Neil Kester

Neil Kester

Operations Researcher / Systems Analyst / Data Scientist

U.S. Army

Introduction

What defines my professional life, what is my professional “why”: I strive to bring clarity to problems and provide actionable approaches to help our leaders make informed decisions.

  • The context: Our national security, local government, and business leaders face increasingly complex and complicated problems. These are frustrated by unclear or unintuitive solutions. I strive to help them make sense of this environment to better themselves, their constituents (and customers), and society.

My How: Through self work and leading cross functional teams, I apply the following methods and techniques:

  • Remain ruthlessly focused on providing value to the customer or decision maker. Novel solutions only matter if they are usefull and valuable to the user.
  • Ask pointed questions to help myself, my team, and the decision maker develop and understand the problem.
  • Apply Disciplined Agile practices to guide the problem solving process and deliver value.
  • Acknowledge the things we don’t or can not know, and account for them in our analysis.
  • Simplicity and explainability always trump complex and convoluted.
  • Apply Operations Research and Systems Analysis techiques that span the spectrum from Operational Assessments, Systems Engineering, Economics, and Data Science.

I excel at achieving desired effects with minimal guidance and oversight in environments that demand self-motivated leadership.

Download my resumé.

Interests
  • Value Focused Decision Support
  • Machine Intelligence to Human Decision Making
  • Analytic Modeling and Simulations
  • Container Based Data Science Workloads
Education
  • MS in Systems Engineering, 2021

    Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering

  • MS in Engineering Management, 2010

    Missouri University of Science and Technology

  • BS in Civil Engineering, 2006

    United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point

Skills

R - Expert

Active user since 2015, more than 30k lines written across the following use cases:

  • Analytics (NLP, Optimization, Statistics, etc.)
  • Package building, Production Shiny (golem)
  • Multi-threaded R API (plumber & parallel)
  • Invoking external commands (visual basic, visual basic script, bash, etc.)
  • Containerized applications (micro-services architecture)
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Python - Intermediate

Active user since 2021. Primarily in the fields of Machine Learning including:

  • Supervised Learning
  • Deep Learning
  • Unsupervised learning
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Excel - Expert

VBA, excel based statistics and simulations including:

  • Monte Carlo Simulation
  • Linear Programming and Optimization
  • Validated User Input
  • Visualization
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Modeling and Simulation - Intermediate

Descrete Event Simulation (Combat Simulation and Logistics Simulation) and Epidemiological Simulation (SEIR) in traditional “Monolithic” systems as well as descributed cloud based systems.
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Containerization and Kubernetes - Intermediate

Experience building containerized services with Podman, building and configuring small test kubernetes clusters
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Helm - Intermediate

Built Helm charts that deploy full microservices architecture applications composed of multiple services as depentent service level Helm charts.
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Kubernetes - Intermediate

Experience deploying MSA applications to RedHat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), Rancher Kubernetes Enginer (RKE), and Micro-K8S. Experience building and maintaining a home lab Micro-K8S cluster.
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Photography - Intermediate

Amature photographer of landscapes, portraits.
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Experience

Job Titles:
Civilian Equivalent (U.S. Army Title)

 
 
 
 
 
Department Director - Assessments Director (Operations Research / Systems Analyst)
Southern European Task Force - Africa (SETAF-AF)
Aug 2022 – Present Italy
 
 
 
 
 
Senior Data Scientist / Senior Software Project Manager (Operations Research / Systems Analyst)
Command Data Office, U.S. Special Operations Command
Aug 2019 – Jun 2022 Florida

Responsibilities include:

  • Lead highly technical teams of software developers, data scientists, and data architects using Agile Project Management techniques to deliver capabilities to customers across the organization’s world wide foot print.
  • Employ data science, data analytics, and operations research techniques to identify, ingest, transform, model, visualize, and communicate responses to complicated and nuanced questions.
  • Lead teams to discover and implement technical capabilities empowering users across a geographically diverse organization to employ data science and data analytics to inform senior leader decisions.
  • Serve as a knowledge broker to communicate requirements for data science work loads for others in the command.
 
 
 
 
 
Resource Analyst & Data Scientist (Operations Research / Systems Analyst)
Center for Army Analysis
Aug 2016 – Apr 2019 Virginia

Responsibilities include:

  • Supporting senior leaders of a 1,000,000 + employee organization, lead and participate in studies related to the employment of materiel and personnel resources within the context of external geo-polical environments and national defense.
  • Communicate the planning, progress, and results of said studies to C Suite executives to inform future funding, resourcing, and employment decisions.
 
 
 
 
 
Materials and Product Effectiveness Analyst (Weapons Systems Analyst - Operations Research / Systems Analyst)
U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity
Aug 2014 – Jul 2016 Maryland

Responsibilities include:

  • Analyze single soldier or weapon system performance in the context of its intended employment situations to inform decisions on the system’s acquisition and use.
  • Perform basic research level analysis to determine the qualities and capabilities systems must posses to achieve intended results.
 
 
 
 
 
Construction Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Seattle District
Jun 2013 – Jul 2014 Washington

Responsibilities include:

  • As a project manager in a project’s planning phase, work with the customer and various engineering disciplines to design a solution to the customer’s requirements that quality, time, and cost constraints. Manage a project budget and the time of engineers assigned to the project.
 
 
 
 
 
Construction Project Engineer and Quality Assurance Officer
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Seattle District
Oct 2012 – Jun 2013 Washington

Responsibilities include:

  • Indentifying, coordinating, and integrating customer requirements into a comprehensive management plan, coordinated with stakeholders.
  • On the project site controling and managing the budget and schedule of a $91 million dollar construction project.
 
 
 
 
 
Department Director (Combat Engineer Company Commander)
C Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Apr 2011 – Oct 2012 Germany / Afghanistan

Responsibilities include:

  • Managing the life, well-being, and operational employment of 120 individuals organized into four teams while operating in hostile enivironments across approximately 3600 square km of area.
  • Managing the maintenance, accountability, operational readiness, and employment of 41 heavy duty vehicles and associated operational equipment valued in excess of $31 million.
 
 
 
 
 
Department Deputy Director of Operations (Combat Engineer Battalion Assistance Operations Officer)
40th Engineer Battalion, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Oct 2010 – Apr 2011 Germany

Responsibilities include:

  • Future operations planning for a 600 person department that required coordinating with other deputy directors and their suborinates across the department’s staff.
  • Coordinating that resources were available when and where they were needed to support the department’s operations.
 
 
 
 
 
Department Deputy Director of Protection (Combined Arms Battalion Engineer)
2-12 Cavalry, 1st Calvalry Division
Apr 2008 – Apr 2009 Texas / Iraq

Responsibilities include:

  • Plan and implement protection measures during hazardous conditions for a 500 person department.
  • Advise the Department Director and Department Deputy Director of Operations on the employment of protective personnel and resources.
  • Conduct data collection and analysis on the impact of the operational environment on the Department’s Operations. Communicate these findings to the Department Director and Deputy Director of Operations.
 
 
 
 
 
Department Deputy Director (Combat Engineer Company Executive Officer)
3-67 Armor, 4th Infantry Division / 2-12 Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division
Feb 2007 – Mar 2008 Texas

Responsibilities include:

  • Second in charge of a 80 person deparment, organized into three teams.
  • Implementing and caring for the training, welfare, discipline, and professional development of employees in the division.
  • The Department’s Maintenance and Logistics Manager, responsible for providing logistics to support the department’s operations. This included supporting more than 29 heavy duty vehicles and associated operational equipment valued in excess of $20 million.
  • Serves as the subject matter expert on employing the division’s specific operational capabilities to upper management.
 
 
 
 
 
Small Team Manager (Combat Engineer Platoon Leader)
4th Infantry Division
Dec 2006 – Aug 2007 Texas

Responsibilities include:

  • Implementing and caring for the training, welfare, discipline, and operational employment of 30 individuals organized into three sections with three direct reporting section leaders and one personnel manager.
  • Managing the maintenance, accountability, operational readiness, and employment of six heavy duty vehicles and associated operational equipment valued at $10 million.

Accomplish­ments

Introduction to Machine Learning with TensorFlow
Udacity Nanodegree program
See certificate
Christian J. Lamberston Award for Operational Innovation
Awarded as a member of a team of data engineers and data scientists supporting USSOCOM operations in support of the Global War on Terror.
Wayne P. Hughes Junior Analyst of the Year
To recognize junior analysts who are already contributing to meaningful projects and significant studies making an impact in the field of national security operations research.
Junior Analyst of the Year
Project Management Professional Certification, Credential 1698341