Rob Baldus

About Rob Baldus

I’m a Software Engineering Manager at DENSO North America, leading the development of next-generation Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), including our Assembly Lot Trace platform. With nearly a decade of experience driving digital transformation in manufacturing, I bridge the gap between the plant floor and enterprise systems, ensuring traceability, quality, and throughput at scale.My expertise spans Angular.NET Core, SQL, OPC, MQTT, and event-driven architectures, paired with a strong focus on manufacturing principles and digital quality initiatives. I thrive in designing resilient, scalable systems — whether that’s refactoring legacy applications, rolling out microservices, or integrating telemetry and logging frameworks that boost visibility and reliability.As a leader, I believe in clarity, continuous improvement, and storytelling as tools to align teams and unlock throughput. I focus on growing developer effectiveness, simplifying architectures (services, components, utilities), and building a culture where teams can innovate without compromising quality.Outside of work, I’m an endurance athlete training for Ironman Chattanooga, a Master Diver, and a lifelong learner who enjoys building furniture, cultivating gardens, and exploring new ways to connect creativity with technology.

Experience

1. Software Engineering Manager

   DENSO

   Dec 2022 — Present · Maryville, TN, US

   Product owner for Assembly Lot Trace (ALT) manufacturing execution system across all North American Plants providing $20M+/year in business value to DENSO North America.Primary Designer Angular frontends for IoT systems with a focus on maintainability, error handling, and UX consistency.Developed scalable.NET Core microservices for traceability, quality event management, IoT machine connectivity, and production orchestration.Managed team workflow in Azure DevOps, including backlog refinement, sprint planning, work item tracking, and delivery dashboards to ensure alignment on priorities, velocity, and release schedules.Provided operational support for 300+ connected manufacturing lines, handling 120M+ system calls weekly while maintaining floor-to-database-to-floor response times under 20ms to ensure real-time traceability and production continuity.Mentored engineers through pairing rotations, G&O cycles, and leadership development, raising overall team capability and reducing dev risk.

Education

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Bachelors of science, Biological/Biosystems Engineering

  2009 — 2013

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Bachelor’s Degree, Journalism and Electronic Media

  2005 — 2009

Skills

• Product Development
• Leadership
• Layout Design
• Process Improvement
• Loss Analytics
• Kanban
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Inventory Management
• Project Management
• Supply Chain Management
• P&G Reliability Technology Tools
• Kaizen
• Sap
• Focused Improvement
• Communication
• Food Industry
• Autocad
• Supply Chain
• Business Process Improvement
• Team Leadership
• Continuous Improvement
• Root Cause Analysis
• Kazien
• Sharepoint
• Autodesk Inventor
• Tpm
• Microsoft Office
• Manufacturing
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Technical Writing
• Lean Manufacturing
• Management
• Simple Root Cause Analysis