News & Insights

Jon Vernau and Job Bedford led a session with Stephen Bell at the SAME Joint Engineer Training Conference (JETC) in San Antonio, sharing about the multidisciplinary work required to develop and build the world’s largest mobile robot to save the Mississippi River. The session showed how the team broke down the large-scale problem, utilized robotics technologies, and breathed life into the huge robot known as ARMOR1.

Jon Vernau, a Principal with Salas O’Brien, oversees the Advanced Technologies & Robotics team, spearheading initiatives in automation, engineering strategies, Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), and robotics applications in both DOD and industrial manufacturing facilities. With over 30 years of active-duty military and civilian experience with government clients, Jon is responsible for research and development, project origination and execution, resource allocation, and financial performance of the business line.

Job Bedford is a VP & Lead Robotics System Engineer at Salas O’Brien. He is a highly experienced and skilled engineer with a passion for robotics. He has a proven track record of success in designing, developing, and implementing robotics solutions for a variety of industries. A graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, Job holds a degree in robotic systems development with post-graduate work in robotics.

About SAME

The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) builds leaders and leads collaboration among government and industry to develop multidisciplined solutions to national security infrastructure challenges. Founded in 1920, the Society unites public and private sector individuals and organizations from across the architecture, engineering, construction, environmental and facility management, cyber security, project planning, contracting and acquisition, and related disciplines in support of national security.

About Salas O’Brien

Salas O’Brien is an engineering and technical services firm focused on advancing the human experience through the built environment. Our team is engineered for impact, helping clients achieve critical goals, advancing our team members through growth and opportunity, and operating at the center of important global issues including sustainability and decarbonization. We are a top firm as ranked by Engineering News-Record and Consulting-Specifying Engineer, and we have appeared for the past ten years on the Inc. 5000 list of North America’s fastest-growing private companies.

For more details or to set up an interview, please contact Stacy Lake, Director of Corporate Communications.