Benigno Pablo
Digon IV

I design genetic algorithms and optimization systems that schedule aircraft and crews for a private aviation fleet — mission-critical software where a better fitness function is worth millions. Security-first by training, with an M.S. in Cybersecurity Engineering.

Daytona Beach, FL US Patent 12,430,596 B2 CompTIA Security+

$cat ./about.md

I'm a Software Engineer II and my company's subject-matter expert in genetic algorithms — architecting the optimization engines that generate schedules for an entire pilot workforce and allocate aircraft across a private aviation fleet. The systems I own inform multimillion-dollar operational decisions every day.

My work lives where NP-hard combinatorial problems meet production reality: crossover operators, mutation strategies, fitness-score balancing, and violation detection — tuned every bidding period against evolving business goals, then shipped through CI/CD with more than a year of zero user-facing downtime.

With an M.S. in Cybersecurity Engineering and CompTIA Security+ certification, I bring a security-first mindset to everything I build — from CVE remediation across production systems to FAA-accepted research on IT/OT convergence. I collaborate with teams, mentor engineers, work in the company's AI working group, and build university talent pipelines.

0 pilots scheduled / month
0 months zero user downtime
0 project involvement across company
0 years of expertise

$git log --career --reverse=false

From Innovation Center intern to lead engineer on patented optimization technology.

2021 — present

Software Engineer II

Flexjet LLC — Innovation Center · Daytona Beach, FL

  • Subject-matter expert for the company's genetic-algorithm optimizers; named co-inventor on the patent covering the core fleet optimization technology.
  • Revived and re-architected a mission-critical fleet optimization engine — restored to continuous production on automated 2-hour cycles, with a minimal-impact run mode adopted into daily operations.
  • Architected the crew scheduling optimizer generating thousands of schedules monthly for 400+ pilots — the system of record for the entire pilot workforce.
  • Delivered an enterprise preference re-architecture as a single synchronized release across 6+ microservices, 3 offices, and a coordinated mobile launch.
  • Founded a revenue-critical event-driven invoicing platform on Kafka; leading to in house modernization and replacement of legacy systems.
  • Built the foundation of an enterprise aviation weather service (METAR/TAF) and executed FAA NOTAM subscription updates for regulatory compliance.
  • Active contributing member of the company AI working group at the IT Director's request — authoring adoption standards and mentoring engineers on effective, secure AI usage.
  • Championed security incident response and CVE remediation across production systems; received formal commendation for work beyond assigned scope.
  • Major contributor to what became an issued software patent — developing the genetic algorithm for enterprise aviation scheduling software.
  • Full-stack aviation technology research and development across the Innovation Center's project portfolio.
2023 — 2024

Lead Researcher

Center for Aerospace Resilient Systems

  • Primary contributor to three FAA-accepted research reports, coordinating between stakeholders, the internal team, and the FAA.
  • Researched commercial cybersecurity and data-science tooling at the convergence of IT and operational technology (IT/OT) in aviation.
  • Interviewed and organized meetings with aviation-industry stakeholders and commercial analytical-tool vendors.

$ls ./engineering

A partial selection of the impact I've made at Flexjet.

GA

Fleet Optimization Engine

Re-architected and revived a genetic-algorithm engine that allocates aircraft across an entire private aviation fleet, informing multimillion-dollar operational decisions. Runs continuously in production on automated 2-hour cycles. Designed an experimental minimal-impact run mode that improves utilization and repositioning efficiency while minimizing schedule disruption — now part of daily operations, and covered by an issued US patent.

C# / .NET 8 Genetic Algorithms Combinatorial Optimization Patented
GA

Crew Scheduling Optimizer

Architected a genetic-algorithm crew scheduling system generating thousands of individual schedules monthly for 400+ pilots — the system of record for the pilot workforce. Owns the full algorithmic core: crossover methods, mutation strategies, fitness-score balancing, violation detection, and coverage weighting, retuned each bidding period. Sustained 12+ months of zero user-facing downtime deploying a stochastic system to production.

C# / .NET 8 Evolutionary Computation Constraint Optimization Microservices
RE

Preference Platform Re-architecture

Led a full-stack re-architecture of a workforce preference-bidding platform, shipped as a single synchronized release spanning 6+ microservices across 3 development offices with a coordinated mobile launch. Redesigned the preference data model, API contracts, and optimizer integration layer — driving measurable gains in pilot satisfaction and retention, a multimillion-dollar cost lever.

Microservices Angular .NET 8 Mobile Coordination CI/CD
λ

Event-Driven Invoicing Platform

Conceived and built the foundation and MVP of a revenue-critical invoicing system on an event-driven architecture with Apache Kafka. Root-caused and eliminated 21,000+ processing errors across the event pipeline, restoring data integrity to a financial system. Instrumented observability, monitoring, and alerting with Datadog.

Apache Kafka Event-Driven Architecture SQL Datadog
#!

Security Operations & DevSecOps

Championed security across the platform: remediated critical- and high-severity CVEs on multiple production systems (often beyond assigned scope, earning formal commendation), owned monthly security patching and production-health monitoring, hardened company-wide database access permissions with the DBA lead, and migrated RabbitMQ brokers across production environments in 2 data centers with no consumer downtime.

CVE Remediation DevSecOps RabbitMQ Access Hardening Azure DevOps

$ls ./projects

Things I've designed and shipped on my own time.

OI

Over I.T.

Founder of Over I.T., a Daytona Beach technology-services studio built to make tech accessible, affordable, and stress-free for small business owners. I design and build professional websites, provide IT support and troubleshooting, deliver patient tech-literacy coaching, and help businesses integrate AI into their operations — all with plain-language communication and transparent pricing.

Web Design & Development IT Support AI Integration Cloudflare Small Business
visit overitusa.com
H₂O

Water My Plant

A houseplant-care web app that decides when to water by checking live weather in each plant's native region. It pulls real-time rainfall and humidity from the Open-Meteo API for a plant's original habitat and turns it into personalized watering guidance — backed by a searchable database of houseplants and fruit plants sorted by thirst level, with species information sourced from Wikipedia.

JavaScript Open-Meteo API Weather Data Web App
visit water-my-plant.com
;;

Lawn Grow

A Bermuda grass simulator that lets you literally watch grass grow. Built with plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no libraries — it animates a low-poly meadow on canvas through real Bermuda growth stages, from fresh mow to seed maturity, over a 4–20 hour real-time lifespan saved in your browser. A faceted day/night sky follows your local clock, Florida-summer rain rolls in on schedule to make a realistic simulation.

JavaScript Canvas Animation HTML & CSS Simulation No Libraries
visit lawn-grow.com

$grep -i "digon" /uspto/issued

Named co-inventor on issued US patent technology.

USPTO

Fleet Optimizer

US 12,430,596 B2 · Granted Sep 30, 2025 · Assignee: OneSky Flight LLC

Co-invented a fleet-optimization system that automatically schedules private aircraft by iteratively matching flight requests against aircraft availability and crew constraints. The patented technology coordinates a large fractional-ownership fleet — receiving scheduling requests across user types and iteratively allocating aircraft while determining crew availability.

The underlying work spans genetic-algorithm architecture, custom mutation and crossover operators, constraint satisfaction, and multi-objective fitness evaluation applied to large-scale resource allocation in real-time operational environments.

Genetic Algorithms Schedule Optimization Constraint Satisfaction Aviation Technology
view patent US-12430596-B2

$curl news.feed | grep "digon"

Coverage and mentions from industry and university press.

Embry-Riddle News · May 2025

Career Connections: Eagles Get Inside Look at Industry Leaders

"It was an honor to engage with students on Eagle Job Shadow Day and share insights into a day in the life of a Flexjet employee."

Featured for hosting Eagle Job Shadow Day, giving nearly 200 Embry-Riddle students firsthand exposure to careers at major aerospace employers.

read article
Embry-Riddle News · Jul 2023

For Cool Projects and Jobs, Students Flock to Flexjet

"Alumnus Benigno Digon IV is focusing on crew-schedule optimization technology."

Profile of how Embry-Riddle students gain production-level experience through Flexjet's Research Park internships — the crew-schedule optimization work that later became patented technology.

read article
GlobeNewswire / Yahoo Finance · Mar 2023

Flexjet Helps a New Generation Take to the Skies at Embry-Riddle

Featured among the Innovation Center team at the opening of Flexjet's expanded 3,000-sq-ft Innovation and Career Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — a facility housing internships that introduce students to business aviation technology careers.

read article
Observer Local News · Mar 2023

Flexjet Helps a New Generation Take to the Skies

Local coverage of the expanded Innovation and Career Center at Embry-Riddle's Research Park, spotlighting the staff and interns building aviation technology in a sector employing more workers than U.S. airlines and the Air Force combined.

read article

$man bdigon

Languages, frameworks, and domains of expertise.

languages

C# TypeScript JavaScript SQL HTML / CSS

frameworks_platforms

.NET 8 Angular RESTful APIs Microservices

algorithms_optimization

Genetic Algorithms Combinatorial Optimization Constraint-Based Optimization Fitness-Function Tuning

messaging_data

Apache Kafka RabbitMQ Event-Driven Architecture SQL Databases

devops_infrastructure

Azure DevOps CI/CD Pipelines Datadog Observability Server Setup & Migration Production Monitoring

security

CompTIA Security+ CVE & Vulnerability Remediation DevSecOps Access-Control Hardening Secure Code Review IT/OT Convergence

domain_aviation

Crew Scheduling Fleet Optimization METAR / TAF FAA NOTAM Compliance Private Aviation Systems

leadership_ai

AI Adoption Strategy Agile / Scrum Mentorship Stakeholder Management Technical Writing

$sudo lead --team --mentor

Growing engineers, building partnerships, and representing the organization.

>_ Team Lead

Owned Agile/Scrum ceremonies — sprint planning, user-story creation, and work allocation for interns and full-time engineers. Guided cross-functional execution across multiple concurrent projects while keeping delivery aligned with business goals.

>_ Engineer Mentorship

Mentored numerous engineers, including senior engineers through a high-difficulty optimization project to successful delivery, and led 3 interns through onboarding, project work, and professional growth — with multiple converting to full-time roles.

>_ AI Working Group

Selected to lead the company AI working group; chaired meetings at the IT Director's request, authored AI adoption standards, and mentored engineers company-wide on effective and secure AI usage in development workflows.

>_ Platform Standards

Hardened enterprise shared libraries, UI utilities, and the shared microservice database template — resolving CI/CD build and configuration failures blocking multiple teams. Authored platform documentation recognized by senior developers and directors.

>_ Business Representative

Represented the company to business leaders, investors, and prospective partners at external venues — communicating technical capabilities and demonstrating system value through clear presentation of engineering achievements.

>_ Cross-Functional Liaison

Served as primary engineering point of contact between crew services, operations, product, IT, API, and mobile teams — translating business requirements and user feedback directly into algorithm enhancements and system features.

$cat credentials.sig --verify

M.S. · Graduate

Cybersecurity Engineering

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University · Daytona Beach, FL

Graduate study in secure systems engineering, network defense, and aviation cybersecurity — applied through FAA-accepted research on IT/OT convergence. Graduated December 2024.

B.S. · Undergraduate

Computer Science

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University · Daytona Beach, FL

Foundation in algorithms, software engineering, and systems — completed alongside the Innovation Center internship where the patented genetic algorithm work began. Graduated May 2023.

Magna Cum Laude
[✓] CompTIA Security+ — certified 2022

$./research --list --accepted

Academic partnerships, FAA-accepted reports, and knowledge sharing.

FAA-Accepted Cybersecurity Research — IT/OT Convergence

Primary contributor to three FAA-accepted research reports through the Center for Aerospace Resilient Systems, examining commercial cybersecurity and data-science tooling at the convergence of information technology and operational technology in aviation.

Scheduling-Preference Analysis — ERAU Data Science Collaboration

Established and led a research collaboration with a data-science student team at Embry-Riddle analyzing workforce scheduling preferences. Provided data, direction, and mentorship — findings now guide the optimizer roadmap.

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Hosted REU events for two groups of 25+ Embry-Riddle students, connecting academic research to industry careers in data science and software engineering — building a sustainable university talent pipeline.

Eagle Job Shadow Day

Organized and led an immersive industry-exposure day for Embry-Riddle students, coordinating with professors and career services. The event converted directly into new intern hires and earned university press coverage.

$ssh guest@bdigon.dev

connection established_

Open to conversations about optimization engineering, aviation technology, cybersecurity, and interesting hard problems. The fastest route is email.