Ethan Kunz — Senior Engineer | Engineering Leadership

Professional Summary

Hands-on technical leader with an MBA (4.0 GPA), a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (Cum Laude, ABET), an Active DOE Security Clearance, and a decade of high-stakes engineering experience — from the extreme industrial environments of steel manufacturing to directing multi-million dollar programs at Honeywell FM&T / KCNSC — an engineering, manufacturing, and operational national asset safeguarding the nation through proliferation deterrence, supply chain assurance, and responsiveness to global threats in support of the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear deterrent. I lead from the front as a servant leader: I practice what I preach, tear down barriers for my team, hold people accountable, and give them the tools I didn't have. I've managed budgets, staffing plans, and resource forecasts across programs worth many millions of dollars, cross-trained 7 teammates for critical roles, and mentored junior engineers through high-pressure QRC deliveries. U.S. Citizen with 7+ years of continuous engineering experience who thrives on building team capability, improving quality, flow-time, and productivity, and driving mission objectives to completion.

Core Competencies

Technical Team Management

Staff Development & Accountability
Staffing Plans & Resource Forecasting
Interviewing, Hiring & Training
Performance Evaluation & Coaching

People Strategy & Communication

Employee Development & Retention
Mentorship & Cross-Training Programs
Internal & External Teamwork Facilitation
Sr. Leadership Liaison & Information Flow

Strategic & Financial Oversight

Budget Proposals & Financial Management
Equipment & Resource Requirements
Business Process Improvement & Lean Six Sigma
Quality Metrics & Total Quality Assurance

Mission Execution & Innovation

Vision & Strategy for Mission Objectives
Full Program Lifecycle Management
Improving Quality, Flowtime & Productivity
Operational Surety & Risk Mitigation

Professional Experience

Honeywell FM&T / KCNSCKansas City, MO

Senior Electrical Engineer May 2024 – Present

Electrical Engineer III May 2022 – May 2024

Electrical Engineer II May 2020 – May 2022

Serves as a primary technical and project leader for Special Projects and Warfighter Support, organizing, coordinating, and managing the execution of multi-million dollar pulse power initiatives alongside PM, supporting critical national security mission objectives.
Team Leadership & Staff Development:
Technical lead for a significant six-figure bi-annual training program, managing both direct and matrixed personnel — coordinating 50+ internal participants and up to 10 executive-level sponsors per year through planning, assigning, and directing work.
Developed technical talent by cross-training 7 teammates for critical program roles — designing curriculum, justifying budget allocations to sponsors, and holding individuals accountable to committed objectives.
Mentored multiple junior engineers by integrating them directly into high-stakes projects — giving them real responsibility, not busy work — including unit testing for a major QRC delivery.
Consistently engages across science and engineering disciplines, cross-pollinating ideas that seed new R&D concepts and bring new work to the team and visibility to DoD and NNSA.
Budget, Resource & Programmatic Management:
Orchestrated many millions of dollars in project execution across the pulse power portfolio — personally developing or supporting staffing plans, budget proposals, and resource forecasts for each effort.
As a full cost recovery operation, developed a keen understanding of how long tasks actually take and how difficult they are in real execution — understanding the local team, people's strengths, and the customer's true needs. Acutely aware of how to manage scope uniquely within specific use cases, proactively re-baselining resource forecasts when actuals diverge from plan to ensure accurate financial reporting and sustained sponsor confidence.
Served as the technical or sub-component lead on numerous key projects (including an NNSA program modernization effort), driving millions in successful on-time deliveries and correcting resource forecasts when actuals diverged from plan.
Owned multiple projects end-to-end — from initial concept through full CDR to final product delivery — because I believe in accountability through the entire lifecycle, not just the design phase.
Delivered a significant TTN->HSH six-figure project (1,000+ personal hours), building sponsor confidence and directly securing a follow-on multi-million dollar QRC.
Quality, Process Improvement & Innovation:
Spearheaded design and testing modernization for three legacy NNSA components, navigating nine distinct milestones past Final Design Review (FDR) and managing a complete design hand-off with full technical data packages, and followed on to help the team 5 years later.
Architected a security-compliant local network setup for a CMM room, saving thousands of labor hours on efforts valued at over $1M by streamlining data transfer workflows that everyone else had accepted as "the way it is."
Proactively seized control of a strategic six-figure R&D project as electrical lead, driving a major collaboration with Micro-Electronics that produced novel designs and three alternate functional prototypes beyond the original scope.
Stepped in to rescue a Special Projects 3 program by resolving critical software defects, filling a personnel gap, saving weeks of troubleshooting, and keeping a rapid delivery project on schedule.
Executed a grueling multi-month QRC (11-hour days) to manufacture, test, and deliver 30 full-scale systems; in a separate QRC, personally logged nearly 200 hours in under two weeks conducting critical testing that saved 50% of the product deliverable with a partner.
Led R&D across 5 projects, applying DFSS Green Belt methodology — resulting in 2 patent disclosures in Li-Fi technology and successive work that led to a major expansion in Li-Fi R&D, plus 1 patent disclosure in Software Firesets, with 1 personal patent released by Honeywell and currently in process for mmWave radar technology.

Nucor CorporationLongview, TX & Blytheville, AR

Electrical Projects Lead Dec 2019 – Apr 2020

Directed electrical modernization projects across three departments (200 personnel) at a massive 100,000 ton/year plate steel facility — coordinating staffing, equipment requirements, and budget proposals for each initiative.
Key Projects: Integration of a new steel Quench process, full redesign of the power feed system for 9 heavy industrial furnaces, and implementation of a modern ABB drive system — improving quality, productivity, and operational surety.

Industrial Electrical Technician May 2018 – Dec 2019

Worked grueling 12-hour rotating shifts as the sole electrical technician responsible for the rolling mill and finishing departments, maintaining uptime in extreme environmental conditions. This was on top of performing the role of Projects Lead in between lead technical production work.

Co-op/Internship May 2015-Dec 2015; May 2016-Sep 2016

Global Rescue SystemsColumbia, MO

Electrical Design Engineer Aug 2017 – Mar 2018

Non-profit consultant designing ruggedized life-saving devices for first responders and the Coast Guard.

Leadership & Mentorship

Core Philosophy: A "servant leader" who leads by example. I see myself as the standard for the team — I practice what I preach, maintain a higher level of integrity due to my position, and focus on helping my people accomplish their goals by staying out of their way and tearing down barriers. Inspired by exceptional military commanders and family values of self-sufficiency, integrity is the paramount value.

Direct Supervision & Staff Development

Led a platoon of 22 soldiers as 1st Platoon Sergeant; managed a section of 8 technicians as NCOIC — directly responsible for planning, assigning, directing work, and evaluating performance.
Developed technical talent by cross-training 7 teammates for critical program roles — designing curriculum, budgeting training costs, and justifying allocations to sponsors.
Integrated a new Software Engineer II into unit testing on a major QRC; mentored multiple Engineer I teammates across research and rapid projects.
Actively invests in each person's growth — providing them with the tools I didn't have and integrating them into real work, not simulations.
Acts as a judge and mentor for FIRST Robotics teams.
Continuously identifies and pulls in new or external engineers to support constrained missions — matches individuals with the right programs and mentors to ensure growth and skill absorption at a pace they're comfortable with, and identifies alternate resources in advance to fill anticipated gaps in rapid prototype work.

Team Dynamics & Organizational Influence

Works to "level load" team responsibilities, taking direct ownership of tasks to reduce cost and balance workloads across the unit.
Consistently "touches base" with diverse groups across science and engineering — lots of touch points, gathering information in advance, building mental structure before meetings to enable fact-based conversations.
This cross-pollination of ideas (e.g., material science, micro-electronics) directly seeds new concepts for rapid prototyping and brings new work to the team.
Bridges the gap between senior leadership and the working level — translating organizational priorities into clear direction while escalating ground-truth issues upward.
Approaches every team member on merit alone — personal differences in background and belief are separate from the technical work. Values diverse technical perspectives because there is no bias in technical evolution, only the right path forward. Meets people where they are and engages comfortably on any topic.

Work Style & Environment

Pace & Resilience

Prefers to stay busy and balance a few things at a time — three active projects is the sweet spot where I do my best work.
Accustomed to grueling, non-stop work schedules (multi-month QRCs working 11-hour days, 200 testing hours in under two weeks) and delivering under extreme pressure.
Forged in environments like Nucor — 16+ hour days in extreme heat, dust, and danger — and Army deployments. These experiences built the resilience I bring to every leadership challenge.

What I Bring to a Management Role

A hands-on technical leader with a bias for action who has been in the trenches — board-level design, firmware programming, system integration, final delivery. I understand what I'm asking my team to do because I've done it.
The structure matters first, then creativity falls within that framework. I create requirements, build mental models, and enable fact-based conversations about performance and direction.
Maintains a professional-grade home laboratory ($10K+ investment) for continuous learning and prototyping — embedded systems, sensor fusion, PCB design, AI/ML experimentation, and full-stack hardware/firmware/software development.
Deploys and manages local AI infrastructure (Ollama, Open WebUI, LM Studio, CUDA-accelerated inference) and builds n8n automation workflows integrating multiple LLMs to accelerate engineering productivity.
Experienced with agentic AI workflows, AI-integrated CLI/IDE tooling, embedded AI in browser (Perplexity), edge AI platforms (ST MEMS Studio — Random Forest, Neural Networks), and Linux-based AI development environments.
Manages work execution through ADAMs, JIRA, risk matrices, requirements documents and traceability mapping, and RAILs — ensuring structured oversight from concept through delivery.
Believes metrics serve the team, not the other way around — uses data to identify obstacles and allocate resources, not to assign blame. Accountability means giving people what they need to succeed, then holding them to the standard.

Military Service

US Army ReservesKansas City, MO & Honduras

Biomedical Equipment Technician (E5) May 2011 – Jun 2021

Served 10 years (including active duty) in critical leadership roles:
1st Platoon Sergeant (2020 – 2021): Led and oversaw a platoon of 22 soldiers.
NCOIC of Biomedical Section (Feb 2018 – Jun 2021): Managed a section of 8 technicians.
Deployment Impact: Completed a 9-month deployment to Honduras supporting JTF-B. Served as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the U.S. Embassy and drafted CAD layouts for a hospital expansion project.
Coordinated missions, funding, scheduling, training, and personnel operations for the 325th Combat Hospital.

Education

Master of Business AdministrationGPA: 4.0/4.0

LeTourneau University | Longview, TX

Bachelor of Science, Electrical EngineeringCum Laude

Missouri University of Science and Technology | Rolla, MO

Biomedical Technician Certification (BMET)>95%

Medical Education and Training Campus, CCAF | Fort Sam Houston, TX

Licenses & Certifications

Active (Issuer: United States Federal Government, Renewed: Jun 2025, Expires: 2030)
Bio-medical Equipment Technician (Issuer: METC, Issued: Aug 2012, Credential ID: 4B-F2/198-68A10)
U.S. Customs Border Clearance Agent (Issuer: United States Department of War, Issued: Feb 2017)
Knowledge Management (Issuer: SOUTHCOM Certified)
Forklift and Aerial Manlift Operator (Issuer: Southland Safety, LLC., Issued: Jun 2018)
Confined and Open Water Diving (Issuer: PADI, Issued: Feb 2017)
Military Drivers License (Humvee, M35) (Issuer: US Army, Issued: Jan 2019)
Range Safety Officer (RSO) (Issuer: A CO Det. 1 US ARMY 325th CSH, Issued: Jan 2019)
DFSS Green Belt Lean Six Sigma (Issuer: KCNSC, Issued: 2020)

Technical Expertise (Snapshot)

Technical Management

Staff Development, Hiring & Training

Budgeting, Staffing & Resource Forecasting

Quality & Data Analytics

Statistical Process Control & Quality Metrics

Data Visualization (Python, VBA, SQL)

Engineering Disciplines

Pulsed Power & High-Voltage Systems

Embedded Systems (ESP/STM/MSP)

Program & Project Tools

PM Methodologies (JIRA, MS Project)

Hardware Design (Altium, KiCad, LTSpice)

Comprehensive Skills & Expertise

Management & Leadership

Direct Supervision & Staff Development
Complex Program & Project Management
Staffing Plans & Resource Forecasting
Technical Writing, Training & Curriculum Development

Data Analytics & Quality

Statistical Modeling & Process Control
Data Visualization (Python, SQL, VBA)
Business Metrics & Quality Assurance
MS SQL Server, T-SQL, MySQL

Software & Programming

C++, C#, Python, VBA
Web/DB: HTML/JS/CSS, ASP.NET Web API
DevOps/IT: MS Office, Cisco Tech, Docker

Hardware Design & Analysis (EDA)

Altium, KiCad, LTSpice
Logic 2.4, Mentor Graphics
Visual Studio, Keil uVision5, STM32Cube

AI, Models & Platforms

Local AI Infrastructure: Ollama, Open WebUI, LM Studio, CUDA-accelerated inference
AI Automation: Agentic AI workflows, n8n pipelines with LLM integration, Docker containerized deployment
LLMs: Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku), DeepSeek, Gemini Pro, Grok, ChatGPT, Perplexity
Edge AI: ST MEMS Studio, Random Forest, Neural Networks, on-device inference & classification
AI-Integrated Dev: AI CLI/IDE integrations, embedded AI in browser, Linux AI development environments
Skills: Prompt engineering, agentic AI design, signal processing with ML, SVG-based ML visualization

Embedded Systems & MCUs

ESP32, STM32, MSP TI
RP2040, Atmega / Attiny
Teensy 4.1, Beaglebone Black

Industrial Controls

Wonderware, Proficy Machine Edition
FactoryTalk, Portal S7 Siemens
Controllogix 5000, SLC500

Specialized Domains

Safety Critical Systems
Pulse Power & High-Voltage
Li-Fi Technology
Biomedical Electronics
Pneumatics & Hydraulic Systems
Fiber Optics

Personal AI & R&D Projects

EchoFlux — mmWave Gesture Controller

Developing a desk-mounted, contactless gesture controller using TI AWR6843AOPEVM mmWave radar and RP2350 MCU.
Embedded C firmware with real-time signal processing and AI-driven gesture classification.
Tech: mmWave Radar, Embedded C, Sensor Fusion, RP2350

Financial Hub Automation

Python-based AI system to automate the processing and intelligent visualization of financial documents.
LLM-powered extraction and analysis pipeline for document understanding.
Tech: Python, LLM Integration, Data Visualization

Human Presence Detector

Built an IoT detection system utilizing DFRobot C4001 mmWave sensor and Raspberry Pi Pico.
Smart home automation with AI-enhanced occupancy detection.
Tech: IoT, mmWave, Raspberry Pi Pico

Local AI Infrastructure

Deployed containerized LLM stack (Ollama, Open WebUI, LM Studio) with CUDA acceleration.
Built n8n automation workflows integrating multiple AI models for engineering productivity.
Tech: Docker, CUDA, n8n, LLM, Prompt Engineering

Honors & Awards

Civilian Honors

5 BRAVO Awards - Honeywell FM&T
3 Patent Submission Recognitions - Honeywell FM&T
1 Patent Submission Radar Tech - Personally Owned

Military Honors

Certificate of Appreciation (Aug 2020) Issued by Pentagon, DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. For enhancing patient experiences during assistance in August 2020.
Army Achievement Medal (Jul 2017) Issued for service as a Medical Maintenance NCO in Honduras. Citation Highlights: Acted as SME for the U.S. Embassy; Demonstrated versatility by drafting a CAD-based survey layout for a potential new hospital; Optimized the maintenance section by acquiring over 100 technical manuals.
The Army Commendation Medal & Brigade Coin (Jun 2014) Issued for actions during "Operation Appalachia Care." Citation Highlights: Redesigned duct ports, saving tens of thousands of dollars; Designed an optical phoropter counterbalance, increasing patient flow; Contributed to a record-breaking 8,000+ patients served.
SGM Coin (Jun 2016) Awarded for scoring expert marksmanship proficiency.
The Army Achievement Medal (Aug 2012) For meritorious achievement in being selected as the Distinguished Honor Graduate for the Biomedical Equipment Specialist Course.
Certificate of Achievement (Jul 2012) For scoring an exceptionally high score (296/300) on the Army Physical Fitness Test.

Volunteer & Community Involvement

FIRST in Missouri

Judge Oct 2022 – Present

Acted as a judge for FIRST Robotics Competitions, judging teams on long-term projects and robotics design. Assisted in deciding which teams advanced to regionals and assigned awards.

Asociación Hogar NazarethHonduras

Volunteer Sep 2016 – Aug 2017

Performed work during military deployment free time. Purchased and installed washing equipment, showers, and other hardware fixes.
Set up a computer and internet network to enhance schooling for the girls' home.
Provided security recommendations (e.g., higher walls, electric fencing) after a security incident.

Combined Federal Campaign (CFC)

CFC Manager Nov 2016 – Aug 2017

Promoted, tracked, managed, and sponsored events and donations for the campaign.

Operation Appalachia Care

Biomedical Technician May 2014 – Jun 2014

Provided medical aid to low-income areas of the Appalachians as part of a joint state and federal cooperative.

Teen Challenge NY & Dream Center LA

Child & Homeless Outreach 2009 – 2010

Assisted at-risk children and homeless populations, including gang violence and prostitution outreach.