Portfolio of various projects https://ericgirard.smugmug.com/Portfolio/
I’m a highly motivated and proactive individual who enjoy learning and applying new technology. Multidisciplinary (software development, electronic design, mechanical design, IT). I’m self-educated in any fields that I have an interest (3D Printers, CNC machining, 3D design, 3D animations etc). I love to work with people and small teams. My work experience allowed me to develop and hone the skills required to tackle almost any project : planning, budget, resources management, follow up. I also learned to be as efficient as possible in order to maximize productivity : AGILE workflow, unit tests / automated tests, continuous integration. My vast knowledge in many fields allow me to come up with solutions that are well-thought, realistic and often unique.
Work Experience
IT Director
Locweld – Candiac, Quebec
November 2011 – present
- Responsible for the whole IT / Software development (Planning, Budget, Projects, Employees Management)
- Identify, design and implement new opportunities (software and hardware)
- Leverage new technologies (Virtualization, Cloud, Container, Machine Learning)
- Long-term strategic objectives / plans
- Define in-house softwares requirements, architectures and implementation
- Identify and automate low-value tasks
- Define and maintain Disaster Recovery plan to ensure operations continuity / protection of company data
- Support other departments in their technology requirements
Software / Automation Developer
Locweld Inc, Candiac, Quebec
November 2003 – November 2011
- Wrote in-house software that run in parallel with our ERP and handle all production tasks (inventory management, time estimate, operations, material optimization, CNC file generation)
- Replaced aging UNIX manegement software with in-house software
- Implemented barcodes and supporting hardware / software (operations, inventory, user bage, machines)
- Replaced existing infrastrucure (UNIX + Novell) with Windows Server / domain
- Virtualized all physical server infrastructure
- Automated low-value tasks
- Designed and implemented security system (RFID scanners, gates / door controls boards + firmware using CAN bus communication)
- Designed electric galvanizing tank monitoring system (1.2MW power monitoring)
- Designed and implemented backup and disaster recovery system (local / offsite)
Software / Hardware Developer (Owner)
ServoMecanik Inc, Brossard, Quebec
September 1996 – November 2003
ServoMecanik was started in 1996 with a goal a providing advanced and affordable CNC machines, mostly in the metal manufacturing field. Being a really small company (2) allowed me to learn a lot about running a company. My partner was responsible for mechanical design while I was responsible for the electronic and software design, allowing us to tackle almost any project.
- Designed CNC controller system (motion board, computer, control software) for our mainline CNC product (XY metal cutting table) from scratch – this gave ServoMecanik a huge financial advantage as the whole machines where designed / built in-house and more advanced than our competitors (touchscreen, color screen, in-machine parts drawing / nesting) (Watcom C++, assembler, PIC microcontroller assembler, Orcad PCB design)
- Designed plasma torch automatic height control module
- Performed level 3 customer support / service (remote / on-site)
Education
BAC (Partial) in Génie de la Production Automatisé (GPA)
École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) – Montréal, QC
September 1995 – August 1997
DEC in Technologie de Systèmes Ordinés (TSO)
CEGEP Lionnel-Groulx, Ste-Thérèse, QC
September 1992 – June 1995
Skills
General
- Team Management
- Project Management
- Budget management
- Problem resolution
- Out of the box thinking / solution
- Ease of learning
Software Development
- C# – Visual Studio (2003 – 2019), Resharper, git, nunit
- Software architecture
- Agile methodology
- NUnit
- C / C++
- Teamcity
- JIRA / Bitbucket / Confluence / Service Desk / FogBugz
- Microchip Assembler , C
- STM32 C/ C++
- Python (learning)
Hardware Development
- OrCAD / Altium / Eagle PCB
- Electronic design (SMT + thruhole), experience in high-power (4.5KW designs)
- Analog / Digital design
- Microchip MCU (Pic 16xx/18xx), Motorola MCU (68xx/68xxx), STM32
- Raspberry PI / Arduino / Beaglebone
- SMT assembly / testing
- CANbus / I2C / RS485 / Ethernet / USB
- Motor control (Stepper, Brushed, Brushless with encoder / PID)
Operating Systems
- Windows 95 – 10
- Windows Server 2000 – 2019
- Hyper-V
- DOS(!)
- Linux (intermediate)
- Azure / GCP
IT
- Server selection, deployment, management
- SAN (HP, Hitachi, IBM)
- Networking (switches, routers, firewall)
- Virtualization (Hyper-V, failover cluster, HA services/application)
- ERP deployment, configuration and integration
- Security management
CAD
- AutoCAD
- Inventor 2017 & 2019
- Fusion 360
- Vectric Aspire V8.5/V9
Graphics / Videos
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Blender
3D Printing
- Simplify 3D
- Cura
- Octoprint
Machining
- Ficep CNC (angle punch/drill line, beam line)
- Milling & Lathe
- Mach4
- LinuxCNC
- G-Code generation