Nathan.
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Hi, I'm

Nathan Riojas

Forward Deployed Engineer

I enjoy understanding how things work, then making them work a little better.

Dallas, TX

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Uyuni Salt FlatsBolivia · September 2024Field Notes

About

Portrait of Nathan Riojas

Engineering has never been about one field for me. I've worked on semiconductor robotics, biomechanics research, healthcare data platforms, aviation software, and AI applications, but the motivation has always been the same: understand how a system works, then improve it.

Today I build software as a Forward Deployed Engineer, partnering closely with customers to design applications and data systems that solve practical problems. I enjoy the intersection of software engineering, data, and product thinking, where technical decisions have an immediate impact on how people work.

Outside of work, you'll usually find me traveling, photographing places that make me stop for a moment, experimenting with a new side project, or learning about something I knew nothing about the week before. Curiosity has shaped most of my career, and it's still the thing that keeps me building.

Education

  • M.S. Computer Science

    Georgia Institute of Technology

    Specialization: Robotics & Computational Perception

  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering

    The University of Texas at Austin

    Specialization: Robotics

    Minor: Computer Science

Research & Publications

Projects

Experience

  1. Jun 2026 — Present

    Staff FDE | People Lead · Foxtrot Services

    Build production software on Palantir Foundry for enterprise clients — configurable applications, reusable platform components, AI, and integrations rather than one-off implementations.

    • Modernized a Part 135 aviation operator's flight management system, delivering scalable applications, ontology actions, and platform integrations on Foundry.
    • Built bidirectional integrations with the Avinode Marketplace via reusable writeback APIs and ontology actions, keeping Foundry applications and external aviation systems in sync.
    • Shipped an AI-powered crew fatigue and scheduling app in React and TypeScript on AI FDE and AIP, with custom fatigue scoring and Claude-driven crew recommendations.
    • Lead career development and performance management for 3 FDEs across client engagements to assess delivery performance and advise engineering leadership on leveling, strengths, and growth opportunities
    • Palantir Foundry
    • OSDK
    • TypeScript
    • React
    • AI FDE
    • AIP
    • Python
    • REST APIs

  2. Apr 2023 — Jun 2026

    Senior Data Engineer · Hopscotch Primary Care

    Platform engineering inside healthcare: architected interoperability solutions, reusable frameworks, and clinician-facing AI applications, and led strategic technical initiatives.

    • Architected healthcare platforms, AI-enabled applications, and interoperability solutions on Foundry, PySpark, TypeScript, React, and AWS supporting clinical operations across multiple products.
    • Served as technical lead for strategic initiatives — owning solution architecture, mentoring engineers, leading engineering reviews, and running technical due diligence on prospective vendors.
    • Established reusable frameworks, shared libraries, and ontology-driven data models that standardized development, strengthened governance, and accelerated delivery across teams.
    • Delivered production AI applications with AIP, Azure AI OCR, LLMs, semantic search, and RAG, turning structured and unstructured data into clinician-facing operational workflows.
    • Engineered enterprise interoperability across HIE, ADT, HL7, FHIR, claims, and third-party systems through APIs, webhooks, SFTP, and event-driven architectures.
    • Cut production compute utilization by 80% by replacing no-code implementations with scalable code.
    • Palantir Foundry
    • PySpark
    • TypeScript
    • React
    • AWS
    • SQL
    • HL7
    • FHIR
    • AIP

  3. Mar 2021 — Apr 2023

    Data Science Engineer · Nomi Health

    Bridged backend software and data engineering, building scalable cloud systems and reusable infrastructure for enterprise healthcare analytics.

    • Designed serverless AWS ingestion services and APIs on Lambda, DocumentDB, Snowflake, and S3 for enterprise healthcare analytics.
    • Engineered scalable ingestion pipelines over SFTP and cloud storage, and authored reusable Python libraries that standardized EDI integrations across internal applications.
    • Modernized data platforms by evolving Protocol Buffer schemas and automating regulatory codeset updates with Python and BeautifulSoup, improving consistency and reducing manual maintenance.
    • Python
    • AWS
    • Lambda
    • Snowflake
    • DocumentDB
    • S3
    • APIs

  4. Mar 2017 — Nov 2020

    Software Development Engineer in Test · Codeware

    Engineering validation and computational software quality — the start of my transition from mechanical engineering into software engineering.

    • Developed Python and JavaScript automation frameworks that validated proprietary ASME engineering software.
    • Designed automated verification tools that improved computational model accuracy while reducing manual validation.
    • Python
    • JavaScript
    • Automation
    • Engineering Software

Skills

Languages

  • Primary Language

    • Production ETL and healthcare data pipelines
    • Serverless AWS services and ingestion automation
    • AIP and LLM-backed application logic
    • Reusable internal libraries and integrations
    • Graduate ML and algorithms coursework

  • Data Engineering

    • Modeling clinical and claims data into analytics layers
    • Complex transformations with CTEs and window functions
    • Query tuning across Snowflake and Postgres
    • Ontology-backed datasets in Foundry

  • Application Development

    • Operational React applications on Palantir Foundry
    • Type-safe data access through the OSDK
    • AI and crew-scheduling interfaces
    • Forward-deployed internal tooling

  • Frontend Development

    • Interactive UI and browser applications
    • Automation test frameworks for engineering software
    • Prototyping ahead of TypeScript adoption

  • Engineering Research

    • Robotics control and mechatronics research
    • Signal processing and system simulation
    • Undergraduate and graduate engineering work

Data & Platform Engineering

  • Enterprise Platform

    • Ontology modeling, actions, and OSDK-backed apps
    • Pipeline Builder and code repositories for ETL
    • Operational applications for clinical and aviation teams
    • AIP for LLM-driven operational workflows
    • Data expectations and governance

  • Distributed Processing

    • Large-scale healthcare ETL and transformations
    • Batch pipelines over HL7, FHIR, and claims data
    • Data-quality and validation workflows

  • Systems Integration

    • Bidirectional Avinode Marketplace integration
    • Enterprise interoperability via webhooks and events
    • Internal services and third-party automation

  • Cloud Warehouse

    • Analytics layer for enterprise healthcare data
    • Warehouse design and performance tuning
    • Self-serve datasets for downstream teams

Cloud & Tooling

  • Cloud Infrastructure

    • Serverless ingestion on Lambda and API Gateway
    • DocumentDB, S3, and EventBridge pipelines
    • Infrastructure defined with AWS SAM
    • CloudWatch monitoring and alerting

  • Version Control

    • Feature-branch workflows and code review
    • Release management across teams
    • CI-backed collaboration

  • Development Environment

    • WSL and bash-based development
    • CLI tooling and shell automation
    • Server and deployment workflows

AI & Data Science

  • AI Applications

    • Crew recommendations in a fatigue-scoring app
    • Tool-calling and agent workflows
    • Prompt engineering for operational automation
    • RAG and semantic search over clinical data

  • Machine Learning

    • Classification and regression modeling
    • Feature engineering and model evaluation
    • Applied coursework and prototyping

  • Data Analysis

    • Exploration and cleaning of messy healthcare data
    • Feature engineering for modeling
    • Ad hoc analytics and reporting

  • Scientific Computing

    • Vectorized numerical computing
    • Matrix operations for ML and algorithms

  • Natural Language Processing Coursework

    • Neural networks and NLP projects
    • Graduate NLP coursework

Engineering

  • Engineering Research

    • Autonomous systems and mechatronics
    • Rehabilitation robotics research
    • Computational perception

  • Precision Engineering

    • Automated wafer-loading system (published)
    • Submicron precision positioning
    • Machine design for nanomanufacturing

  • Medical Research

    • Biaxial tissue-testing systems (published)
    • Mitral valve mechanics instrumentation
    • Medical device prototyping

  • Mechanical Design

    • SolidWorks modeling and assemblies
    • Prototype development for research builds

Working directly with people & small businesses

I also build for individuals and small businesses.

I help people create a stronger presence online — from polished personal and small-business websites to custom web applications.

Explore website services

Contact

Interested in working together or just want to start a conversation? Drop a note below and it’ll go straight to my inbox.

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