Meet Luca Moukheiber. A rising college sophomore, he is a member of the 2023 Karsun Innovation Center Internship Program. He worked alongside artificial intelligence (AI), federal acquisitions and data solutions experts as part of a project team developing a federal contracts management proof of concept. In the interview below, we learn more about Luca, his project using a Large Language Model to generate code and his favorite parts about working with our Innovation Center. 

First please tell us about yourself. Where are you going to school? What are you studying? What do you like to do in your free time?

I am an Echols Scholar about to start my second year at the University of Virginia, where I am majoring in computer science. I enjoy hiking, biking, paddle boarding, and playing the guitar in my free time.

Could you share a little bit about the project you worked on as part of this internship? What challenge does it solve? What technologies and tools are you using?

As part of the Karsun initiative to explore the integration of generative AI into application development, I developed a file attachment feature used in a proof of concept application using Large Language Model (LLM) technology to generate code for certain parts of my project. I created a custom interface for users to upload, view, or delete documents as part of a reporting system. My project solves the challenge of improving efficiencies and reducing costs associated with federal contract management. This task involved working on both the front and back end to store documents in a database and the cloud. Leveraging AI to reduce manual code writing reduces development time and improves efficiency. The technologies that I used in this project were GPT-4, Angular, Spring Boot, Postgres, AWS S3, LocalStack, Jest, Nx, Flyway, and Podman.

What is your favorite part about working with the Karsun Innovation Center? Is there a weekly meeting or ritual you enjoy? The opportunity to learn more or get a new certification?

My favorite part of working in the Innovation Center is having the opportunity to develop cutting-edge solutions to novel problems. The projects evolve rapidly, with ample space for creative thinking and problem-solving. I appreciate Karsun’s emphasis on intern learning. I am currently studying to become certified as an AWS Developer Associate.

What is the biggest takeaway from your experience as an intern at Karsun?

My biggest takeaway is that keeping an open mind, being adaptable, and continuously learning are core software development skills. I came in with no Angular experience, and understanding how everything worked together in the codebase was difficult at first. However, by taking courses, I saw how the material I learned applied to the real project I was working on, enabling me to build my own feature. There were also situations where I had to change my approach because I ran into blockers, which took me extra time to figure out but strengthened my problem-solving abilities.

Luca’s internship was supported by the Karsun Solutions Innovation Center Practice Areas. Learn more about Karsun’s Acquisitions Management Modernization solutions. Connect with Luca on LinkedIn.

At Karsun, we help civilian government agencies prepare for Every Next with mission driven modernization. We encourage experimentation, and facilitation of innovation that produces solutions that use the best suited technology to help these agencies meet their mission. Using the right technology at the right time ensures our solutions are built to last.

When you join Team Karsun, you become part of the team delivering state-of-the-art, long-lasting solutions to these government agencies. Whether applying emerging technology or using proven resources to produce extraordinary results, Karsun is where experimenters and problem solvers Find Your Next. Moreover, when you are here, our team will cheer you on and celebrate as you solve problems and build exciting new solutions!

All Karsun, team members have access to two critical components of the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC). Our in-house research and development team is the first stop for teams ready to try building with emerging technologies. This team receives requests via our Innovation Radar. The R&D team validates the technology and then creates a prototype. Working alongside the customer team, they develop the prototype further to implement the solution.

Each month we share and promote successful implementations at our Innovation Town Halls. If you want to grow your career through experimentation and innovation, these monthly events are your opportunity to shine. Open to the entire company, executives, portfolio leaders, and experts eager to introduce new solutions attend these interactive sessions. Every solution includes a demo and a question-and-answer session. Many Karsun colleagues follow town halls with brown bags to share their findings, process, and expertise.

Fully matured solutions may later be included in our Innovation Center Toolkits. These kits combine robust assessments, data driven analysis, and proven resources with expert guidance from our Innovation Center Practice Areas. Leveraging industry best practices, our toolkits are used by our teams as readymade cloud migration, DevSecOps, microservices, UI/UX, agile, and data solution resources.

Early adopters and those early in their technology careers may not yet feel comfortable participating directly in the R&D process. These toolkits support you as you implement new and powerful tools in your solutions using established guidelines and playbooks, plus support from our subject matter experts. Industry certifications also validate these toolkits. Our Cloud Runways and AWS cloud practice are backed by AWS Government, Migration, and DevOps Competencies. Our GoLean Agile Platform uses our CMMI v2.0 Level 5 DEV appraised software development methodology. That appraisal reflects our data driven approach to development using the visualization tools available with the GoLean toolkits.

As a manner of field testing these toolkits, some Karsun team members also participate in codeathons and challenge teams. These exercises allow our team to experiment with these resources to solve hypothetical problems that our government customers may face. Past challenges include applying new AI-assisted development tools, cybersecurity, and UI/UX resources.

Whether you want to lead new technology adoption or introduce new technology with expert guidance, Karsun has a growth opportunity for you. Resources from our Karsun Innovation Center R&D and Practice Area teams have your back. If you are an innovator or experimenter ready to help government agencies build better technology, join our team and Find Your Next.

Update August 2023: This blog was the second in our series exploring how our problem solvers grow at Karsun while helping our agency customers meet their mission. Check out our previous posts and discover where we find our next, how our teams collaborate with toolkits and how our team champions power possible.

Last June MeriTalk released its Modernization Hits and Misses: Lessons from Federal Digital Service Innovation report. Among the report’s findings, 99 percent of the federal information technology leaders surveyed said that IT modernization has changed the citizen experience. And you can be part of this government-wide effort to improve government for citizens.

Karsun Solutions’ technology modernization work helps agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency enhance their infrastructure and applications. When you join Team Karsun, you join a group of people inspired to solve problems to help the government serve its citizens better.  Along the way, you will work inside our collaborative culture, access proven toolkits and playbooks, and receive the support to champion your team’s goals. 

Collaborate, Innovate, Champion, and Grow

From collaborators to innovators to team champions, Karsun has opportunities for every problem solver looking to build their career. You can do this as part of a team of experts that puts our customers’ missions at the forefront of our work. Elevate our government agency customers’ capabilities and build exciting solutions when you Find Your Next at Karsun. 

For those who build by innovating and experimenting, the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) has a wealth of resources to support your career journey. Our in-house research and development team works with innovative teams to take solutions from prototype to production. Our Practice Areas ensure everyone can access mature solutions using emerging technologies. Whether at the forefront of solutioning with emerging technologies or using building blocks created by our experts, Karsun is where experimenters and innovators find their next opportunity to envision the future of government.

Our Karsun problem solvers and experts are also members of our collaborative community. The resources developed by our Innovation Center support collaboration at every stage of the transformation process. Our remote/flexible roles empower self guiding teams to work together in their best work environment. Backed by this collaborative spirit, our teams defy assumptions and deliver extraordinary customer results.

Finally, our team champions lead from the top. Their role is essential to the ideation and execution of complex modernization solutions. Like our problem solvers and builders, our champions have dedicated KIC resources and training opportunities. Moreover, this training integrates knowledge of federal skill sets. At Karsun, leaders growing and building in the public sector will Find Your Next.

At any stage in your career journey, those that use technology to build new tools and solve complex problems can Find Your Next at Karsun. We hope you join us over the next few weeks as we delve deeper into how experimenters, collaborators, and champions meet our customers’ mission while growing at Karsun. Follow along to learn more, or start your career journey now at KarsunCareers.com/jobs. 

Update August 2023: This blog was the first in this series. Check out our previous posts and discover where we experiment for mission success, how our teams collaborate with toolkits and how our team champions power possible.

HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announced today it won an award from Comparably for Best Company Career Growth. The award recognizes small and medium sized businesses rated highly for career growth by their employees. An enterprise modernization company serving the federal government, Karsun provides extensive career development resources through its in-house Innovation Center.

“We are proud to see our commitment to career growth recognized through this award from Comparably,” said Badri Sriraman, Senior Vice President of the Karsun Innovation Center.

Team members have many opportunities to grow their careers through the Karsun Innovation Center. Its professional development program, Karsun Academy, provides access to workshops, brown bags and training resources so that every team member may earn industry standard credentials. Additionally, anyone may research recommended certifications and classes through the career pathing tool on the Karsun Konnect employee app.   

Karsun also celebrates and encourages team members when they put these skills into practice. Monthly Innovation Town Halls celebrate the successful implementation of emerging technologies. The Innovation Radar, also available through the Konnect app, tracks these projects from ideation to completion. Moreover, innovation weeks, hackathons and challenge teams allow employees to test their skills in implementing solutions to known customer problems.

Karsun’s commitment to career growth supports the upskilling and expansion of its teams. Many of these teams grew throughout the pandemic and even as Karsun moved to a remote-flexible model. Several teams continue hiring nationwide. Interested candidates may apply at KarsunCareers.com. 

About Karsun Solutions

Transform your career with the company transforming possible for the government. Join the workplace where the only limit to your potential is the limit of your curiosity. Thrive in a community that empowers software development, cloud and data experts. At Karsun, explore every possibility and turn your bold ideas into reality.  Expand your career potential with dynamic development resources like Karsun Academy and sponsored technical certification courses. And joining a growing enterprise means as we grow, so do your career opportunities. Take your career to the next level and play your part in powering new possibilities for federal agencies. 

Company Contact: Karsun Solutions, marketing@karsun-llc.com

About Comparably 

Comparably (now a ZoomInfo company) is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous employee ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories – based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, industry, location, education – it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation. For more information on Comparably and its annual Best Places to Work Awards, visit www.comparably.com.

The Great Resignation is out, and the Big Stay is in. At least according to a recent report from ADP, which observes many people are opting to stay in their current roles rather than risk an unsteady job market. However, at Karsun, we are still growing and want you to grow with us! 

Here growth is about more than moving up (though if that is important to you, we hope you do that too!). It is also about growing your expertise and technical skills in government technology projects. We are an information technology consulting company, but our teams exclusively serve the federal government. If you want to grow your career in public sector IT, there is no better place to be than Karsun. 

Grow to Serve the Mission

We support important missions at agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). We prioritize training to ensure our support of the mission continues. We proudly recall several examples when our teams persevered, despite external constraints. During the 2019 Government Shutdown, rather than send our teams home, we created a training program focused on developing the skills and tools that would best support our agency customers the moment the work stoppage lifted. Likewise, during the early days of the pandemic, one of our teams not only continued delivery on their current project but due to their expertise in enterprise modernization and grants management systems onboarded a new program to support first responders. 

Because our training programs anticipate the needs of our agency customers, we can ensure they meet their missions. And as our customer wins, our teams share in those successes while growing their experience in new technologies and tools. Our Innovation Center has dedicated technical practice areas and experts focused on modernizing Acquisition, Aviation, Grants, and Fleet management systems. These same practice leaders work with our Karsun Academy team to develop tailored training programs to support the needs of our customers and our teams serving them. 

Grow with our Industry

In addition to our in-house resources, we also proudly support local industry organizations like the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC).  In fact, eleven Karsun leaders are ACT-IAC fellows, graduating from one of its exclusive professional development cohorts. We also support organizations such as Women in Technology to ensure our region has diverse opportunities to grow and excel. 

Join our team and not only grow your technical skills but grow your knowledge and experience in public sector IT. In fact, you do not have to be based in the D.C. region to utilize our resources. Karsun hires remote roles nationwide, and all of our team members have access to Karsun Konnect, our virtual portal where they can access the same Innovation Center resources available to our local employees. Many of these tools and courses are designed for remote/asynchronous learning. Visit our Career Development page to learn more about growing with Karsun or apply today at KarsunCareers.com.

Anu Pajjur, a Portfolio Lead at Karsun Solutions, graduated from The American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Voyagers Program this week. Voyagers is ACT-IAC’s professional development program for rising leaders in government and industry. Pairing government and industry leaders one-on-one, the program prepares mid-level leaders for future roles serving the nation.

Graduates of this professional development program become ACT-IAC Fellows. Karsun is an ongoing supporter of both the Voyagers and Partners programs. With participation in these programs spanning more than a decade, leaders across Karsun programs and portfolios are ACT-IAC fellows. Anu is the 11th fellow from Karsun. She joins a network of 1200+ leaders serving the federal government.

Graduation was held during ACT-IAC’s annual Emerging Technology and Innovation conference. One of ACT-IAC’s flagship conferences, this year’s event addressed trends such as artificial intelligence, Quantum Technology, smart city platforms, robotics and nanotechnology, intelligent automation and 5G. In addition to Anu, Karsun leaders joined conference attendees to collaborate, network and discover the future of government information technology. 

About Anu Pajjur

Anu is a Portfolio Lead at Karsun Solutions. She manages modernization projects from conception through implementation with a focus on building high-performance teams that deliver business solutions in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

A seasoned professional with 20 years of experience, her work spans the software development life cycle, including Project Management, Business Analysis, and Software Development. She has industry standard certifications, including SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) and Professional Scrum Master (PSM1), and is engaged in groups like ACT-IAC for continuous learning and sharing opportunities.

Anu is currently leading a multi-million dollar initiative supporting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Anu’s team began work on Karsun’s FAA Software Solution Delivery support services contract in 2017. The contract provides technical support services and assists in implementing and continuing support of enterprise-wide software application and database development. Under this contract, Karsun also performs maintenance and sustainment of existing systems.

digital architecture built to last. It is a proven modernization partner whose expertise elevates agency capabilities and ensures every next opportunity is within reach.

HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions, enterprise modernization experts, announced today it won the employer award from Comparably for Best Company Outlook. This is Karsun’s third consecutive outlook award from the employee rating site. Karsun Solutions transforms government through modern software development, cloud solutions and data solutions. Its acquisitions, aviation, grants management and fleet management solutions are implemented at federal civilian agencies.

The Best Company Outlook award honors the small and medium sized businesses with the highest employee confidence ratings on Comparably. The site hosts ratings and reviews from current employees of companies of all sizes. It determines honorees based on three measures: employee confidence about their company’s future success, how likely they are to recommend working there to a friend and if they are typically excited to go to work each day. 

With just over a decade in business, Karsun’s outlook is strong in part due to its stable, ongoing growth. It is an eight-time Inc. 5000 honoree, repeatedly recognized for its industry leadership and innovative spirit. And at Karsun strong company growth becomes an opportunity for personal growth. This people-first approach excites innovators and collaborators and empowers employees no matter the stage in their career journey.

Karsun provides designated training hours and subsidized certifications for all employees. Karsun Academy, hosted through the in-house Innovation Center, presents workshops, bootcamps and training seminars introducing team members to emerging technologies and industry best practices. For those interested in applying their new knowledge, its Innovation Center practice areas connect team members to practice advocates which help them bring new solutions to life. 

Karsun’s flexible, remote environment ensures teams may work in the way that best suits their needs. This is backed by a collaborative, open culture that includes directly interfacing with Karsun executives. It hosts monthly Coffee and Brunch with Leadership sessions. These small, informal groups invite two-way discussions about the future and vision for Karsun. 

In addition to the Best Company Outlook award, Karsun previously received awards from Comparably for Perks and Benefits, Happiness and Culture. It is also a recent recipient of The 2022 Oklahoman Top Workplaces award. While most Karsun team members work remotely, many of its employees are based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. regions. Karsun is currently hiring for roles in these cities and remote roles nationwide at KarsunCareers.com. Interested candidates may meet the Karsun Talent Team next at the Women in Technology Hybrid Job Fair in Tysons Corner, Virginia on March 30th and virtually on March 31st.  

About Karsun Solutions

Transform your career with the company transforming possible for the government. Join the workplace where the only limit to your potential is the limit of your curiosity. Thrive in a community that empowers software development, cloud and data experts. At Karsun, explore every possibility and turn your bold ideas into reality.  Expand your career potential with dynamic development resources like Karsun Academy and sponsored technical certification courses. And joining a growing enterprise means as we grow, so do your career opportunities. Take your career to the next level and play your part in powering new possibilities for federal agencies. 

Company Contact: Karsun Solutions, marketing@karsun-llc.com

About Comparably 

Comparably (now a ZoomInfo company) is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous employee ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories – based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, industry, location, education – it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation.For more information on Comparably and its annual Best Places to Work Awards, visit www.comparably.com.

Jason Marceau, a Director at Karsun Solutions, will join the 2023 American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Partners Program. The program prepares senior leaders in government and industry for executive roles. Based on Office Personnel Management (OPM) Executive Core Qualifications, the program pairs a government and industry partner one-on-one as they work through the program together. 

About Jason Marceau

Jason Marceau oversees a portfolio of data and analytics programs and is responsible for the maturity and growth of that portfolio. He works with the Data and Analytics capabilities lead on building solutions such as Data Management, DataOps, and Advanced Analytics. These capabilities support Federal agencies as they pursue their data modernization journeys guided by the Federal Data Strategy.

Before joining Karsun, Jason held leadership positions at Meridian Knowledge Solutions, responsible for operations, service delivery, and business development for Federal and Commercial sector clients. He supported agencies such as DHS, GSA, CMS, and FDA and commercial enterprises such as Motorola, Project Management Institute, and CPA.com. 

Continuing the Legacy

ACT-IAC hosts these exclusive professional development programs for professionals at all career levels. Jason will be the twelfth member of Karsun leadership to participate in one of the organization’s programs. Past graduates of the Partners Program at Karsun lead programs serving agencies across the federal government. These include solutions supporting acquisitions, aviation, fleet management, and grants management modernization.

Many past Karsun participants in ACT-IAC programs return to leadership and mentorship roles. Previously executives and leaders at Karsun served as industry chairs and vice chairs for their respective programs. Through programs like those offered via ACT-IAC, Karsun ensures ongoing support for the growth and development of its leaders. 

Karsun’s internship program returned this year, adding a second cohort for exceptional high school and early college STEM students. These two cohorts took the next steps in preparing for their future careers with this program that embeds interns inside the Karsun Innovation Center. The summer programs invited students to imagine the future of government, complete technical certifications, dive into AI/ML and collaborate with experts. 

Nurturing Future Technology Leaders

Here careers grow as Karsun grows. This year that included an expansion to our intern program, enabling that experience to start earlier for high school and college students in their freshman and sophomore years of college. These Student Interns also worked directly with the Karsun Innovation Center and were mentored by previous graduates of the intern program. 

A key focus of the program was imaging the future of technology in government. Working in pairs, our Student Interns picked project topics ranging from digital twins to robotic process automation (RPA). The interns researched these technologies throughout their ten-week program submitting a research paper and presentation at the end of the course.

The intern track for advanced college students, recent grads and graduate students also offered opportunities to work with mentors while building their technical skills. These interns were assigned mentors from one of the KIC Practice Areas. These experts from the Development, Lean, DevSecOps, Data and Solution Practices helped these interns assess and select programs from our Karsun Academy professional development courses. As a result, several members of the class ended their internship with AWS certifications and other credentials.   

“Karsun encourages and supports its workers in obtaining cloud certification in Amazon Web Services for the advancement of their careers is another thing I admire.” – Mayank Tamakuwala

Building with Karsun Innovators

In addition to their research projects, the Student Interns worked in teams on two challenge projects. In one project, they developed a prototype to solve a hypothetical challenge for federal government agencies. The second challenge was a code-a-thon designed to demonstrate the application of data science concepts. In this challenge, the teams applied a digital twin to determine if different images contained pictures of a collapsed lung.

The more experienced interns, worked on real projects under development in the Innovation Center’s R&D unit. Their data science project focused on building a synthetic data platform to improve the security of PII in data modeling. This project culminated with the synthetic data team presenting their findings at an organization-wide Innovation Townhall. 

Some members of the intern program also worked with Karsun’s internal digital workplace team. They assisted with the Karsun Kollaborate project. This initiative examines new ways Karsun team members can connect and collaborate outside of their current delivery teams. Some of these projects were also data focused, using tools like Google Data Studio to improve operational efficiency at Karsun. This was also an opportunity to try low-code/no-code development with to add enhancements to the digital workplace experience.

Collaborating and Presenting to Colleagues

They also participated in Show Don’t Tell sessions, a cornerstone of the internship program. In these weekly meetings, attended by Karsun team members throughout the innovation center, interns demoed and presented their accomplishments. This is also an opportunity to receive feedback from other units in the KIC outside of their practice mentors. At the final Show Don’t Tell event, both groups of interns demoed their projects and presented results from their government technology research projects to Karsun leaders.

“I always felt like my opinion was respected at meetings, even in a room full of people that were far more experienced than me. I also had a great time working with the team, everyone was so willing to help each other and it felt like a comfortable, collaborative environment.” – Akhilesh Varanasi

“I enjoyed the biweekly ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ meetings where I learned about other ongoing projects at KIC. I was introduced to new ideas and tools.” – Sanjana M Moodbagil

Our advanced Summer Interns earned professional certifications, imagined new uses for synthetic data and created tools by Karsun Teams. Meanwhile, our Student Interns experimented with the application of AI/ML, development and other technical concepts as they celebrated innovation while bringing visibility to these future leaders and experts. Through the Karsun Innovation Center, Karsun Academy and other resources, we empower our teams to find their next opportunity to grow at any stage in their education or career.