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Team Spotlight | Jacob Heater

We’re excited to welcome Jacob Heater as our newest Senior Application Developer! Bringing 10+ years of full-stack experience, he delivers scalable solutions, streamlines testing & deployment, and partners across teams to build seamless applications.
Now, let’s learn a bit more about Jacob!

What is your role at GeoMarvel?

As a Senior Application Developer at GeoMarvel, I design and build full‑stack applications that move from idea through design, implementation, testing, and release. I spend my time writing and testing code, setting up automated tests and deployment pipelines, and making sure everything works smoothly across all layers of the stack. I work closely with product, design, and partner technology teams to keep the end‑to‑end experience cohesive, and I help refine our processes, guidelines, and best practices as we learn what works best.

I stay curious about new tools and approaches, picking them up when they can improve how we deliver software, and I occasionally step into business‑analysis work to help clarify requirements and shape better solutions. Drawing on a decade plus of full‑stack engineering experience, I bring a proven track record of delivering reliable, scalable solutions while continuously improving team workflows.

Describe your education and professional background.

I bring more than a decade of experience in full-stack software engineering, with a background building production software across web, backend, and cloud environments. A graduate of George Mason University, where I finished Cum Laude, I’ve spent my career designing and delivering scalable applications and services, contributing to shared technical foundations, and working across the full software lifecycle from requirements and solution design through implementation, testing, deployment, and long-term support. My background also includes technical leadership, cross-functional collaboration, agile delivery, process improvement, and mentoring, all of which have shaped a practical, adaptable approach to building reliable software, solving complex problems, and helping teams deliver strong outcomes together in fast-moving environments.

Tell us about the most interesting job you've had?

Without question, the most interesting job I’ve had was teaching English in China. I lived in Chengdu, Sichuan, where I enjoyed amazing food and met many great people. It remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

East Asia because I want to close the loop on some countries that I haven’t visited–namely Japan and Taiwan.

How do you like to spend your free time?

As a husband and father of three, spending time with my family is easily my favorite thing to do outside of work. We enjoy traveling when we can and exploring new places together. When I have time to myself, I enjoy playing video games, roasting coffee, playing music, and occasionally dabbling in songwriting and recording. I also maintain a blog where I occasionally write about Christian apologetics, philosophy, and other topics.

What random facts can you share about yourself?

I am a polyglot. Mandarin Chinese is my second language, and I speak advanced Spanish.

Favorite activity/sport?

Going for nature walks.

Favorite movie?

The Truman Show

What excites you about joining the GeoMarvel team?

Geospatial is entirely new territory for me, and that is a large part of why I am excited to join GeoMarvel. I have spent 13 years in cybersecurity, healthcare, and federal contracting. New domains force you to learn, and learning makes you a better engineer. GeoMarvel made the decision easy. The work is not trivial, the client base is not narrow, and the team builds real software for people who depend on it. I am genuinely looking forward to applying what I know to problems I have not seen before, in an industry I have not worked in yet. That is when the work is most interesting.

We look forward to working with Jacob to design and deliver scalable, high-quality applications while advancing our development practices and driving seamless, end-to-end solutions.