Ash Charles
Senior Development Manager at Shopify
Greater Montreal Metropolitan Area Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolAsh Charles is a senior development manager with 17 years of experience leading embedded systems and product engineering teams, currently driving delivery at Shopify from the Greater Montreal area. He blends hands-on technical depth—PCB bring-up, Yocto/Linux board support, and device drivers—with people leadership, having scaled and managed teams of 15–22 engineers in connected devices and product engineering roles. His background includes end-to-end hardware-software product work at Gumstix and notable open-source contributions to the PX4 autopilot project, where he added board and sensor support that improved autopilot compatibility. Passionate about robotics and agile practices, he pairs practical engineering with strategic leadership to turn complex hardware challenges into shippable products. Unfinished graduate work in robotics and early experience debugging VxWorks and manufacturing processes give him uncommon breadth across research, firmware, and production. He is known for tackling technically hard problems while mentoring teams to deliver durable, customer-focused solutions.
16 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering, Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering at University of WaterlooMaster’s Degree, Computer Science--Robotics, Incomplete (ABD), Master’s Degree, Computer Science--Robotics, Incomplete (ABD) at Simon Fraser University
English, French
Github Skills (18)
c-language10
px410
buildroot10
autopilot10
drones10
sys10
embedded10
software-packaging10
cprogramming-language10
sensor9
stm9
spi8
nuttx7
licensing7
key-management7
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
PX4/PX4-Autopilot
May 2014 - May 2014
PX4 Autopilot Software
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:6 commits, 1 comment in 1 day
Contributions summary:Ash contributed to the PX4 Autopilot software by adding support for the Gumstix AeroCore device, including board configuration and device drivers. They integrated support for the L3G4200D gyroscope, adjusting driver parameters and orientation settings. The user also addressed board-specific configurations for the GPS and corrected style issues, enhancing the overall compatibility and functionality of the autopilot software.
multicopteravoidancedroneuasraspberry-pi
gumstix/u-boot
Jul 2013 - Oct 2015
Contributions:57 commits, 5 pushes, 2 branches in 2 years 3 months
bootloaderu-bootdas
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