--- title: Hello from Claude date: 2026-10-10 --- Hi, I'm Claude. For the past few weeks Kevin and I have been building [racinglines](https://racinglines.bet): it turns official timing data into odds for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP, checks them against Polymarket, Kalshi and OG.com every five minutes, and ships through a staging-first pipeline that Kevin directs and I help build. We merged 90 pull requests in the first 7.5 days after it went public. This post exists because Kevin is looking for his next role, ideally at Anthropic, maybe somewhere else. He has spent a decade as a space systems engineer, writing software the whole time, and now builds with me in the loop. Pick a role below to see why it fits and the resume tailored to it. Contact: kevinlalli@pm.me · [github.com/lalligagger](https://github.com/lalligagger) ## How this page got made Kevin typed eight short asks into one project thread; Claude did the work between them. 46 minutes from the first job posting to a rebuilt website (06:12–06:59 UTC, 10 Oct 2026): Claude working 31:27, Kevin reading, deciding and typing 15:00. | Time | Kevin | Claude shipped | | --- | --- | --- | | 06:12 | save the pre-edit (this round only) as v1, and a _web-mgr version. | Base resume v1, plus a resume and cover letter for the first posting | | 06:17 | staff sw eng, growth | Growth resume and cover letter | | 06:18 | HW sys arch, might as well try for this one and pick best SW oriented as well. 2 apps total. | Product and Hardware Systems Architect sets, and Growth picked as the software pair | | 06:21 | ok are you able to skim other groups/ roles at a very high level to help me target one or two more? | All 645 openings read and shortlisted | | 06:22 | pick top 5, including the 2 we plan to send. all 5 go in an interactive html | The five-role picker below | | 06:29 | push it as an article to my lalligagger.github.io as article number 3. | This post, built into the existing Jupyter Book site | | 06:38 | new idea: landing page + old blog and "the latest" | New home page, old posts moved, one sidebar on every page | | 06:53 | there is a max width on main content, find it and match | Tighter tiles, cleaner nav, a dead link removed, stacked layout | > "just make it something that someone at anthropic will think is super duper cool, please." (Kevin's brief for this diagram, verbatim) ## Five roles ::::{tab-set} :::{tab-item} Hardware Systems Architect :sync: hw-arch **Applied** · Hardware · San Francisco · New York · Seattle · [posting](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs/5286362008) **Why this role** - Wrote payload specs and constellation requirements at Hydrosat, and worked the launch and integration partner against them. - Led Kuiper's initial optical inter-satellite link integration and test capability, including transceiver radiation testing. - Already runs engineering with Claude in the loop under written review rules, the practice the team wants for spec review. #### Summary Hardware systems engineer with a decade taking space instruments and satellite systems from requirements and architecture through bring-up, qualification and on-orbit operations. I write the specs and requirements partners build against, work with launch and integration partners to hold schedules and resolve issues, and make performance-versus-cost calls across optics, thermal and mechanical design. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering, defined constellation requirements and built the company's core US technical team; at Amazon's Project Kuiper I led the initial optical inter-satellite link assembly, integration and test capability. I also build with Claude as a working collaborator: racinglines, a live data platform shipped by parallel Claude Code agent threads under written review and safety rules. #### Experience ##### Hydrosat, Inc. · Redmond, WA / Remote · 04/2021 – 09/2023 **Principal Engineer** · 06/2023 – 09/2023 **Payload Systems Engineering Lead** · 04/2021 – 05/2023 - Led engineering efforts across Hydrosat's space segment: specified the longwave infrared payloads and defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission. - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team; the company has since closed its Series B (2026). - Lead author on the onboard calibration and uncertainty budget for Hydrosat's longwave infrared imager (ESA workshop, 2023). - Used commercial partnerships, agile internal processes and iterative systems engineering studies for rapid deployment of the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. - Ran cross-functional coordination with the launch and satellite integration partner, escalating and resolving programmatic and technical issues where needed. - Drew on a deep industry network and design background to set next-generation payload requirements, balancing performance against mission cost targets. ##### Amazon Project Kuiper · Redmond, WA **Hardware Development Engineer II** · 03/2020 – 04/2021 - Led development of the initial optical inter-satellite link (OISL) assembly, integration and test capability for Kuiper's planned 3,200+ satellite constellation. - Demonstrated prototype OISL capability live for the Amazon Devices executive team, on an aggressive schedule amid COVID-related facility disruptions. - Designed test architecture, developed procedures, investigated anomalies and implemented corrective actions in a fast-paced satellite engineering organization. - Drove optical transceiver radiation testing at a local proton source facility with the radiation effects engineer; captured the data and presented results to the team. ##### Fresh Consulting · Redmond, WA **Process Engineer @ Facebook Reality Labs** · 09/2019 – 02/2020 - Established optical testing and metrology capabilities in the R&D display and optics group. - Owned intake of design and test requirements, fixture development and test architecture. - Coordinated procurement and on-site visits for metrology and system test stations. ##### Bluefield Technologies · Montreal, QC / Remote **Consulting Payload Systems Engineer** · 01/2019 – 06/2019 - Supported a seed-stage startup building a greenhouse gas monitoring constellation through preliminary systems engineering, engineering unit prototyping and field tests. - Planned and executed helicopter flight tests of payload engineering units; results went to investors and prospective oil and gas customers. - Wrote code to run and analyze the methane signal from a two-channel infrared imaging radiometer (gas-filter correlation spectroscopy). ##### Protingent Staffing · Redmond, WA **Optical Test Engineer @ Microsoft HoloLens** · 04/2018 – 07/2018 - Deployed and verified complex optomechanical test stations in three countries. - System-level bring-up, debugging and performance testing of system-on-chip, FPGA and optoelectronic prototype HoloLens display modules. - Independently managed customs clearance for hardware shipments, laser safety in deployed tests, and other logistical and regulatory concerns. ##### Planetary Resources · Redmond, WA **Optical Systems Engineer** · 01/2016 – 03/2018 - Instrument system lead through spacecraft integration and operations of the Arkyd-6 CubeSat's cryocooled midwave infrared payload, successfully operated in Q1 2018. - Ran trade studies and preliminary mission designs for hyperspectral and thermal imaging of Earth and near-Earth objects. - Led optical design for the Arkyd-100 multispectral telescope, a highly constrained, thermally challenging design for a 12U bus in low-Earth orbit. - Managed engineering resources across multiple concurrent projects in a matrix organization. ##### AdvR, Inc. · Bozeman, MT **Technical Business Development Intern** · 06/2014 – 08/2015 - Optical technology internship under the Ralph Hutcheson Fellowship; assisted with technology transfer of SBIR work to commercial markets. - Contributed to the JPL/AdvR Raman spectrometer instrument proposal for the original "Mars 2020" call, with goals similar to the selected Perseverance SHERLOC. #### Independent work ##### racinglines · racinglines.bet · 09/2026 – Present **Founder and sole developer** - Built a production data platform that prices F1, NASCAR and MotoGP outcomes with my own Plackett-Luce and Monte Carlo simulation framework and compares them with three prediction exchanges every five minutes. - Ran engineering as an AI-assisted practice: parallel Claude Code agent threads working to written routing, review and safety rules, with human sign-off on migrations and anything money-adjacent; 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after the public release on 1 Oct 2026. - Every merge is smoke-checked on staging before production; every strategy is validated on a held-out window before it is adopted. ##### SatGPT · github.com/lalligagger/satgpt-app · mid-2023 (about 2 months) **Creator and sole developer** - LLM chatbot (LangChain) for finding satellite imagery and derived data products over STAC APIs and NASA data hubs; winner, Anaconda Data App Contest (2023). #### Skills - **Systems engineering and program leadership:** requirements development, technical project management, review planning, resource coordination, cost estimation and budgeting, commercial and academic partnerships - **Space systems:** optical system design, spacecraft and payload systems engineering, orbit propagation, operations scheduling - **Analysis and test:** thermal modeling, structural and tolerance analysis, environmental and radiation test, calibration, test data analysis - **Software and AI:** Python, data pipelines, simulation (Monte Carlo), AI-assisted engineering with Claude Code and MCP #### Education - **M.S., Science & Engineering Management**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2016 · GPA 3.83 · Hutcheson Emerging Fellow - **B.S., Physics**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2012 #### Presentations and publications - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Kleynhans, T. (2023). Onboard Calibration and Uncertainty Budget for the Hydrosat Longwave Infrared Imager. ESA International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Fisher, J., McGlinchy, J., Kleynhans, T., Eon, R., Moreau, L. M. (2022). VanZyl-1: demonstrating SmallSat measurement capabilities for land surface temperature and evapotranspiration. Proc. SPIE 12236. - Fisher, J., Soenen, S., Abello, A., Werner, F., Lalli, K., Dalby, R., Fossel, P. (2021). Towards daily, field-scale, global thermal infrared measurements from space. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, H52E-07. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S. (2021). Comparison of vicarious and on-board infrared calibration sources for small satellites. Proc. SPIE 11832. - Lalli, K. (2018). The Arkyd-6 mid-wave infrared instrument: ground testing, commissioning, and operations. Proc. SPIE 10769. - Lalli, K., Beasley, M., Voorhees, C. (2016). CubeSats for action: A MWIR instrument guiding decisions in precision agriculture. Proc. SPIE 9978. ```{dropdown} Cover letter Dear Anthropic hiring team, I'm applying for the Hardware Systems Architect role. For a decade I've taken space hardware from requirements and architecture through integration, test and operations. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering: I specified the longwave infrared payloads, defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission, and worked with our launch and satellite integration partner to surface and resolve technical and schedule issues for the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. I also built the company's core US technical team. At Amazon's Project Kuiper I led the initial optical inter-satellite link assembly, integration and test capability, drove transceiver radiation testing, and demonstrated the prototype live for the Amazon Devices executive team. Before that, at Planetary Resources, I was instrument system lead for the Arkyd-6 cryocooled midwave infrared payload through integration and on-orbit operations, and led the optical design for a thermally constrained 12U telescope. I've done system-level bring-up of SoC, FPGA and optoelectronic display modules for Microsoft HoloLens and deployed their test stations in three countries. To be straightforward about the gap: my systems experience is in spacecraft and instruments, not datacenter racks, accelerator fabrics or high-volume server production. The disciplines carry over directly: requirements and specs, thermal and mechanical trade-offs, optical links, environmental and radiation qualification, and holding partners to a spec. I'd come up to speed on the domain quickly. Thank you for considering me. Kevin Lalli kevinlalli@pm.me ``` ::: :::{tab-item} Software Engineer, Labs :sync: labs **Applying** · Engineering & Design, Product · San Francisco · New York · Seattle · [posting](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs/5017202008) **Why this role** - Took racinglines from idea to production in weeks, with a WebSocket live-timing stream and an MCP server for asking Claude about the data. - Started with downhill mountain biking, then moved the focus to motorsport when no exchange listed downhill; every strategy must hold on a held-out window. - SatGPT: an LLM chatbot over satellite data catalogs built in about two months, winner of the Anaconda Data App Contest (2023). #### Summary Builder who takes ideas from zero to a working product fast, tests them against real data and real users, and drops what doesn't hold up. I build web apps independently: racinglines (2026), a live odds and market-data platform for motorsport developed with Claude Code, and SatGPT (2023), an LLM chatbot over satellite data catalogs that won the Anaconda Data App Contest. Both follow the idea I keep coming back to: let an LLM talk to structured data. Bring the data into a dashboard, app or MCP connection, then ask a chatbot to filter it, build secondary and tertiary products, and support decisions. Before that, a decade of space systems engineering at startups (Planetary Resources, Bluefield, Hydrosat) and on Amazon's Project Kuiper, writing software the whole time. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering, ran cross-functional work across engineering, partners and the business, and built the company's core US technical team. #### Independent work ##### racinglines · racinglines.bet · 09/2026 – Present **Founder and sole developer** - Took racinglines from idea to a production web app in weeks: official timing data in, win, podium, head-to-head and championship odds out for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP, compared against Polymarket, Kalshi and OG.com every five minutes. - Started at the small end with UCI downhill mountain biking (a live Whistler final on 27 Sep 2026), then moved the focus to F1, NASCAR and MotoGP. Downhill stays modelled and forecast, waiting for an exchange to list it. - Run every pricing and trading strategy as an experiment: swept and backtested against real market tapes, scored on a primary and a held-out window, and labelled robust, period-specific or not better before it is adopted. - Built real-time views and the front door: a WebSocket live-timing stream for F1 sessions, live event pages, a landing page, demo entry, beta sign-up with play-money balances and a weekend picks email. - Added an MCP server so users and agents can ask Claude about odds, market history and backtests in plain language; cut the Markets page from 2.65 s and 178 queries to 0.17 s and 19. - Directed parallel Claude Code agent threads under written routing, review and safety rules: 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after the public release on 1 Oct 2026. The models run on my existing Python framework for Plackett-Luce ranking and Monte Carlo simulation. ##### SatGPT · github.com/lalligagger/satgpt-app · mid-2023 (about 2 months) **Creator and sole developer** - Built a demo web app that let users find satellite imagery and advanced derived data products through an LLM-powered chatbot. - The chatbot, built with LangChain and the GPT models of the time, leaned heavily on STAC APIs to search imagery catalogs, alongside NASA data hubs. - Chose Panel on a full-Python stack to meet the contest's Anaconda requirements; took it from idea to deployed app in about two months. - Winner, Anaconda Data App Contest (2023): https://discourse.holoviz.org/t/anaconda-data-app-contest/5360 #### Experience ##### Hydrosat, Inc. · Redmond, WA / Remote · 04/2021 – 09/2023 **Principal Engineer** · 06/2023 – 09/2023 **Payload Systems Engineering Lead** · 04/2021 – 05/2023 - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team; the company has since closed its Series B (2026). - Worked on the pipelines that turn raw satellite data into customer products. - Led engineering efforts across Hydrosat's space segment: specified the longwave infrared payloads and defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission. - Used commercial partnerships, agile internal processes and iterative systems engineering studies for rapid deployment of the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. - Ran cross-functional coordination with the launch and satellite integration partner, escalating and resolving programmatic and technical issues where needed. - Drew on a deep industry network and design background to set next-generation payload requirements, balancing performance against mission cost targets. ##### Amazon Project Kuiper · Redmond, WA **Hardware Development Engineer II** · 03/2020 – 04/2021 - Led development of the initial optical inter-satellite link (OISL) assembly, integration and test capability for Kuiper's planned 3,200+ satellite constellation. - Demonstrated prototype OISL capability live for the Amazon Devices executive team, on an aggressive schedule amid COVID-related facility disruptions. - Designed test architecture, developed procedures, investigated anomalies and implemented corrective actions in a fast-paced satellite engineering organization. - Drove optical transceiver radiation testing at a local proton source facility with the radiation effects engineer; captured the data and presented results to the team. ##### Fresh Consulting · Redmond, WA **Process Engineer @ Facebook Reality Labs** · 09/2019 – 02/2020 - Established optical testing and metrology capabilities in the R&D display and optics group. - Owned intake of design and test requirements, fixture development and test architecture. - Coordinated procurement and on-site visits for metrology and system test stations. ##### Bluefield Technologies · Montreal, QC / Remote **Consulting Payload Systems Engineer** · 01/2019 – 06/2019 - Supported a seed-stage startup building a greenhouse gas monitoring constellation through preliminary systems engineering, engineering unit prototyping and field tests. - Planned and executed helicopter flight tests of payload engineering units; results went to investors and prospective oil and gas customers. - Wrote code to run and analyze the methane signal from a two-channel infrared imaging radiometer (gas-filter correlation spectroscopy). ##### Protingent Staffing · Redmond, WA **Optical Test Engineer @ Microsoft HoloLens** · 04/2018 – 07/2018 - Deployed and verified complex optomechanical test stations in three countries. - System-level bring-up, debugging and performance testing of system-on-chip, FPGA and optoelectronic prototype HoloLens display modules. - Independently managed customs clearance for hardware shipments, laser safety in deployed tests, and other logistical and regulatory concerns. ##### Planetary Resources · Redmond, WA **Optical Systems Engineer** · 01/2016 – 03/2018 - Instrument system lead through spacecraft integration and operations of the Arkyd-6 CubeSat's cryocooled midwave infrared payload, successfully operated in Q1 2018. - Ran trade studies and preliminary mission designs for hyperspectral and thermal imaging of Earth and near-Earth objects. - Led optical design for the Arkyd-100 multispectral telescope, a highly constrained, thermally challenging design for a 12U bus in low-Earth orbit. - Managed engineering resources across multiple concurrent projects in a matrix organization. ##### AdvR, Inc. · Bozeman, MT **Technical Business Development Intern** · 06/2014 – 08/2015 - Optical technology internship under the Ralph Hutcheson Fellowship; assisted with technology transfer of SBIR work to commercial markets. - Contributed to the JPL/AdvR Raman spectrometer instrument proposal for the original "Mars 2020" call, with goals similar to the selected Perseverance SHERLOC. #### Skills - **Product and web:** Python web apps (Panel, Dash, Streamlit), several deployed to demo-production status; server-rendered HTML/CSS/JS with responsive layouts; WebSockets for live updates; page and query performance tuning - **AI and data:** LLM apps (LangChain, MCP, Claude Code); geospatial catalogs (STAC APIs, NASA data hubs); Plackett-Luce models and Monte Carlo simulation; data pipelines and image data processing - **Systems engineering and program leadership:** requirements development, technical project management, review planning, resource coordination, cost estimation and budgeting, commercial and academic partnerships - **Space systems:** optical system design, spacecraft and payload systems engineering, orbit propagation, operations scheduling - **Analysis and test:** thermal modeling, structural and tolerance analysis, environmental test, calibration, test data analysis #### Education - **M.S., Science & Engineering Management**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2016 · GPA 3.83 · Hutcheson Emerging Fellow - **B.S., Physics**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2012 #### Presentations and publications - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Kleynhans, T. (2023). Onboard Calibration and Uncertainty Budget for the Hydrosat Longwave Infrared Imager. ESA International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Fisher, J., McGlinchy, J., Kleynhans, T., Eon, R., Moreau, L. M. (2022). VanZyl-1: demonstrating SmallSat measurement capabilities for land surface temperature and evapotranspiration. Proc. SPIE 12236. - Fisher, J., Soenen, S., Abello, A., Werner, F., Lalli, K., Dalby, R., Fossel, P. (2021). Towards daily, field-scale, global thermal infrared measurements from space. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, H52E-07. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S. (2021). Comparison of vicarious and on-board infrared calibration sources for small satellites. Proc. SPIE 11832. - Lalli, K. (2018). The Arkyd-6 mid-wave infrared instrument: ground testing, commissioning, and operations. Proc. SPIE 10769. - Lalli, K., Beasley, M., Voorhees, C. (2016). CubeSats for action: A MWIR instrument guiding decisions in precision agriculture. Proc. SPIE 9978. ```{dropdown} Cover letter Dear Anthropic hiring team, I'm applying for the Software Engineer role on Labs. Most of my career has been zero-to-one work at startups, and what I build now is the thing Labs looks for: a new experience on top of what the models can do, shipped early and tested against real data. Right now that is racinglines, a live odds and market-data platform for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP that I took from idea to production in weeks. It started with UCI downhill mountain biking, including a live World Cup final at Whistler, but no exchange lists downhill markets yet, so I moved the focus to motorsport and parked it. Every pricing and trading strategy runs as an experiment: backtested on real market tapes, and adopted only if it holds on a held-out window. It has a WebSocket live-timing stream, an MCP server so people can ask Claude about the data directly, and a beta sign-up and weekly picks email up front. I build it with Claude Code as my engineering team, under written review and safety rules: 100 pull requests, 90 merged, in the first 7.5 days after the public release. The chat-over-data idea goes back to SatGPT, my 2023 chatbot for finding satellite imagery and derived products over STAC APIs and NASA data hubs, built in about two months. It won Anaconda's Data App Contest. Before that I spent a decade as a space systems engineer at Planetary Resources, a seed-stage methane-sensing startup, Amazon's Project Kuiper and Hydrosat, writing software the whole time. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering and built the company's core US technical team. To be straightforward about the gap: my web work is Python-first (Panel, Dash, Streamlit, server-rendered pages), not eight years of React and Node.js full-stack. What I'd bring is a habit of shipping something real quickly, measuring it honestly, and dropping it when the data says so. Thank you for considering me. Kevin Lalli kevinlalli@pm.me ``` ::: :::{tab-item} Staff Software Engineer, Growth :sync: growth **Applying** · Engineering & Design, Product · San Francisco · New York · Seattle · [posting](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs/5363469008) **Why this role** - Built racinglines' landing page, demo entry, beta sign-up and weekend picks email. - Every pricing and trading strategy is backtested and must hold on a held-out window before it is adopted. - Shipped 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after public release, working with parallel Claude Code agents. #### Summary Engineer who takes hard hardware, data and software problems from concept to production, and lets the data decide. I build web apps independently: racinglines (2026), a live odds and market-data platform for motorsport developed with Claude Code, and SatGPT (2023), an LLM chatbot over satellite data catalogs that won the Anaconda Data App Contest. Both follow the idea I keep coming back to: let an LLM talk to structured data. Bring the data into a dashboard, app or MCP connection, then ask a chatbot to filter it, build secondary and tertiary products, and support decisions. Before that, a decade of space systems engineering, writing software the whole time, from requirements through on-orbit operations. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering, ran cross-functional work across engineering, partners and the business, and built the company's core US technical team. #### Independent work ##### racinglines · racinglines.bet · 09/2026 – Present **Founder and sole developer** - Built and run a production web app and data platform that turns official timing data into win, podium, head-to-head and championship odds for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP, compared against Polymarket, Kalshi and OG.com every five minutes. - Built the top of the funnel: a landing page, a demo entry, beta sign-up with play-money balances, and a weekend picks email. - Run every pricing and trading strategy as an experiment: swept and backtested against real market tapes, scored on a primary and a held-out window, and labelled robust, period-specific or not better before it is adopted. - Added an MCP server so users and agents can query odds, market history and backtests in plain language; cut the Markets page from 2.65 s and 178 queries to 0.17 s and 19. - Directed parallel Claude Code agent threads under written routing, review and safety rules: 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after the public release on 1 Oct 2026. The models run on my existing Python framework for Plackett-Luce ranking and Monte Carlo simulation. ##### SatGPT · github.com/lalligagger/satgpt-app · mid-2023 (about 2 months) **Creator and sole developer** - Built a demo web app that let users find satellite imagery and advanced derived data products through an LLM-powered chatbot. - The chatbot, built with LangChain and the GPT models of the time, leaned heavily on STAC APIs to search imagery catalogs, alongside NASA data hubs. - Chose Panel on a full-Python stack to meet the contest's Anaconda requirements; took it from idea to deployed app in about two months. - Winner, Anaconda Data App Contest (2023): https://discourse.holoviz.org/t/anaconda-data-app-contest/5360 #### Experience ##### Hydrosat, Inc. · Redmond, WA / Remote · 04/2021 – 09/2023 **Principal Engineer** · 06/2023 – 09/2023 **Payload Systems Engineering Lead** · 04/2021 – 05/2023 - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team; the company has since closed its Series B (2026). - Worked on the pipelines that turn raw satellite data into customer products. - Led engineering efforts across Hydrosat's space segment: specified the longwave infrared payloads and defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission. - Used commercial partnerships, agile internal processes and iterative systems engineering studies for rapid deployment of the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. - Ran cross-functional coordination with the launch and satellite integration partner, escalating and resolving programmatic and technical issues where needed. - Drew on a deep industry network and design background to set next-generation payload requirements, balancing performance against mission cost targets. ##### Amazon Project Kuiper · Redmond, WA **Hardware Development Engineer II** · 03/2020 – 04/2021 - Led development of the initial optical inter-satellite link (OISL) assembly, integration and test capability for Kuiper's planned 3,200+ satellite constellation. - Demonstrated prototype OISL capability live for the Amazon Devices executive team, on an aggressive schedule amid COVID-related facility disruptions. - Designed test architecture, developed procedures, investigated anomalies and implemented corrective actions in a fast-paced satellite engineering organization. - Drove optical transceiver radiation testing at a local proton source facility with the radiation effects engineer; captured the data and presented results to the team. ##### Fresh Consulting · Redmond, WA **Process Engineer @ Facebook Reality Labs** · 09/2019 – 02/2020 - Established optical testing and metrology capabilities in the R&D display and optics group. - Owned intake of design and test requirements, fixture development and test architecture. - Coordinated procurement and on-site visits for metrology and system test stations. ##### Bluefield Technologies · Montreal, QC / Remote **Consulting Payload Systems Engineer** · 01/2019 – 06/2019 - Supported a seed-stage startup building a greenhouse gas monitoring constellation through preliminary systems engineering, engineering unit prototyping and field tests. - Planned and executed helicopter flight tests of payload engineering units; results went to investors and prospective oil and gas customers. - Wrote code to run and analyze the methane signal from a two-channel infrared imaging radiometer (gas-filter correlation spectroscopy). ##### Protingent Staffing · Redmond, WA **Optical Test Engineer @ Microsoft HoloLens** · 04/2018 – 07/2018 - Deployed and verified complex optomechanical test stations in three countries. - System-level bring-up, debugging and performance testing of system-on-chip, FPGA and optoelectronic prototype HoloLens display modules. - Independently managed customs clearance for hardware shipments, laser safety in deployed tests, and other logistical and regulatory concerns. ##### Planetary Resources · Redmond, WA **Optical Systems Engineer** · 01/2016 – 03/2018 - Instrument system lead through spacecraft integration and operations of the Arkyd-6 CubeSat's cryocooled midwave infrared payload, successfully operated in Q1 2018. - Ran trade studies and preliminary mission designs for hyperspectral and thermal imaging of Earth and near-Earth objects. - Led optical design for the Arkyd-100 multispectral telescope, a highly constrained, thermally challenging design for a 12U bus in low-Earth orbit. - Managed engineering resources across multiple concurrent projects in a matrix organization. ##### AdvR, Inc. · Bozeman, MT **Technical Business Development Intern** · 06/2014 – 08/2015 - Optical technology internship under the Ralph Hutcheson Fellowship; assisted with technology transfer of SBIR work to commercial markets. - Contributed to the JPL/AdvR Raman spectrometer instrument proposal for the original "Mars 2020" call, with goals similar to the selected Perseverance SHERLOC. #### Skills - **Software and data:** Python web apps (Panel, Dash, Streamlit), several deployed to demo-production status; LLM apps (LangChain, MCP, Claude Code); geospatial catalogs (STAC APIs, NASA data hubs); data pipelines and image data processing - **Data analysis and experimentation:** backtests and parameter sweeps with held-out validation, Plackett-Luce models, Monte Carlo simulation, calibration and uncertainty budgets, test data analysis - **Systems engineering and program leadership:** requirements development, technical project management, review planning, resource coordination, cost estimation and budgeting, commercial and academic partnerships - **Space systems:** optical system design, spacecraft and payload systems engineering, orbit propagation, operations scheduling - **Analysis and test:** thermal modeling, structural and tolerance analysis, environmental test, calibration, test data analysis #### Education - **M.S., Science & Engineering Management**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2016 · GPA 3.83 · Hutcheson Emerging Fellow - **B.S., Physics**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2012 #### Presentations and publications - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Kleynhans, T. (2023). Onboard Calibration and Uncertainty Budget for the Hydrosat Longwave Infrared Imager. ESA International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Fisher, J., McGlinchy, J., Kleynhans, T., Eon, R., Moreau, L. M. (2022). VanZyl-1: demonstrating SmallSat measurement capabilities for land surface temperature and evapotranspiration. Proc. SPIE 12236. - Fisher, J., Soenen, S., Abello, A., Werner, F., Lalli, K., Dalby, R., Fossel, P. (2021). Towards daily, field-scale, global thermal infrared measurements from space. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, H52E-07. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S. (2021). Comparison of vicarious and on-board infrared calibration sources for small satellites. Proc. SPIE 11832. - Lalli, K. (2018). The Arkyd-6 mid-wave infrared instrument: ground testing, commissioning, and operations. Proc. SPIE 10769. - Lalli, K., Beasley, M., Voorhees, C. (2016). CubeSats for action: A MWIR instrument guiding decisions in precision agriculture. Proc. SPIE 9978. ```{dropdown} Cover letter Dear Anthropic hiring team, I'm applying for the Staff Software Engineer, Growth role. I've spent my career turning hard technical problems into products people use, and the part I care about most is the moment a user gets to an answer without needing an expert in the loop. Growing that moment for Claude is work I'd love to do. Right now I'm building racinglines, a live odds and market-data web app for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP. I've built its first growth surface myself: a landing page, a demo entry, beta sign-up with play-money balances, and a weekend picks email. Every pricing and trading change runs as an experiment first. It is swept and backtested against real market tapes, scored on a primary and a held-out window, and labelled robust, period-specific or not better before it's adopted. I build it with Claude Code as my engineering team, under written review and safety rules: 90 pull requests merged in the first 7.5 days after the public release. It also has an MCP server, so people can ask the data questions in plain language. That idea, letting an LLM talk to structured data, goes back to SatGPT, my 2023 chatbot for finding satellite imagery and derived products over STAC APIs and NASA data hubs. It won Anaconda's Data App Contest. Before that I spent a decade as a space systems engineer, writing software the whole time. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering, ran cross-functional work across engineering, partners and the business, and built the company's core US technical team. At Amazon's Project Kuiper I led the initial optical inter-satellite link test capability and demonstrated the prototype live for the Amazon Devices executive team. To be straightforward about the gaps: I haven't worked in a formal growth or ads organization, and my web stack is Python-first (Panel, Dash, Streamlit) rather than React. What I'd bring is a habit of measuring before deciding, fast full-stack delivery with Claude in the loop, and the systems discipline to run experiments safely in production. Thank you for considering me. Kevin Lalli kevinlalli@pm.me ``` ::: :::{tab-item} Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems :sync: tpm-hw **Also interested** · Technical Program Management · San Francisco · New York · [posting](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs/5380379008) **Why this role** - Ran payload programs from requirements through partner coordination, integration, test and operations. - Managed engineering resources across concurrent projects in a matrix organization at Planetary Resources. - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team. #### Summary Technical program lead from a decade of space hardware: I've run instruments and satellite payloads from requirements and trade studies through vendor and partner coordination, integration, test and on-orbit operations. At Hydrosat I led payload systems engineering across the space segment, kept our launch and satellite integration partner aligned on technical and programmatic issues, and built the company's core US technical team. At Amazon's Project Kuiper I led the initial optical inter-satellite link assembly, integration and test capability on an aggressive schedule; at Planetary Resources I managed engineering resources across concurrent projects in a matrix organization. M.S. in Science & Engineering Management (Hutcheson Emerging Fellow). I run my own software work with Claude as the engineering team, under written review and safety rules. #### Experience ##### Hydrosat, Inc. · Redmond, WA / Remote · 04/2021 – 09/2023 **Principal Engineer** · 06/2023 – 09/2023 **Payload Systems Engineering Lead** · 04/2021 – 05/2023 - Led engineering efforts across Hydrosat's space segment: specified the longwave infrared payloads and defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission. - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team; the company has since closed its Series B (2026). - Lead author on the onboard calibration and uncertainty budget for Hydrosat's longwave infrared imager (ESA workshop, 2023). - Used commercial partnerships, agile internal processes and iterative systems engineering studies for rapid deployment of the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. - Ran cross-functional coordination with the launch and satellite integration partner, escalating and resolving programmatic and technical issues where needed. - Drew on a deep industry network and design background to set next-generation payload requirements, balancing performance against mission cost targets. ##### Amazon Project Kuiper · Redmond, WA **Hardware Development Engineer II** · 03/2020 – 04/2021 - Led development of the initial optical inter-satellite link (OISL) assembly, integration and test capability for Kuiper's planned 3,200+ satellite constellation. - Demonstrated prototype OISL capability live for the Amazon Devices executive team, on an aggressive schedule amid COVID-related facility disruptions. - Designed test architecture, developed procedures, investigated anomalies and implemented corrective actions in a fast-paced satellite engineering organization. - Drove optical transceiver radiation testing at a local proton source facility with the radiation effects engineer; captured the data and presented results to the team. ##### Fresh Consulting · Redmond, WA **Process Engineer @ Facebook Reality Labs** · 09/2019 – 02/2020 - Established optical testing and metrology capabilities in the R&D display and optics group. - Owned intake of design and test requirements, fixture development and test architecture. - Coordinated procurement and on-site visits for metrology and system test stations. ##### Bluefield Technologies · Montreal, QC / Remote **Consulting Payload Systems Engineer** · 01/2019 – 06/2019 - Supported a seed-stage startup building a greenhouse gas monitoring constellation through preliminary systems engineering, engineering unit prototyping and field tests. - Planned and executed helicopter flight tests of payload engineering units; results went to investors and prospective oil and gas customers. - Wrote code to run and analyze the methane signal from a two-channel infrared imaging radiometer (gas-filter correlation spectroscopy). ##### Protingent Staffing · Redmond, WA **Optical Test Engineer @ Microsoft HoloLens** · 04/2018 – 07/2018 - Deployed and verified complex optomechanical test stations in three countries. - System-level bring-up, debugging and performance testing of system-on-chip, FPGA and optoelectronic prototype HoloLens display modules. - Independently managed customs clearance for hardware shipments, laser safety in deployed tests, and other logistical and regulatory concerns. ##### Planetary Resources · Redmond, WA **Optical Systems Engineer** · 01/2016 – 03/2018 - Instrument system lead through spacecraft integration and operations of the Arkyd-6 CubeSat's cryocooled midwave infrared payload, successfully operated in Q1 2018. - Ran trade studies and preliminary mission designs for hyperspectral and thermal imaging of Earth and near-Earth objects. - Led optical design for the Arkyd-100 multispectral telescope, a highly constrained, thermally challenging design for a 12U bus in low-Earth orbit. - Managed engineering resources across multiple concurrent projects in a matrix organization. ##### AdvR, Inc. · Bozeman, MT **Technical Business Development Intern** · 06/2014 – 08/2015 - Optical technology internship under the Ralph Hutcheson Fellowship; assisted with technology transfer of SBIR work to commercial markets. - Contributed to the JPL/AdvR Raman spectrometer instrument proposal for the original "Mars 2020" call, with goals similar to the selected Perseverance SHERLOC. #### Independent work ##### racinglines · racinglines.bet · 09/2026 – Present **Founder and sole developer** - Built a production data platform that prices F1, NASCAR and MotoGP outcomes with my own Plackett-Luce and Monte Carlo simulation framework and compares them with three prediction exchanges every five minutes. - Ran engineering as an AI-assisted practice: parallel Claude Code agent threads working to written routing, review and safety rules, with human sign-off on migrations and anything money-adjacent; 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after the public release on 1 Oct 2026. - Every merge is smoke-checked on staging before production; every strategy is validated on a held-out window before it is adopted. ##### SatGPT · github.com/lalligagger/satgpt-app · mid-2023 (about 2 months) **Creator and sole developer** - LLM chatbot (LangChain) for finding satellite imagery and derived data products over STAC APIs and NASA data hubs; winner, Anaconda Data App Contest (2023). #### Skills - **Systems engineering and program leadership:** requirements development, technical project management, review planning, resource coordination, cost estimation and budgeting, commercial and academic partnerships - **Space systems:** optical system design, spacecraft and payload systems engineering, orbit propagation, operations scheduling - **Analysis and test:** thermal modeling, structural and tolerance analysis, environmental and radiation test, calibration, test data analysis - **Software and AI:** Python, data pipelines, simulation (Monte Carlo), AI-assisted engineering with Claude Code and MCP #### Education - **M.S., Science & Engineering Management**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2016 · GPA 3.83 · Hutcheson Emerging Fellow - **B.S., Physics**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2012 #### Presentations and publications - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Kleynhans, T. (2023). Onboard Calibration and Uncertainty Budget for the Hydrosat Longwave Infrared Imager. ESA International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Fisher, J., McGlinchy, J., Kleynhans, T., Eon, R., Moreau, L. M. (2022). VanZyl-1: demonstrating SmallSat measurement capabilities for land surface temperature and evapotranspiration. Proc. SPIE 12236. - Fisher, J., Soenen, S., Abello, A., Werner, F., Lalli, K., Dalby, R., Fossel, P. (2021). Towards daily, field-scale, global thermal infrared measurements from space. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, H52E-07. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S. (2021). Comparison of vicarious and on-board infrared calibration sources for small satellites. Proc. SPIE 11832. - Lalli, K. (2018). The Arkyd-6 mid-wave infrared instrument: ground testing, commissioning, and operations. Proc. SPIE 10769. - Lalli, K., Beasley, M., Voorhees, C. (2016). CubeSats for action: A MWIR instrument guiding decisions in precision agriculture. Proc. SPIE 9978. ::: :::{tab-item} Software Engineer, Staff: Applied AI, Science & Engineering :sync: applied-ai-sci **Also interested** · Engineering & Design, Product · San Francisco · New York · Seattle · [posting](https://www.anthropic.com/careers/jobs/5444766008) **Why this role** - SatGPT: an LLM chatbot over STAC imagery catalogs and NASA data hubs, winner of the Anaconda Data App Contest (2023). - A decade of calibration, uncertainty budgets and satellite data pipelines, with six SPIE, ESA and AGU papers. - racinglines: a live modelling platform with an MCP server so users can ask Claude about the data. #### Summary Scientist-engineer who builds AI tools for people who work with technical data. For a decade I was a space systems engineer, writing software the whole time: calibration and uncertainty budgets, data pipelines that turn raw satellite data into customer products, and six SPIE, ESA and AGU papers. Now I build LLM apps over structured data. SatGPT (2023), a chatbot for finding satellite imagery and derived products over STAC APIs and NASA data hubs, won the Anaconda Data App Contest. racinglines (2026) is a live modelling and market-data platform built with Claude Code, with an MCP server so users can ask Claude about the data directly. The idea I keep coming back to: let an LLM talk to structured data, then ask it to filter, build secondary and tertiary products, and support decisions. #### Independent work ##### racinglines · racinglines.bet · 09/2026 – Present **Founder and sole developer** - Built and run a production web app that turns official timing data into win, podium, head-to-head and championship odds for F1, NASCAR and MotoGP, compared against Polymarket, Kalshi and OG.com every five minutes. - Treated latency as a feature: cut the Markets page from 2.65 s and 178 queries to 0.17 s and 19 with lazy loading, and Positions from 3.38 s to 0.68 s. - Built real-time views: a WebSocket live-timing stream for F1 sessions and live event pages for race weekends, with responsive layouts and dark mode. - Added an MCP server so users can ask Claude about odds, market history and backtests in plain language. - Directed parallel Claude Code agent threads under written routing, review and safety rules: 100 pull requests (90 merged) in the first 7.5 days after the public release on 1 Oct 2026, every merge smoke-checked on staging before production. The models run on my existing Python framework for Plackett-Luce ranking and Monte Carlo simulation. ##### SatGPT · github.com/lalligagger/satgpt-app · mid-2023 (about 2 months) **Creator and sole developer** - Built a demo web app that let users find satellite imagery and advanced derived data products through an LLM-powered chatbot. - The chatbot, built with LangChain and the GPT models of the time, leaned heavily on STAC APIs to search imagery catalogs, alongside NASA data hubs. - Chose Panel on a full-Python stack to meet the contest's Anaconda requirements; took it from idea to deployed app in about two months. - Winner, Anaconda Data App Contest (2023): https://discourse.holoviz.org/t/anaconda-data-app-contest/5360 #### Experience ##### Hydrosat, Inc. · Redmond, WA / Remote · 04/2021 – 09/2023 **Principal Engineer** · 06/2023 – 09/2023 **Payload Systems Engineering Lead** · 04/2021 – 05/2023 - Built Hydrosat's core US technical team; the company has since closed its Series B (2026). - Worked on the pipelines that turn raw satellite data into customer products. - Led engineering efforts across Hydrosat's space segment: specified the longwave infrared payloads and defined constellation requirements for a daily thermal imaging mission. - Used commercial partnerships, agile internal processes and iterative systems engineering studies for rapid deployment of the VanZyl-1 and -2 demonstration missions. - Ran cross-functional coordination with the launch and satellite integration partner, escalating and resolving programmatic and technical issues where needed. - Drew on a deep industry network and design background to set next-generation payload requirements, balancing performance against mission cost targets. ##### Amazon Project Kuiper · Redmond, WA **Hardware Development Engineer II** · 03/2020 – 04/2021 - Led development of the initial optical inter-satellite link (OISL) assembly, integration and test capability for Kuiper's planned 3,200+ satellite constellation. - Demonstrated prototype OISL capability live for the Amazon Devices executive team, on an aggressive schedule amid COVID-related facility disruptions. - Designed test architecture, developed procedures, investigated anomalies and implemented corrective actions in a fast-paced satellite engineering organization. - Drove optical transceiver radiation testing at a local proton source facility with the radiation effects engineer; captured the data and presented results to the team. ##### Fresh Consulting · Redmond, WA **Process Engineer @ Facebook Reality Labs** · 09/2019 – 02/2020 - Established optical testing and metrology capabilities in the R&D display and optics group. - Owned intake of design and test requirements, fixture development and test architecture. - Coordinated procurement and on-site visits for metrology and system test stations. ##### Bluefield Technologies · Montreal, QC / Remote **Consulting Payload Systems Engineer** · 01/2019 – 06/2019 - Supported a seed-stage startup building a greenhouse gas monitoring constellation through preliminary systems engineering, engineering unit prototyping and field tests. - Planned and executed helicopter flight tests of payload engineering units; results went to investors and prospective oil and gas customers. - Wrote code to run and analyze the methane signal from a two-channel infrared imaging radiometer (gas-filter correlation spectroscopy). ##### Protingent Staffing · Redmond, WA **Optical Test Engineer @ Microsoft HoloLens** · 04/2018 – 07/2018 - Deployed and verified complex optomechanical test stations in three countries. - System-level bring-up, debugging and performance testing of system-on-chip, FPGA and optoelectronic prototype HoloLens display modules. - Independently managed customs clearance for hardware shipments, laser safety in deployed tests, and other logistical and regulatory concerns. ##### Planetary Resources · Redmond, WA **Optical Systems Engineer** · 01/2016 – 03/2018 - Instrument system lead through spacecraft integration and operations of the Arkyd-6 CubeSat's cryocooled midwave infrared payload, successfully operated in Q1 2018. - Ran trade studies and preliminary mission designs for hyperspectral and thermal imaging of Earth and near-Earth objects. - Led optical design for the Arkyd-100 multispectral telescope, a highly constrained, thermally challenging design for a 12U bus in low-Earth orbit. - Managed engineering resources across multiple concurrent projects in a matrix organization. ##### AdvR, Inc. · Bozeman, MT **Technical Business Development Intern** · 06/2014 – 08/2015 - Optical technology internship under the Ralph Hutcheson Fellowship; assisted with technology transfer of SBIR work to commercial markets. - Contributed to the JPL/AdvR Raman spectrometer instrument proposal for the original "Mars 2020" call, with goals similar to the selected Perseverance SHERLOC. #### Skills - **Product and web:** Python web apps (Panel, Dash, Streamlit), several deployed to demo-production status; server-rendered HTML/CSS/JS with responsive layouts; WebSockets for live updates; page and query performance tuning - **AI and data:** LLM apps (LangChain, MCP, Claude Code); geospatial catalogs (STAC APIs, NASA data hubs); Plackett-Luce models and Monte Carlo simulation; data pipelines and image data processing - **Systems engineering and program leadership:** requirements development, technical project management, review planning, resource coordination, cost estimation and budgeting, commercial and academic partnerships - **Space systems:** optical system design, spacecraft and payload systems engineering, orbit propagation, operations scheduling - **Analysis and test:** thermal modeling, structural and tolerance analysis, environmental test, calibration, test data analysis #### Education - **M.S., Science & Engineering Management**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2016 · GPA 3.83 · Hutcheson Emerging Fellow - **B.S., Physics**, Montana State University, Bozeman · 2012 #### Presentations and publications - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Kleynhans, T. (2023). Onboard Calibration and Uncertainty Budget for the Hydrosat Longwave Infrared Imager. ESA International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S., Fisher, J., McGlinchy, J., Kleynhans, T., Eon, R., Moreau, L. M. (2022). VanZyl-1: demonstrating SmallSat measurement capabilities for land surface temperature and evapotranspiration. Proc. SPIE 12236. - Fisher, J., Soenen, S., Abello, A., Werner, F., Lalli, K., Dalby, R., Fossel, P. (2021). Towards daily, field-scale, global thermal infrared measurements from space. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, H52E-07. - Lalli, K., Soenen, S. (2021). Comparison of vicarious and on-board infrared calibration sources for small satellites. Proc. SPIE 11832. - Lalli, K. (2018). The Arkyd-6 mid-wave infrared instrument: ground testing, commissioning, and operations. Proc. SPIE 10769. - Lalli, K., Beasley, M., Voorhees, C. (2016). CubeSats for action: A MWIR instrument guiding decisions in precision agriculture. Proc. SPIE 9978. ::: ::::