Casey Sumner

I spent nine years in the U.S. Air Force maintaining strategic systems and airlift aircraft. After that I moved to the engineering side of the same kind of hardware: space payload integration and semiconductor qualification at a defense prime.

At the prime I worked custom semiconductor R&D from the qualification side, from design controls and signoff through failure analysis, and I evaluated subcontractors and worked proposals across multi-company teams. The hard part was rarely the design itself. It was carrying a design through qualification, manufacturing and the supply chain.

I started TektonDesigns to do that work for technology and hardware companies of any size, from a chip designer heading into defense and high-reliability markets to a manufacturer ready for more demanding work or a prime that needs one accountable subcontractor. The company is based in Greer, South Carolina, and works with teams nationwide.