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Portrait of Brent Slater

I build tools that replace what I can't trust — starting with my own ear.

I have a perforated right eardrum. About 50% hearing loss on that side. When I decided to learn to sing, I couldn't reliably tell if I was hitting the notes. So I built a measurement system that replaces the feedback loop my ear can't provide. I didn't set out to become an audio engineer. The constraint made me one.

That pattern keeps repeating. A disability creates a gap. I build something to close it. An audio quality system replaced my ear. A haptic learning tool helps me feel rhythms I can't always hear. A reading accessibility app adapts to the reader instead of asking them to adapt. Three products. One pattern. Constraint in, invention out.

I'm rebuilding after a hard chapter — the engineering and the music are the same discipline. The day job is that discipline at enterprise scale. A decade of data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and AI tooling — at U.S. Bank, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and in my own projects. I zoom out to see the whole system, then zoom in and ship clean execution.

Everything I build leaves a trail you can verify. Audit logs, integrity checks, test reports, plots. I don't ask you to trust my work — I give you the evidence. Here's why.

Work

  • Company
    U.S. Bank
    Role
    Site Reliability Engineering Manager
    Date
    2021–Present
  • Company
    Anheuser-Busch InBev
    Role
    Director, Cloud Operations
    Date
    2021
  • Company
    U.S. Bank
    Role
    Cloud Solutions Architect
    Date
    2020–2021
  • Company
    U.S. Bank
    Role
    Data Engineering Manager
    Date
    2016–2020
  • Education

  • Institution
    University of Illinois Springfield
    Degree
    M.S. in Computer Science
    Year
    2019
  • Institution
    Eastern Illinois University
    Degree
    B.A., Communication Studies (Corporate Communication Option)
    Year
    2013
  • Volunteer

    Organization
    Impartial, Inc.
    Role
    Creative Director, Music
    Date
    2025–Present

    Criminal justice advocacy nonprofit. I create and direct music for educational games designed to raise public awareness of wrongful convictions — working with university students from programs across the country who develop the games.

    Music

    Currently writing and recording Gravel & Grace — a confessional country / Americana album about sobriety, fatherhood, and hard-won grace. 12 tracks across three acts. A custom measurement system was built to record it.

    Want to collaborate?

    I'm open to full-time roles, contract work, and interesting side projects. Reach out and let's talk.