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Grason Staff Spotlight Quote

Learn about Lead DevOps Engineer, Grason, and his perspective on how the company has progressed over the past 10 years, his shift into a new role, and some of his hobbies.

 

 

How long have you worked for Liberty Reach and what drew you to apply?

 

“I will have been working here for 10 years, this July. I first did work as an Applications Engineer working on an installation job in an Indiana automotive plant. We were installing one of the first iterations of VFix. I think that original installation was still in place up until a few years ago. It has since been upgraded to newer hardware. I was brought in as extra help while I was still in college. I did my internship at Liberty Reach over the summer. Once I graduated, I applied for a position as a Junior Research Engineer and got a job offer.”

 

What do you find rewarding about your position or the work you do?

 

“​There are plenty of jobs out there where you can go into the office and sell your eight hours doing routine tasks. Most of my work revolves around in-the-field troubleshooting, bug fixing and deploying reliable builds of new software. Each day, there is a new problem to dissect and resolve. I rarely find myself overwhelmed and I always find myself with engaging and interesting work.”

 

What is one memorable experience in your time at Liberty Reach?

 

“One year, when I was still doing Application Engineer work, we had to work a shutdown over the Thanksgiving holiday. I had just resigned myself to not being able to celebrate, but the VP of Operations, Myron, had booked a suite at a local hotel with a kitchen. Myron, along with his wife, made a Thanksgiving meal for the team right there in their suite. When we had gotten off work after a long day in the plant and it was incredibly nice to have a home cooked meal. I’ve always felt looked after.”

 

 

How has Liberty Reach progressed since you started?

 

“Liberty Reach has progressed an incredible amount since I’ve started working here. When I arrived, we were working out of a collection of home offices, and mod build cells. Eventually we had a dedicated space in the basement of the house I was renting for storage and parts assembly. (There are many such companies with such humble beginnings.) We had a small but incredibly knowledgeable team of developers working on VFix, our first product. By leveraging new technology in the form of diffraction grating imaging, we developed a product that was largely immune to factory light changes and could account for large part shifts. Since then, we have already outgrown our first office, and are on the brink of outgrowing our second office. As a company, we have learned a lot of tough lessons and the hardware that we use is now incredibly robust and overbuilt to survive tough factory conditions. The software is tested and QC’d to ensure that the products we release are as rock solid as possible. There has been a ton of progression since I first joined.”

 

 

Describe some of your favorite pastimes or hobbies.

 

“I enjoy being outdoors. I’m an avid hiker and backpacker. My last major hike was the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore Trail. I’ve rock climbed at Red River Gorge, KY and Lions Head, Ontario. I weight lift regularly and enjoy the experience of getting stronger. I’m an amateur radio operator. with my General Class license. During the winter when it’s a little less pleasant to go outside I either read, play video games or work on a few small electronics projects. I read quite frequently, since it’s something that you can typically do while doing other things. Just yesterday I finished Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. I primarily enjoy reading books on anthropology and history, or fantasy and science fiction.”