-code improvements, embedded computer models, and an embedded O/S upgrade across electrical, mechanical, GNC, and systems engineering teams.
• Championed Agile adoption and acted as Scrum Master across a 30-engineer organization.
• Tracked project EVMS, reporting monthly financial metrics to the prime contractor and Missile Defense Agency.

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Boeing — Senior Software Project Lead

• Led avionics infrastructure software projects for a new multi-purpose flight computer within Boeing AvionX’s Computing Platform Software team (8 engineers), using Scrum to prioritize the backlog and drive execution across RTOS, driver, and middleware work.

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Microchip Technology — Embedded Verification Engineer / Project Lead

• Member of a multi-national team verifying the design of an ARM Cortex-M33 based microcontroller before tape-out.
• Emulation lead for the follow-on microcontroller project, owning schedule, execution tracking, and cross-site reporting.

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Garmin — Aviation Software Engineer

• Led development of touchscreen control systems and electronic circuit breaker software for Bell 525 helicopter avionics.
• Built embedded C software for G5000 glass-cockpit platforms across multiple business jet aircraft.
• Authored verification test suites compliant with DO-178B safety standards.

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Intel — Hardware Design & Validation Engineer

• Led first-silicon validation and debug of IOP331 processor, including architecture bring-up and performance characterization.
• Designed VHDL-based JTAG test control logic and authored Design-for-Test architecture specification.

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United States Navy — Information Warfare Officer

• Directed training, evaluation, and operational execution for 35 intelligence analysts supporting Pacific-region missions.

(A full 30-year career history is available in the downloadable resume above.)

Education