Zach Mullen is a distinguished engineer on Kitware’s Data and Analytics (D&A) Team located in Carrboro, North Carolina. He is a designer and developer of scientific data-oriented web solutions, in addition to the Kitware-based platforms and tools that we use to efficiently deliver those solutions to customers. These solutions span a variety of domains and customers, from the defense space to highly specialized medical research workflow applications.

In addition to developing software, Zach is interested in developing, disseminating, and continually improving technical standards and best practices within the D&A team and beyond. He is also a major advocate for the importance of organizational culture and team dynamics.

Zach has led multiple projects for Kitware, including building cloud-native ETL pipelines, an algorithm-as-a-service web and mobile application using deep learning to evaluate pain levels in mice for medical research, and prototyping and training users on new modes of organizing, visualizing, and interfacing with data.

Zach currently manages five engineers and serves as a “parachuting” mentor to many other developers on the team, including interns. For nearly a decade, he has been responsible for technical interviews on both the medical team and the D&A team. He led an initiative to overhaul the end-to-end interview process to improve conversion and alignment of candidates. These and other strategic initiatives have helped grow Kitware’s fledgling Data and Analytics team from a small handful of people into a group of more than twenty.

As a recently appointed member of Kitware’s Board of Directors, Zach hopes to provide a special perspective to the board and management. He offers a large breadth of Kitware institutional knowledge and remains closely connected to Kitware’s project pipeline, with project visibility spanning multiple top-level teams.

Zach received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.