Blair Stevenson

Experience

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  United States Marine Corps

  May 1997 - Jul 2005

  Marine Corps Officer & AH-1W Supercobra Pilot

  Graduated #1 from flight school and excelled in a rigorous flight qualification curriculum, mastering aircraft weapons systems and electronic warfare systems.

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  GE Power

  Jan 2005 - Jan 2011

  Lead the verification and validation efforts for heavy duty gas turbine and steam turbine control systems software standards. Participate in the hiring and staffing of the Application Software Validation team, providing personnel and structuring recommendations to upper management.• Led the validation effort for 3 releases of software for the 7FA and 9FA gas turbines and identified more than 35 critical defects which would have resulted in > $500K in warranty claims if the defects reached the field.• Led the development of 4 automation tools that reduced simulation setup time by 90%.• Improved the 7FA, 9FA, C7, and D11 simulation models by redesigning 30+ subsystems through 170+ modifications, enabling the execution of more than 1,680 test cases, detecting more than 625 defects.• Led the development of 6 new QMS documents and conducted team training, resulting in the global team being awarded the Quality Cup in 2009. Show less Develop physics-based models and simulation environments to support the verification and validation of control software and system designs.• Improved the fidelity of the physics-based model for the 9HBLKIIA heavy-duty gas turbine by conducting more than 5,000 hours of controlled transient simulation analysis while incorporating multiple system design changes.• Published 9 Design Memos, containing simulation analysis which led to system design changes accounting for more than $4.5M in cost savings.• Successfully led the upgrade of the simulation platform completing the upgrade in 20% less time than previous upgrades. Show less

  • Lead Engineer, Verification and Validation Lead

    Jan 2007 - Jan 2011

  • Controls Simulation Engineer

    Jan 2005 - Jan 2007
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  GE Power

  Jun 2011 - Jun 2022

  Transform business goals into strategic initiatives and develop technical roadmaps to deliver control system software products that meet high quality standards and exceed customer expectations. Develop KPI's to measure and track performance in areas such as Quality, Delivery and Cost. Prepare presentations to inform and influence leadership, stakeholders, committees, etc.• Leveraged industry and technology trends to develop the Software Configuration Management strategy for a 450+ person organization. Developed training material and conducted training for more than 40 agile teams. Monitored customer project execution, identifying and correcting trends of noncompliance.• Developed and delivered presentations and written communications of the configuration management strategy and system integration process to executive-level leadership, stakeholders, and our customers in order to build trust and confidence in our process and products.• Led the development of 15 Key Performance Indicators to monitor the progress towards achieving Quality, Delivery and Cost objectives. Published quality metrics, such as Bowlers, via quality dashboards so senior leadership could easily track the organization’s performance.• Led multiple Problem Solving Reports when KPI’s were trending away from targets, interpreted data to identify root causes and developed countermeasures to correct the trends that were off by up to 50% and reached the target. Show less Responsible for the planning, resource assignments, risk management, scope management, budget tracking and status reporting for 12 controls software products. Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams throughout full product lifecycle development from concept to delivery, including product definition, development, validation, and release. Utilize RTC Engineering Lifecycle Management tools to deliver complex controls technology solutions, applying agile development lifecycle (backlog prioritization, sprint planning, tracking velocity, etc.)• Leveraged data such as market intelligence, competitive assessments, and usage metrics to make timely prioritization decisions for more than 40 product releases, ensuring critical business needs and timelines were met. • Led a global team of 15 controls engineers in the development/improvement of more than 20 controls software products, resulting in more than 4000 hours saved across more than 500 projects.• Collaborated with multi-disciplinary teams and co-led the development of the NPI Productization strategy. This strategy led to the development of 12 new controls software standards which resulted in 15% cycle reduction.• Planned and executed product integration and automation plans and schedules resulting in more than 1800 hours saved across 50+ projects. Show less Improve control system software quality and drive cost out of the design and development process through initiatives such as design reviews, standardization of software implementation instructions, as well as the verification and validation of standard controls software. Develop Quality Management procedures and provide training and audits for the team.• Led a global team in the development of a low fidelity model which saved more than $345K, exceeding targeted savings by more than 15%. This was critical to the organization’s overall savings target of $5.9M. • Led a Work Out to improve execution of critical/complex projects, generating more than 45 improvement ideas. Implemented 19 ideas and 30 software change requests to improve software libraries, resulting in a reduction of 40 hours per project and an increased First Time Yield Quality.• Developed a Design Review process, piloted the process, and incorporated feedback from the team, leading to an improved process that was used to conduct more than 330 Design reviews across 160+ projects preventing more than 275 defects from reaching the field.• As a qualified Tagger, trained the team on Export Classifications and personally tagged more than 450 pieces of hardware and more than 60 drawings to ensure the team was 100% in compliance. Show less

  • Senior Engineer, Strategic Initiatives Leader

    Jan 2017 - Jun 2022

  • Senior Engineer, Engineering Technical Leader

    Apr 2014 - Feb 2017

  • Lead Engineer, Process Improvement Leader

    Jun 2011 - Mar 2014
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  GE Aerospace

  Jun 2022 - now

  Engineering Project Manager