Christian Gaya

01 / Who

What I actually do

I work at Cummins in Off-Highway Controls as Controls Lead for X15. I previously led B4.5. My weeks are filled with new issues, new requirements, shifting schedules, and resource coordination. That has trained me to handle ambiguity and put the business-critical needs first.

The rest of the job is owning the controls side of the program. I am accountable for milestones on products that are going to be released in the future, for delivering quality, and for staying in step with regulations that keep changing. I work across functions, oversee the process, and keep the program executing: new features, ECM transitions, and enough visibility that people can see where the work actually stands.

Since 2020 I have led the application support process: how issues get triaged, who owns them, and when they need to escalate. I personally owned 107 of those support tickets. That process has covered more than 600 field issues. Separate from that, I own Datalinks SME work across programs. I have also mentored two controls engineers and a co-op within our engineering organization.

The tools came out of that work. I proposed Trace Converter, then worked with our team to turn the concept into a tool that replaced hours of manual CAN trace analysis. Our work received a patent. Zenith Tracker replaced scattered email and spreadsheet tracking. OFC Assist put the day-to-day references our engineers actually use into one working tool.

Role

Controls Lead, X15. Previously Controls Lead, B4.5

Employer

Cummins Inc., Off-Highway Controls

Location

Naples, FL

Since

Jul 2019, as a rotational Controls Engineer

Education

B.S. Computer Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University, 2019

02 / Skills

Skills in evidence

Superscript numbers point to the tool figure where the skill shipped.

03 / Tools

Tools created for real engineering needs

01 · In regular team use

OFC Assist

Stack

Python · SQLite / FTS5 · Tkinter · PyInstaller

My role

Designed and deployed it. The team uses it for troubleshooting lookups.

Our engineers were jumping between J1939 tables, fault lists, Calterm data, service documents, and the rest of what they need day to day. OFC Assist puts that material in one working desktop app. Getting into the other internal tools was slow and complicated, with login and connection issues. I integrated with MCP so we had one seamless path and a direct connection to the databases. That had a direct impact on the diagnostic presentations and materials that helped our work.

PGNs

3,212

SPNs

33,179

Indexed faults

1,639

Parameters

35,516

Warm launch

2.3s to 0.9s

Autocomplete

about 1 ms

02 · Alpha through beta

Zenith Tracker

Stack

Excel VBA · Outlook automation · Role-based routing

My role

Piloted it through alpha and into beta.

Work used to live in inboxes and one-off spreadsheets. Zenith Tracker keeps program tasks, owners, deadlines, notifications, and history in one workbook. During the pilot I closed more than 30 enhancement and defect items and took 11 formal feedback submissions from users.

Code lines

about 7,310

Procedures

338

UserForms

8

03 · Concept to deployment · Patented

Trace Converter

Stack

VB.NET · Windows Forms · Git · J1939 / PCAN

My role

Proposed the concept and led development with the team through testing and deployment.

I proposed Trace Converter to solve a slow, expert-only workflow. As lead developer, I worked with a talented team whose different strengths shaped the build, testing, and deployment. We completed it without AI coding tools. Reading PCAN traces against J1939 used to take hours of hand work: bit order, SPNs that sit across two bytes, PDU1, and TPCM. With a J1939 trace, we can get a heartbeat in minutes and check the features and documentation we say we support against what is actually on the bus. The team's work was patented.

Of manual analysis replaced

Hours

Heartbeat from a J1939 trace

Minutes

Received for this work

Patented

04 / Work

Work history

1. Jul 2025 to present, Cummins Inc.

   Controls Lead, X15

   • Currently lead controls development for X15. Previously led B4.5. I own the controls side of the program: milestone schedules, quality, changing regulations, new features, ECM transitions, and deliverables across development, integration, and field test. I keep cross-functional teams aligned when priorities change.
   • Designed and deployed OFC Assist. The team uses it for troubleshooting lookups. Engineers still review the result and decide when to escalate.
   • Lead the recurring off-highway application support forum. I still support Datalinks SME work after handing off day-to-day SME leadership.

2. Jul 2023 to Aug 2025

   Controls Technical Specialist

   • Led application support with visibility across 600+ team field issues since 2020. I personally owned 107 current-system tickets, all Closed Complete. Median calendar close was about 8 days, and 93% closed within 30 days.
   • Coordinated U.S. and India coverage with the UK Controls team. Built Level 1 to 3 RACI escalation into the daily process.
   • Piloted Zenith Tracker through alpha and into beta. Mentored two new controls engineers, onboarded two support engineers, and supported an IQA field activity.
   • Served as Datalinks SME lead for a five-person team through a major staffing transition. Built a succession plan, shared expertise across the group, and handed off day-to-day ownership without missed delivery.

3. Aug 2021 to Jul 2023

   Senior Controls Engineer, Electronic Systems Product Engineering

   • Datalinks SME: change analysis, test analysis, calibration analysis, RDE/MDL diagnostics, and write-ups the next program could reuse.
   • Proposed Trace Converter and led development with the team through testing and deployment. The team's work was patented.
   • Worked between Application Engineers and controls and calibration SMEs. Isolated hardware vs calibration issues and used bench tests on field problems.

4. Jul 2019 to Aug 2021

   Controls Engineer

   • Rotational program across calibration, software, the Komatsu OEM team, Features, and applied controls.
   • Joined application support when it started in 2020. That is where the J1939 and Datalinks work began that later became SME ownership.

5. May 2018 to Aug 2018, Cummins Inc.

   Internship, Nissan Controls Team

   • Wrote high-rate CAN acquisition scripts and analysis for concatenation, limit, misfire, and special diagnostics on CANape field data. Presented to controls leadership.

Appendix / Ask

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