Technical Lead & Solutions Architect

I help ambitious teams ship the impossible.

Full-stack technical leadership, design sensibility, and AI fluency across product architecture, UI/UX, real-time simulation, VR/XR, and AI-augmented development, from concept to market.

15+ years shipping product | Full-stack systems | Technical lead | AI-augmented delivery

Selected Work

Selected systems I led from concept to shipped product.

Spanning space-domain awareness, industrial logistics, educational simulation, public XR installations, indie game systems, and AI-augmented tooling.

Forerunner 3

HarrisXR LLC, in collaboration with Space Interactions Inc. · Technical Lead · 2025–Present

A web-based 3D visualization platform, the "Google Earth" for satellites: it renders every object from low Earth orbit to geostationary against live Google Earth terrain, accurate and fast on phone and desktop alike.

Built by HarrisXR LLC in collaboration with Space Interactions Inc. My brother and I lead the development: a fast-tracked, AI-augmented rebuild that migrated a pure WebGL 2.0 renderer onto modern BabylonJS and TypeScript. I own the architecture, UI, and design direction while driving much of the implementation through Claude Code and Codex, marshalling both to ship in weeks what would traditionally take months. The result holds proper SGP4 propagation and real geopositioning accuracy while rendering 30,000+ tracked objects at a smooth clip on mid-range phones.

30,000+ objects at 30+ fps LEO to GEO full coverage SGP4 accurate propagation Google Earth tiles
    Role
    Technical Lead · Architecture, UI & Design · PM
    Stack
    BabylonJSTypeScriptWebGL 2.0Google Earth tilesSGP4

    Forerunner 2

    Space Interactions Inc. · Technical Lead · Feb 2024–2025

    A low-spec, self-hostable space-domain awareness platform: jump to any date and see the full satellite picture for that moment, running smoothly on hardware as light as a Surface Pro.

    As technical lead, I drove the conversion of an inherited Forerunner 2 codebase into a modern, developer-friendly TypeScript and Rust base, and led the redesign of the UI and UX from a cartoonish educational look into a clean, utilitarian "engine chic." My brother led the core code as senior developer while I owned direction, 3D graphics, mesh work, and structure. In a later phase I oversaw the data-traversal engine, indexing 500,000+ historical TLE records dating to the 1980s with fast time-traversal queries; its orbital-debris work was presented at the 2024 Space Symposium.

    500,000+ TLE records Under 10s cold load Self-hostable bring your own data
      Role
      Technical Lead · UI/UX, 3D & Data Engine · PM
      Stack
      TypeScriptRustMongoDBRESTBlender

      Phillips Lifestyles

      CTO & Design Lead · 2015–2024

      A multi-system logistics platform built from the ground up: a C# desktop client, MongoDB, custom IoT GPS hardware across an 18-vehicle fleet, and AutoHotkey RPA bridging a legacy POS.

      I architected a unified scheduling system around a dual-window UI philosophy, letting six service techs and three-to-four maintenance techs run their days from one tool. A local-first data store kept crews productive offline, with redundant Google Calendar sync so field techs always had their schedule in hand, while custom Particle.io hardware tracked the fleet in real time and RPA bridged an aged POS that had no API.

      $1.5M revenue increase ~$300K/yr labor saved
        Role
        Architect · Tech Lead · Designer
        Stack
        C#MongoDBGoogle Calendar APIParticle.io IoTAutoHotkey RPA

        AI-Augmented Engineering Workflow

        HarrisXR LLC · Founder & Sole Engineer · 2025–Present

        10+ Python and web tools for internal and team use, several reaching real-world use — including a paid client deliverable: the patterns I developed while evangelizing AI-first workflows, made tangible.

        I work in Claude Code as my primary coding partner inside a structured plan → review → implement cycle that keeps AI velocity from turning into technical debt. The tools below are that workflow in practice: utilities spanning reverse-engineering, real-time projection math, and developer ergonomics.

        • Wulfram 2 call-stack visualizer
        • 360° → 180° fisheye video converter
        • Mascot notification system
        • French voice practice via Grok
        Role
        Founder · Sole Engineer
        Stack
        PythonAutoHotkey 2TypeScriptClaude CodeCodexGemini

        COGNiTiON Mobile Planetarium

        Earth & Space Lab Director · 2023–Present

        A $50K real-time astronomical simulation rig, custom-integrated à la carte from international vendors: an Israeli dome, a Belgian fisheye lens, and a SEILER/ZEISS custom-modified projector.

        After rejecting off-the-shelf commercial systems, I sourced components internationally (traveling to RSA Cosmos in France to inform the design) and became SEILER's first customer for a fully custom-integrated mobile platform. The build adds novel external, thermal-isolated electronics and a 5G wireless presenter interface designed so kids can take the controls without breaking the show.

        100+ live shows 10,000+ attendees
          Role
          Systems Architect · Designer · Presenter
          Stack
          Space EngineCustom SFF PC build5G wireless presenter UI

          COGNiTiON Commercial VR Program

          COGNiTiON · Earth & Space Lab Director · 2023–Present

          A four-station public VR installation built for general admission: Valve Index headsets, custom RTX-class PCs, curated educational and family-friendly experiences, and staff-ready operations.

          I led the design and build of a commercial VR program that could survive daily science-center use, from hardware selection and PC builds to experience curation, operational flow, and staff training. The program extended the Earth & Space Lab beyond the dome with flight simulation, driving simulation, hands-on creative play, and repeatable procedures that let staff run the stations independently.

          4 public VR stations Staff-run operations
            Role
            XR Systems Architect · Hardware Build · Staff Training
            Stack
            Valve IndexCustom RTX PCsSteamVRAerofly VRBeamNG VRJob SimulatorMinecraft VR

            Blockade Runner

            ZanMgt · Co-Founder & Lead Designer · 2011–2016

            A voxel-based space-sim with a unique ship-construction system and realistic physics: 5,000+ paying early-access customers across international markets, on a bi-weekly release cadence.

            The heart of the game was ship construction as a genuine design problem, where every block of mass changed how a vessel handled. We shipped fortnightly in tight dialogue with the community, and the voxel work, including the Liquid Cubed real-time fluid-simulation experiments, still reads as distinctive in 2026. A tiny team that landed thousands of paying customers worldwide.

            5,000+ paying customers Bi-weekly release cadence
              Role
              Co-Founder · Lead Designer
              Tech
              Custom voxel engineReal-time physicsProprietary fluid sim
              About
              Portrait of Aaron M. Harris.

              I'm Aaron Harris, a technical lead and solutions architect who has been shipping production software since 2011. I started building games and tools when I was nine, and that lifelong systems instinct still shows up in how I architect, debug, and lead today.

              My range is end-to-end: full-stack systems, UI/UX, simulation, integrations, AI-assisted workflows, and the judgment to know what should be built, delegated, simplified, or protected from technical debt.

              My pattern is to move fluently between contributor, architect, and team lead: translating between engineers, clients, and stakeholders, turning ambiguous goals into working systems, and helping small teams keep moving when the path is not obvious.

              The work that lights me up has people on the other end of it: watching an audience get hooked on space, or hearing that service techs are home for dinner at 5 p.m.

              Currently based in Traverse City, Michigan.

              Read the full bio on LinkedIn
              © 2026 Aaron M. Harris · Traverse City, MI