MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: PHIL VARNER

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is Phil Varner and I'm a software developer, primarily focusing on geospatial software. I'm currently working as a contractor for a West Coast-based satellite company.

What do you love about the work?

I've always liked building stuff. Creating software is really complex, so it's really mentally engaging for me. I've been working in the geospatial field for the past few years, and there's just a lot of really interesting things that scientists and industry experts can do with satellite imagery. I like being able to enable them to do their work more efficiently, so they can focus on the hard problems that they're experts at.

How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I've had a pretty standard path to where I am. I did a degree in Computer Science at UVa, and then somehow ended up doing a graduate degree, though I really didn't like most of the classes or what they were about. But it was a job requirement! I've been doing software development for various companies for the last 20 years. Even though it's the same type of work, the field changes so rapidly that the work I actually do is completely different than when I started.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point (or two), professionally and /or personally along the way?

I've had a few in the last several years. One was that I'd started working in a new style of programming that was much different than what I've done before, and it's only been in the last year that I feel like I've really become comfortable with that. Another was that I only have so much mental effort I can really put in every day, and there are a lot of other things that I'd rather be doing. The software industry tends to foster a lot of burnout, which I've definitely had my share of, and I want to avoid that. So, I've started contracting instead of being a full-time employee so I can work only the number of hours I want to, and have time for other interests, like my pottery and photography practices.

Who or what has been of greatest influence to you? 

My advisor at UVa., Professor John Knight, was a huge influence in my early career. He focused a lot of his work on safety-critical systems, like nuclear power plants and aircraft control, where bugs in the system aren't just annoying or costly, but deadly. That focus on real quality has been a theme throughout my career.

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

I'm currently working on a searchable catalog and ordering system for satellite imagery. My team has recently been resolving a lot of technical debt, which is commonly accumulated early in a startup's software development cycle. Now that we've built a better foundation, we're going to be building more customer-oriented systems, so that, for example, someone could easily task a satellite to collect data at a time and place they want. I think this is going to open up a lot of opportunities for researchers to use this imagery to do unique things with, that they haven't been able to do with other types of imagery.