Sam Korn
Software Engineer
Location
Westminster, Colorado
Email
korn94sam@gmail.com
Phone
(720) 333-4371
Website
https://samkorn.me
LinkedIn
samuel-korn
GitHub
kornpow
Work Experience
Founder/Engineer | LightningSpore LLC | 10/2023—Present
Incorporated a business which applies technology to streamline agricultural processes by developing hardware and software to optimize mushroom cultivation.
- Integrated electronics, embedded software, and custom 3D printed models for a suite of ESP32 based sensor modules.
- Orchestrated a Kubernetes cluster of VPN-networked Linux devices to run the business website, webhooks, and internal tools. Nodes created using Ansible scripts.
- Cultivated a multitude of different species of mushroom, cataloged and stored genetics.
- Directed collaboration with various contractors to build a compelling e-commerce store powered by WordPress, which supports a wide variety of payment options.
- Developed a web application for printing custom labels using a templating system built using FastAPI, Tailwind CSS and HTML.
- Leveraged AI models for code generation (Claude/Cursor), image generation (Flux), speech-to-text (Whisper), and actively monitored rapidly advancing AI progress.
Infrastructure Engineer | Voltage Cloud | 09/2021—10/2023
Building easy to deploy cloud infrastructure which allows business to easily accept payments using Bitcoin/Lightning.
- Architected a payment, credit, and invoicing system, which allowed customers to pay for our services using Bitcoin or USD, using Stripe APIs.
- Established a Python-based SaaS REST API Backend running in an AWS Lambda environment. Managed our deployments using AWS Cloudformation.
- Implemented postgres and sqlite relational database systems, and created automated backup systems using AWS S3 and other tools.
- Collaborated closely with platform team to deploy and manage our Kubernetes-native Prometheus and Grafana stack.
- Designed multi-cloud k8s cluster operation by implementing a site-to-site VPN between our AWS and GCP datacenters.
- Streamlined our CI/CD workflows using GitHub Actions and ArgoCD to run tests and deploy code.
- Led the design and deployment of our AWS and GCP cloud infrastructure using Terraform with an eye for scalability and reliability.
- Implemented cloud security best practices by participating in our SOC2 certification planning and implementation.
DevOps Engineer | Biarri Networks | 08/2020—09/2021
Creating deployment pipelines, and other tools, that enable developers working on advanced computation to optimally design fiber optic networks for the telecommunications industry.
- Initiated an effort to migrate our jobs from classic Jenkins to using Jenkinsfiles, which is more composable, and easier to audit as code.
- Enhanced internal tools to improve data-flow to leadership and managers.
- Executed a system upgrade for our high-performance solver servers using Terraform, minimizing customer downtime, while adhering to strict upgrade requirements.
IoT Engineer | Babylon Micro-Farms | 08/2017—07/2020
Developed electronics, embedded software, and cloud software to enable fleets of hydroponic farms to grow quality produce.
- Wrote embedded Linux Python code for our farm modules, and managed OTA updates to the devices.
- Developed a Django based backend API which ingested farm sensor data, and allowed for control of the device using a React Native mobile app.
- Developed a label printing system, which allowed for tracking physical plant seed pods to info in a database.
- Awarded a patent for an automated hydroponics nutrient dosing system: https://patents.justia.com/patent/20200396917
Electrical Engineer | Canvas Technology | 06/2016—07/2017
Designed and manufactured electronics, and created testing systems for an advanced computer vision warehouse robot.
- Installed hardware and software onto high performance PCs, which was the brain of an autonomous warehouse vehicle.
- Collaborated with team members in our software, electrical, and mechanical teams to develop a new embedded architecture, which allowed for simpler communication and wiring.
- Created a test rig in C#, which tested the operation of an embedded-system wheel assembly.
- Designed, debugged, and iterated on a variety of PCBs, including a motor driver, a MCU communications hub, and a LED unit, and created cost-optimized BOMs.
- Manufactured electronics in-lab using a pick-and-place machine and reflow oven.
Skills
Python
Golang
Javascript
Rust
C#
Kubernetes
Bash
Scripting
Terraform
Jenkins
CloudFormation
Docker
DynamoDB
PostgreSQL
Redis
MongoDB
KiCAD
Altium
Eagle
AWS
GCP
Fusion360
Education
University of Colorado Boulder
Electrical and Computer Engineering | Bachelor
08/2012—05/2016
Open Source Projects
Ported the SeedSigner Bitcoin hardware wallet to the Luckfox Pico Embedded Linux platform.
Buildroot
Linux
Electronics
- Designed a custom PCB to interface with the Luckfox Pico, and designed a 3D printed enclosure to hold the Pico and components.
- Using Buildroot, crossed-compiled a custom OS image with all of the dependencies installed.
- Modified Seedsigner Python code to interface with the new hardware.