About
An engineering products and services company.
Founded in Jacksonville, Florida. Three years of shipped work for rail, industrial, and embedded clients. A growing portfolio of products built to modernize the systems already in the field.
Our story
Outliers in the field.
Outlier Engineering Group started with a simple premise: the most interesting engineering problems sit at the intersection of mature industries and modern software. Rail signaling has been a real engineering discipline for over a century, and it still depends on devices that talk Genisys, run on bare-metal microcontrollers, and have to keep operating in conditions that would melt a consumer-grade product. The opportunity isn't to disrupt rail with shiny new technology. It's to bring sound modern engineering to the systems already in the field.
Our team has spent decades inside that intersection. Embedded firmware. Custom hardware. Back-office systems that ride out network failures. The kind of engineering that doesn't show up in conference talks because it just runs.
Today we operate two related businesses: custom engineering services across rail signaling, industrial IoT, and embedded systems, and our own products, led by the Wayside Watcher back-office platform and a portfolio of rail software applications. Our clients span Class I railroads, signal system OEMs, and industrial operators across North America — the full picture is on our partners page.
We're a small team by intent. Senior engineers, distributed lightly, with the operational discipline to ship in regulated industries. If that sounds like the right fit, we'd like to hear what you're working on.
Our approach
From design to deployment.
01
Project Design
We start by understanding the problem, the constraints, and the operational environment, not by jumping straight to a solution.
02
Architecture & Build
We design for the deployment context. Rail-spec hardware ships with rail-spec firmware; cloud back offices ship with the operational discipline of the people who'll run them.
03
Test & Acceptance
We test against requirements and against the field. You approve.
04
Deployment & Handoff
We deploy alongside your team, document what we built, and stay engaged for the warranty and beyond.
The team
Senior engineers and operations in Jacksonville,
working across North America.
A small, deliberately senior team. We hire selectively and stay close to the work.
James Barge
Chief Product Officer
Principal Engineer
15+ years architecting embedded and full-stack systems across firmware, IoT, and cloud, with deep experience spanning silicon bring-up to production infrastructure. Drives product direction end-to-end while staying hands-on with the hardware and software that ship.
Jason Cobb
Chief Technology Officer
Principal Engineer
Nearly 25 years of industry experience spanning hardware design, embedded software/firmware, and full-stack and back-office software development. Extensive background in systems, architecture, and solutions design, with a proven track record of delivering designs that meet customer needs.
David Meadows, PE
Director of Engineering
Principal Engineer
15+ years of industry experience in software systems design and application development for industrial and regulated environments. Background spans cloud-connected back-office platforms, DevOps, and systems architecture.
Nghiep Thai
Director of Operations
Principal Engineer
25+ years of industry experience in embedded & enterprise database application development. Years of experience in ensuring designs meet customer and regulatory requirements.
Josette Cobb
Operations Manager
Nearly 30 years of experience as an office manager, special projects manager, and executive assistant in corporate settings and to British government ministers. Brings deep operational discipline and a track record of keeping complex, high-stakes initiatives organized and on track.
Partner network
Trusted external contributors
For non-embedded application work and other scale needs, OEG taps a network of trusted external developers with similar cultures and work ethics. We staff each engagement with the right combination of in-house engineers and partner-network contributors.
What we bring
80+
Years of combined engineering experience
KB Signaling Certified
Certified WSDMM Developer Program member
Hardware-agnostic
Runs on any Linux-capable edge hardware. No vendor lock-in.
Full protocol stack
Legacy and modern rail and industrial protocols, and then some. From field devices to back-office systems.
Where we are
Jacksonville, Florida.
Our team is based in Jacksonville, Florida, and we work with clients across North America. We meet them where the work is: in shops, at the wayside, in the field, and in their back offices.