Nomineer Spotlight – Nick Peng, Mission Ops
Former Systems Engineer at Applied Intuition and NASA JPL
Q: Tell us about your professional background.
A: I was fortunate to begin my career at JPL, where I developed an end-to-end indoor localization system for firefighter safety—a project that involved extensive hardware and software field testing. I also collaborated with JPL's Robotics teams, gaining valuable experience in sensor fusion and autonomy development. This experience led me to Applied Intuition, where I became the first Systems Engineer on the Off-road Autonomy team. There, I worked closely with customers and development teams on system requirements and test cases to build autonomy-enabled vehicles.
Q: What are you excited to “run with” at Nominal?
A: I’m excited to build strong relationships with our amazing customers, understand the challenges they face, and help them empower their mission by leveraging Nominal’s products. I’m eager to help create the tools I always wished I had, while learning from the talented engineering team here.
Q: Why did you choose to join Nominal?
A: When I first saw Nominal's product demo, I instantly wished I'd had these tools for my past projects—they would have saved countless hours of scripting and troubleshooting. The team's deep experience and clear understanding of our users' pain points impressed me. I knew Nominal had huge potential, and I wanted to be a part of the incredible growth!
Q: How would you describe your first impression of working at Nominal?
A: Everyone in the company is super driven, motivated, and fun to be around! The team understands what customers want and effectively balances speed with quality to deliver great features to our customers!
Q: What is one thing you are obsessed with?
A: I'm obsessed with all things audio! I've enjoyed working as an audio tech for live events and mixing sound for friends' films. Audio is a fascinating blend of technology and art!
Q: How do you stay grounded?
A: My wife and I enjoy going snowboarding in Colorado every year!