Nomineer Spotlight – Stephanie and Charlie
STEPHANIE YU
Software Engineer (Front end)
Former software engineer at Palantir Technologies
Q: Tell us about your professional background.
A: I started at Palantir after graduation as a frontend developer. The first several years was a tour of application development working on a variety of frontend apps in the early days of Foundry. From there I helped spin up the initial Foundry FE build infrastructure team, which unified Foundry’s FE build tooling and moved everything into a monorepo. The last few years at Palantir were primarily focused on product development (specifically App Building and the Ontology SDK), frontend engineering leadership, and helping to bridge the gap between product and infrastructure.
Q: What are you excited to “run with” at Nominal?
A: Everything, to be honest! I was excited about the idea of figuring out where I’m needed most and just going for it, and the team being very welcoming of that approach.
Q: Why did you choose to join Nominal?
A: The team! It was clear to me that this was a stacked team with smart and thoughtful engineers motivated to build high-quality product. I was also excited about the idea of building software for hardware, as that’s always been a side passion of mine.
Q: How would you describe your first impression of working at Nominal?
A: Nominal is moving fast, which is a lot of fun, yet at the same time everyone is able to be level-headed and thoughtful about the long-term journey.
Q: What is one thing you are obsessed with?
A: Hydroponics! And figuring out how to keep the tomatoes that are toxic to the cat out of reach.
Q: How do you stay grounded?
A: A lot of side projects – my brain usually needs to stay engaged somehow, so I just need to redirect it. Cooking and baking are pretty zen too.
CHARLIE KNIFFIN
Mission Operations
Former test engineer at Pratt & Whitney and Lawrence Livermore
Q: Tell us about your professional background.
A: I got drawn to engineering through working on cars. That created a long-term affiliation with the UConn Formula SAE team, which helped me land my first job at Pratt & Whitney doing flight test instrumentation. I worked on the Mitsubishi Regional Jet program and eventually moved to the data analysis side. Working in that part of the company planted the seeds for what would grow into my career at Nominal. After leaving PW, I went to Lawrence Livermore, which is a really unique environment where you are solving completely unique problems. I’ve also spent time working on humanoid robots at Agility!
Q: What are you excited to “run with” at Nominal?
A: My goal is to make sure we delight the customer. Coming to Nominal gives me the opportunity to help create the tools I wish I had at my prior jobs, where I was consistently frustrated with outdated data analysis tooling that was nearly impossible to maintain. I’m super excited to be the voice of the customer and combine all my past experience to help bring the future of data analysis to them.
Q: Why did you choose to join Nominal?
A: This is a full circle moment for me. To come back four years departed from my analysis role and get the opportunity to build the next generation of tooling was just too perfect.
Q: How would you describe your first impression of working at Nominal?
A: The team here is amazing. Everyone is incredibly talented and really passionate about what they are working on.
Q: What is one thing you are obsessed with?
A: Triathlon. I got into it when I was working in the Bay Area, and I’ve turned from someone who dreaded running a mile to looking at a Half Ironman in the next year.
Q: How do you stay grounded?
A: Race training and spending time with my friends. I love getting out and going on a run, bike, or a swim.