Building better products, teams, and communities.

10+Years · Quality engineering
30+Releases shipped
150K+Video views
My focus

One builder.
Several arenas.

Software quality, civic infrastructure, and visual storytelling — connected by systems thinking and useful execution.

01 / SOFTWARE QUALITY

Engineering confidence into medical software.

Leading product quality strategy, people, automation, infrastructure, and release execution across neurodiagnostic software and systems used by clinicians worldwide.

C#AutomationMedical DevicesLeadership
8+ years · 30+ releases · FDA-regulated
02 / CIVIC LEADERSHIP

Building the systems behind local action.

Treasurer for the Franklin County Republican Central Committee and the Tri-Cities Adult Hockey Club — financial operations, compliance, and the systems behind how organizations run. Building Quorum, a parliamentary operating system for meetings governed by Robert's Rules.

OperationsComplianceGovernance
Two treasuries · Governance · Civic tech
03 / CREATIVE WORK

Turning experience into something worth remembering.

Hunting cinematography, event videography, and outdoor adventure content — made with restraint, clarity, and respect for the real moment.

VideographyDesignStorytelling
150K+ views · 15+ events · 7 weddings
My principles

Build. Grow.
Lead. Serve.

Four verbs that guide how I work, improve, take responsibility, and contribute.

01

Build

I create products, businesses, systems, and solutions that outlast me.

02

Grow

I pursue continual improvement in knowledge, health, leadership, and character.

03

Lead

I help people succeed by creating clarity, accountability, and momentum.

04

Serve

I believe the greatest impact comes from using my skills in service of others.

Experience

Nearly a decade
of useful work.

The roles, milestones, and schooling behind the work.

May 2026 — Present

Product Quality Test Manager

Cadwell Industries

Managing product quality strategy, people, execution, automation, and infrastructure across all neurodiagnostic product lines — leading a team of 8 across test automation, manual testing, and quality systems.

July 2025 — May 2026

Product Quality Test Lead

Cadwell Industries

Led technical strategy, execution, and infrastructure of product quality across all neurodiagnostic product lines. Managed a team of 8 across test automation, manual testing, and quality systems.

March 2022 — July 2025

Software Development Engineer in Test II

Cadwell Industries

Expanded technical leadership. Developed automated test suites integrated into CI/CD. Mentored junior engineers. Drove quality communication across the organization.

July 2017 — March 2022

Software Development Engineer in Test I

Cadwell Industries

Core testing and QA for neurodiagnostic software used worldwide. Built test plans, maintained automation framework. Two Cadwell Core Values Awards.

Summer 2016

Software Engineer Intern

Cadwell Industries

Built a C# application that automated test plan and test report document generation, significantly increasing the efficiency of the process. Led to full-time offer.

2014 — 2017

B.S. Computer Science

Eastern Washington University

GPA 3.53 · Cum Laude · Presidential Scholarship.

2012 — 2014

Running Start / General Studies

Columbia Basin College

GPA 3.80 · Phi Theta Kappa.

C# · Visual Studio · Azure DevOps · Ranorex · Git · SQLite · Python · PowerShell · Proxmox · Claude · AI Agent Systems · Agile/Scrum · DaVinci Resolve

Projects

Active work,
experiments, and systems.

A record of useful work in motion.

In development

Quorum

A parliamentary operating system for organizations that run meetings under Robert's Rules. A guided state machine enforces valid procedure — motions, seconds, debate, votes, points of order — so whoever's chairing only ever sees the legal next step. Built for political committees, nonprofits, and boards alike.

JavaScript · State Machine · Robert's Rules
Live

gavinrouse.com

This site. Professional presence and project documentation. Clean, fast, intentional.

HTML · CSS · GitHub Pages
Live

homedefensespear.com

Satirical-but-serious home defense content and affiliate site. Medieval castle defense applied to modern security. Testing the "one-man business with AI" model.

HTML · Affiliate Links
On hold

Videography

Cinematic hunting films and event videography. 150K+ views, 15+ events, 7 weddings. Proof of concept that became a real business — revenue positive from day one.

DaVinci Resolve · YouTube
Videography

Where curiosity leads,
the camera follows

Hunting cinematography, outdoor adventures, event videography. 300+ subscribers, 150K+ views. YouTube ↗

First Solo Backpacking Trip

First Solo Backpacking Trip

Solitude in the PNW backcountry
Bonzai Buck Hunt

Bonzai Buck Hunt

33K views · Last-day buck in the burn
2023 Oregon Archery Elk Hunt

2023 Oregon Archery Elk Hunt

22K views · 30-min backcountry bowhunt
Jalen & Kendal Wedding Film

Jalen & Kendal

Wedding film

All Videos on YouTube ↗

The Story

Not to change the world.
To be a lighthouse in it.

At fifteen, my first real job was driving wheat truck during harvest on a farm in eastern Washington — up before dawn, ten-hour days, hauling ten tons of grain through fields that didn't care how old you were. I worked yogurt shops and pizza joints, quit high school sports, and enrolled in Running Start. I wanted to earn money, learn things that mattered, and stop waiting for my real life to start.

I got a CS degree at EWU and landed at Cadwell as an intern. I built something useful, earned a full-time offer, and spent the next several years building software quality systems for Arc — software that monitors the electrical activity of the human brain, used in seizure study and diagnosis. Meaningful work. Still is.

Then came 2020 and 2021 — isolated, turbulent, relentless. The relationship I was in fell apart, the lease ended, and I moved back to my hometown in the Tri-Cities to start over. Difficult and necessary in equal measure — the kind of reset you don't choose but, looking back, wouldn't undo. What remained when everything else dissolved: the river, the mountains, good books, long conversations, time with people I love. I came out the other side with less than I started with, and a clearer idea of what mattered.

One morning after a good day on the water, I cut some phone footage into something short and posted it. People watched. I was hooked — bought gear, committed to the craft, said yes when someone asked me to film their wedding. Word spread. Then somewhere along the way it started feeling like another job, like I was making content instead of making something. So I stepped back. The camera's still rolling — just on my terms.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I met my wife. There's more to say here than fits in a bio — she's the most significant thing that's happened to me, and the clearest reason for most of what comes after. We're building a life together, trying to start a family. That road has turned out harder and more expensive than we expected. That hasn't changed where we're headed.

I moved from Arc to CadLink and became Product Quality Test Lead in 2025, then Product Quality Test Manager in 2026 — the same work I've always done, now with a team and an organization to run. Alongside it, I took on political service as treasurer of the Franklin County Republican Party, and more recently as treasurer of the Tri-Cities Adult Hockey Club — because the health of an organization usually comes down to whether someone's willing to own the boring, necessary parts.

Not for fame. Not for wealth. For my wife, for the family to come, for the people around me, for my God. I'm not trying to change the world. I'm trying to build a life worth pointing toward — and trusting that if the light is real, people will find their own way to it.

Connect

Let's build something worth pointing to.

Software quality, civic tech, AI, or filmmaking — or just a good conversation. If you make things, I'd like to hear from you.