Engineering Leader & Self-Taught Builder

Andy Kramer

I find the problems other people give up on, build the tools and teams to fix them for good — and taught myself how to do most of it.

Andy Kramer

About

I spent 19 years at Rite Track in West Chester, Ohio, working my way from the assembly floor to Engineering Supervisor and Product Manager for our SVG 8X product line. In 2025 I moved into an Associate Operations Manager role at L3Harris Technologies. Wherever I've been, I've ended up becoming the person people call when a project is stuck, a machine is misbehaving, or nobody's quite sure how to turn an idea into something that can actually be built and shipped.

I'm usually the one people bring the hard, tangled problems to — the ones that need someone to actually trace the issue down, not just guess at it. I care just as much about building that same instinct in the people around me, which is why I spend a lot of my time mentoring interns and technicians and making sure the next generation of engineers isn't learning everything the hard way.

I don't have a traditional engineering degree. Everything I know — electrical, mechanical, and now software — I've built through hands-on work, a vocational electrical certificate, and a lot of self-directed learning. That same pattern is still running: over the past couple of years I've taught myself Python and started building real software tools to solve problems I kept running into at work.

Outside of work I'm usually tinkering on something at home, or out chasing a good trail and a good photo — national parks, wildlife, whatever's around.

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park Bryce Canyon hoodoos Waterfall and rail bridge Alpine lake Great blue heron

What I Bring

I diagnose what others give up on

Troubleshooting is where I've built my reputation — tracing electrical faults and mechanical issues that don't show up until they're expensive, and running them to ground instead of guessing.

I build the tools nobody else will

No CS degree, just curiosity and Python. Over the last couple of years I've taught myself to code and started building real internal software to solve problems I kept running into at work.

I grow the people around me

Mentoring interns and technicians isn't a side note for me — it's part of how I measure whether a project actually succeeded.

I connect engineering and the business

Nineteen years at Rite Track — most recently as Product Manager for the SVG 8X line — taught me to sit between sales, customers, and the shop floor, turning a vague ask into a quoted, engineered, delivered retrofit.

Career at a Glance

19 years at Rite Track (West Chester, OH) — starting as a Senior Technician assembling capital equipment, working through electrical design, PCB layout, and manufacturing support, up through Engineering Supervisor and Product Manager for the SVG 8X product line — and now an Associate Operations Manager at L3Harris Technologies.

  1. Senior Technician

    2006 – 2013
  2. Manufacturing Support Engineer

    2013 – 2022
  3. Technical Support / Electrical Engineer

    2013 – 2022
  4. Assistant Product Manager

    2017 – 2022
  5. Engineering Supervisor, SVG 8X Product Manager

    2022 – 2025
  6. Associate Operations Manager, L3Harris Technologies

    2025 – Present

For the full job-by-job resume, work history, and recommendations, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Education: a vocational electrical certificate (Diamond Oaks, 2000) plus ongoing self-directed coursework in Python, project management, and data analysis (Coursera).

Projects

A closer look at the internal tools I've built — coming soon.

Get in Touch

If you've got a hard problem, a team that needs building up, or just want to talk shop — I'd like to hear about it.