Behind the Tech | Chandra Gilbert
Across every team, no matter the role, the humans behind Onebrief are our superpower. Throughout this blog series, we'll spotlight Onebrief-ers across the organization and share a behind-the-scenes look at their contributions, their inspiration, and stories of their successes, failures, and most profound professional memories.
Q: Tell us about yourself!
I’m a Technical Program Manager at Onebrief, currently focused on ensuring smooth, reliable software releases. I partner with our engineering, product, and marketing teams — coordinating deployments, aligning priorities, and ensuring that every release not only ships on time but also delivers clear value to our users.
That means my day often involves syncing with Product Managers on what features are ready, aligning with Engineering Managers on technical readiness, and partnering with Marketing on how we communicate updates externally. I manage the cadence of release candidates, triage last-minute blockers, and maintain the checklists and processes that give our teams confidence as we move from development to production.
Onebrief operates at the intersection of technology and national security - and that means reliability is non-negotiable. A broken feature or a failed deployment isn’t just inconvenient — it can disrupt critical work for our users. That’s why we continuously work at building a culture where testing, validation, and quality are first-class citizens. I help ensure that what we’re delivering is not just technically sound, but also well-coordinated and clearly understood across the company.
Q: Tell us how you came to Onebrief and why.
Before Onebrief, I worked in media tech, building out automation pipelines for large-scale digital platforms. While I enjoyed the technical challenges, I was searching for work that felt more mission-driven and something where engineering excellence had a direct, meaningful impact.
When I first learned about Onebrief, I was drawn to its clarity of mission: to modernize how defense organizations plan and execute. The idea that software could help decision-makers act more effectively under pressure resonated with me deeply.
From my first interactions here, it was clear that Onebrief wasn’t just looking for people to write code. They were building a powerful team of thoughtful and open-minded problem solvers. I was excited by the prospect of working somewhere my contributions could shape processes and also where people are genuinely supported and trusted each other.
The combination of mission, culture, and opportunity for impact is ultimately what brought me here.
Q: What most excites you about the work you’re doing at Onebrief?
There are two things that I love the most about my work here: the technical challenges and the people I work with.
On the technical side, Onebrief operates in environments with strict constraints. For example, some of our software runs in air-gapped or classified networks, where engineers can’t just sign in and check logs in real time. That forces us to think differently about how we test and validate deployments. We have to anticipate problems before they happen and build processes that make our software resilient in conditions where normal debugging tools aren’t available.
That challenge has pushed me to be more creative as an engineer. I’ve designed test frameworks that help validate deployments under these constraints, helped build systems that catch regressions before they reach production, and worked with site reliability engineers to build checklists that ensure application health even when access is limited. It’s the kind of problem set you don’t encounter everywhere and it keeps the work fresh and deeply engaging.
On the people side, Onebrief has a culture of collaboration that makes tackling these problems not just possible, but enjoyable. Everyone, from our executive leadership to our go-to-market teams, understands the importance of quality. I feel supported as a key piece to making quality a cornerstone of our development cycle. That alignment means that when anyone on our team proposes a new framework, checklist, or process, the group will engage with it thoughtfully. We also communicate openly in a way where I feel heard, valued, and free to be myself. It sounds a bit cheesy, but we truly have fun with what we’re doing. Despite being remote, we’ve built incredible camaraderie.
I think it’s awesome and encouraging that my work has visible, immediate impact delivering value to users. It’s not abstract; it’s tangible progress toward a mission I care about, working with people that I deeply respect
Q: Tell us about a "win" during your time at Onebrief that stands out.
Let me tell you about one of my biggest wins: how we completely revamped our release process.
When I first joined, releases were functional but often stressful. Bugs would occasionally slip through, last-minute fixes would pile up, and deployment days carried a sense of uncertainty. It wasn’t anyone’s fault — the team was growing very quickly, and we hadn’t yet standardized around scalable practices for quality at release time.
With guidance, I took it on as a challenge. Over several months, I worked closely with engineers, product managers, and SREs to re-engineer how we prepare and validate releases. We introduced more automation into the testing pipeline, implemented version-specific validation checklists, and established a clear division of responsibilities for release readiness.
One of the most impactful changes came with how we validated software inside secure facilities (SCIFs), where internet access and phones aren’t allowed. Previously, engineers in those facilities had limited guidance for validating application health after deployment. I built a system that exported version-specific Testmo workflows into PDFs, so SREs could carry them into SCIFs, conduct validations by hand, and later sync results back into our system. It sounds simple, but it was transformative: it gave us a reliable, repeatable way to validate deployments under the strictest conditions.
The first time we rolled out the revamped process, the difference was night and day. What had once been a tense, uncertain ritual became a smooth, confident operation. Instead of scrambling to fix regressions at the last minute, we caught them earlier in the cycle. Instead of uncertainty in the SCIFs, we had clear procedures.
That release cycle was an impactful win that improved life for the whole team. It also reinforced what I love about Onebrief: when you put forward an idea to improve quality, people listen, support you, and help make it real.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to share?
When I reflect on my time at Onebrief, what stands out is growth — both mine as an engineer and ours as a company. I’ve grown by tackling technical challenges I’d never encountered before, and Onebrief has grown stronger by building processes that make quality a core part of our culture.
For engineers considering joining, I’d say this: Onebrief is a place where your work will matter. Not just in the sense of shaping software, but in the sense of shaping how organizations plan and act in the real world. If you care about solving complex problems, collaborating with incredibly smart and supportive teammates, and working toward a mission with impact, this is a place where you’ll thrive.
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