As Ephesoft continues to grow, employees are a critical part of who we are as a company and represent our values, brand and drive innovation. Get to know one of our team members and enjoy many more interviews to come.
Josh Burt, Senior Engineer
3.1 years at Ephesoft
Josh Burt is a fundamental difference maker on Ephesoft’s data science team. His work as a senior engineer is invaluable to Ephesoft and its diverse array of clients.
Upon meeting Josh today, one would immediately realize that he was destined to pursue a profession in data science. He has an affinity for identifying table structures, analyzing value pairs and detecting patterns among massive amounts of data.
Josh’s journey to Ephesoft started in the rural Idaho countryside. He was born and raised in Boise, Idaho although he now recently lives in Seattle, Washington. His first exposure to programming occurred when he was 13 years old. His junior high school lacked a full-length programming class. Fortunately for Josh and Ephesoft, the school did host a short-term programming class. During this introductory course, Josh had the opportunity to program a robotic arm and make it perform basic movements. From that moment on, Josh Burt was a programmer.
He spent the next five years learning programming skills and taking computer science courses at his high school. Josh’s passion for computer programming was on full display, as he and another student were essentially teaching the course themselves to their peers since the actual instructors did not have that much programming experience.
Upon entering college, Josh had focused his major on microbiology but later changed it to computer science. He began taking courses in bioinformatics, autonomous mobile agents and genetic programming. After obtaining his initial degree in this field, Josh enjoyed pursuing software engineering opportunities. After wrapping up his college experiences, Josh decided that he would acquire a job in software engineering. His early responsibilities included system administration, tech support and program direction.
Before connecting with Ephesoft, Josh was content with his current position. He was managing a team of engineers that developed APIs. While that role was rewarding, it didn’t quite satisfy Josh’s fascination with artificial intelligence and machine learning. At the time, he was really into evolutionary computation and evolving neural networks and was looking for a place to learn more and apply his skills working with others passionate about these topics.
Just as Josh was settling into his management position, a friend and current Ephesoft employee, Mark Studer, contacted him about an opportunity at Ephesoft. Josh was immediately intrigued because he would get to leverage his full array of skills and learn more about the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Josh arranged a visit to Ephesoft, and the rest is history.
When asked about his initial perception of the company, Josh stated that he “knew this was the right place when I met the people.” That initial meeting was three years ago. Shortly after that, Josh had an interview with the management team and joined Ephesoft. Now, Josh Burt is a Senior Engineer with Ephesoft and is part of the data science team. According to Josh, most of his time is spent exploring ways to automate redundant or inefficient processes. He and his teammates are constantly sharing wisdom with one another for the good of the group.
Josh says that he gets to introduce them to engineering best practices and cloud computing principles. In turn, the conglomerate of data scientists exposes him to modern machine learning tools and technologies. To say that Josh loves his position with Ephesoft would be an understatement. He is a lifelong learner who pursues his passion daily at work. Josh is constantly exposed to new information and provided opportunities to flex his programming skills.
However, there is one component of working at Ephesoft that Josh enjoys even more than his role. We are talking about the people, of course. In Josh’s words, Ephesoft is home to “some of the brightest, friendliest and [most] passionate people I’ve ever worked with.” The energy among the staff is what convinced Josh to leave his former role and take a position with Ephesoft. He describes the corporate culture as “amazing” and enjoys collaborating with his co-workers daily at work.
Shortly after two years with Ephesoft, Josh made his move to Seattle. He made this transition in pursuit of better educational opportunities for his children. This move required him to leave Boise and the group of engineers that he collaborated with regularly. Josh has maintained interactions with these talented individuals remotely, but it is not quite the same. He is eager to return to face-to-face gatherings with his co-workers and plans to do so as long as it is practical. He spoke highly of Ephesoft’s various team-building events that it hosts throughout the year and expressed that he looks forward to the next gathering. Holiday parties and summer get-togethers highlight some of Josh’s favorite company celebrations.
When not pursuing innovation at Ephesoft, partaking in holiday parties or spending time with his family, Josh proactively seeks out continuing education opportunities. He jumps at any chance to hone his craft and learn more about machine learning technologies. Josh also participates in educational opportunities that challenge his weaknesses so that he can turn them into strengths and better fulfill his career goals.
His favorite quote is “bless all forms of intelligence,” and he works to live his life in a manner consistent with that sentiment. He exemplifies this personal ethos by allowing science and nature to challenge his perceptions in a manner that promotes progress in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.
