Robert Ardell
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 CTO interview questions in 2026 should test the arithmetic of the engineering org a candidate ran, one architecture decision they got wrong, and how they measured whether AI shipped anything. Vision questions separate nobody now. Every published list asks the same four things. Describe your technology vision. … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 A BI developer job description has to say which layer of the stack the seat owns, what condition the existing report estate is in, who arbitrates metric definitions, and the salary band. Skip those and the posting describes a dashboard builder, a data engineer, and a report … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 Automation engineer salaries in 2026 run roughly $72,000 to $162,000 depending on platform depth, industry, and hours, with published US averages clustering between $88,000 and $123,000. The spread is not noise. It is eight published figures measuring at least three different jobs, and not one of them … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 An automation engineer job description has to name the control platform, say whether the work is new build or retrofit, publish the travel load, and state which safety standard governs the line. Leave those four out and the posting fits a test automation developer, a robot integrator, … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 Your contractor owns the code they write for you unless a signed agreement assigns it to you, because software is not one of the nine work-made-for-hire categories in U.S. copyright law. That surprises almost every hiring manager who hears it. The invoice was paid, the laptop was … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 An integration engineer job description has to name the systems on both ends, the platform in the middle, the integration pattern, and who gets paged when the pipe breaks. Leave any of the four out and the title does the work of five different jobs at once, … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 A BI analyst owns the metric and the reporting layer that produces it. A data analyst answers questions using metrics somebody else defined. That ownership line, not the tool list, is the whole hiring difference. Both people write SQL. Both open Power BI. One of them is … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 EDI analysts earn $68,000 to $105,000 on average in 2026 depending on which tracker you read, and the word you put in the job title moves pay more than the years of experience behind it. Developer-titled EDI roles clear $131,000 on Glassdoor. Analyst-titled roles doing the same … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 Most mid-market ERP implementations take six to twelve months, and the variable that moves that number most is not the software but how many people on your side can make a binding decision without escalating. A two-person core team and a six-person core team running identical scope … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 To hire a Workday HCM consultant in 2026, scope the req by module rather than by title, because Core HCM, Absence, Time Tracking, Benefits, Advanced Compensation, and Recruiting each draws from a different pool at a different price. The title tells you almost nothing about who can … Read more
