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We are committed to bringing the most innovative automation technology to niche markets and underserved processes. By incorporating rapid product development and software-driven design, we offer cutting-edge, transformative solutions to our customers.
Locally Sourced, Manufactured and Assembled
Vape-Jet was founded in Portland, Oregon in 2018. All our manufacturing, assembly, support, and fabrication is done in-house, or with local partners. Data is at the forefront of everything we do, and we focus on streamlining efficiency by automating repetitive processes. Our rapid iteration process allows us to quickly apply the most advanced technologies to today’s problems. We embrace our fast-changing business environment and actively collaborate with industry partners and customers to develop truly innovative products.
Subject Matter Experts
Our expert team is dynamic and adaptable, with diverse backgrounds and skill sets ranging from spacecraft operations to microfluidics. Every machine is built and tested on-site and backed by on-demand and customized support from our engineers. We strive to maintain a customer-focused, collaborative development process, proudly incorporating customer feedback and feature requests into the process. At the end of the day, we’re here to make cool stuff and we are committed to supporting it.
With a background in aerospace engineering and rocketry, the Vape-Jet founders are adept at solving complex technical problems and have always had an eye towards the sky and the infinite frontiers and possibilities that technology can unlock. Searching for new horizons and new challenges, the team identified a manufacturing gap within the underserved cannabis industry and decided to start building the highest-quality, most well-designed machines possible. Applying the same rigorous design methodology as they would to an F-22, the team started developing the first prototypes that would come to be known as Vape-Jet.
Interested in working at Vape-Jet? We’re always eager to meet fresh talent. View our open positions and apply below. To the moon!
The latest Vape-Jet news, tips, and announcements straight to your inbox.
CEO, Developer & Founder
Ryan Hoitt is an entrepreneur, hacker, and technologist with 15+ years experience in a variety of roles. Ryan started out as an electronics technician in the U.S. Navy, with a focus on satellite communications, encryption, and operational security. After his military career, he was employed with industry leaders, including Andrew Communications, Intel, and Micron. He managed projects ranging from working on semiconductor manufacturing automation equipment, to large-scale satellite antenna build outs. Ryan also spent five years acting as a principal operations supervisor for Intelsat, managing ground-based operations during satellite launch missions, and routine spacecraft telemetry processing.
After leaving the aerospace sector, Ryan served as the CTO of Cabinet Grow, a startup focused on IoT self-contained growing chambers. He then founded the Grow Camera, an NDVI imaging device for monitoring crop health, which was acquired by GreenGro Technologies (GRNH) in April 2017.
In his free time, Ryan is an ameteur mycologist and hammocking enthuisast. He loves exploring the Pacific Northwest and enjoying the outdoors, which offsets his occasional need to compete in capture the flag hacking competitions.
CFO & Co-Founder
Brian is a financial executive with 15 years of experience. He holds a dual Masters in Accounting from the University of Oregon, and Physiology from Oregon State University. Brian started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked with large private and SEC companies, leading audits of companies $200M – $1B+.
Brian has provided high-level financial oversight to the cannabis industry since 2015, and obtained expertise in the nuanced details, such as accounting under 280E. He has provided advisory to some of the largest companies in the cannabis industry by revenue in Oregon, including Wyld Confections, Empower BodyCare and Pistil Point. Additionally, Brian provided key financial consulting to help raise $3M+ for Folium Farms. In 2019, Brian was named Honoree CFO of the Year for mid-sized private companies by the Portland Business Journal.
Incidentally, Brian was also one of the primary male models featured for Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells ad campaigns in China. In his free time, Brian watches YouTube cat videos, and talks about tardigrades in space.
CSO & Co-Founder
Devon Reid is a chemist and engineer with 10 years experience in high-tech product development. As an optical engineer at Abbott Laboratories, Devon was awarded three U.S. patents, including sole-authorship for a novel method of switching light. Other projects included semiconductor manufacturing equipment development, subsystems that manufactured mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the design verification and validation of LASIK diagnostic equipment for U.S. Food and Drug Administration medical device approval.
Pivoting to the cannabis sphere in 2014, Devon has since worked in nearly every aspect of this emerging industry (cultivation, manufacturing, training, compliance, etc.) In late 2017, Devon provided essential business planning input and documentation that garnered licensure for a manufacturing facility in California’s newly regulated cannabis market, establishing Piner Processing in Santa Rosa. Later clients include strategy consulting for a track-and-trace software startup in San Francisco, and development of a CBD brand of products. With his move to Oregon in 2019, Devon has realized his goal of joining a professional team to develop automated cannabis manufacturing equipment.
When not ruminating product research and development concerns, Devon enjoys spending time with his dog, listening to drum ‘n’ bass (since he no longer has time to produce, dj, or manage record labels), and fermenting various foods and beverages.
Director of Sales
Joshua Maramba is a business advisor and sales executive with over 10 years of experience. Early in his career, he gained experience improving the sales and operations for many retail companies such as Complete Nutrition, Aaron’s, and Starbucks. During his time managing multiple locations for these national companies, he gained a reputation for rapidly increasing new customer acquisition and retention rates with his customer focused philosophy. His achievements encouraged him to establish his own consulting practice in early 2017, with the focus of helping small businesses grow smarter and faster.
In early 2018 Joshua entered the cannabis industry to help emerging brands develop sales and marketing strategies that could keep up with their rapid growth. He has worked with many of the fastest growing cannabis companies in Oregon, and served as the Head of Sales for True Terpenes, Empower BodyCare, and now Vape-Jet.
In his free time, Josh enjoys spending time with his wife and four young children, the study of history, and volunteering time to advise new business owners on sales and marketing.
Operations Manager
Chuck is a Manufacturing Professional with 15 years of experience in the industry. A self-starter who is creative and strives to take projects from start to finish. Enjoys working on projects that require attention to detail and a problem-solving skill set. His broad experience in the manufacturing industry has given him the opportunity to work in different areas, such as sales, customer service, production, and quality control. Chuck has an insatiable need to never stop learning and researching and is a self-proclaimed “Google-Fu master”.
Outside of work, Chuck is simple. He enjoys being outdoors (fishing/hiking/mycology), listening to music, finding fun new foods, and putting his own spin on them, and hanging out with his wife and 3 teenage boys!
Creative Director & Head of Marketing
Carly is a multidisciplinary designer with 10 years of varied industry experience. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Cal State Long Beach’s School of Art.
Throughout her career she has taken on a wide range of projects including brand identity design, digital marketing, packaging design, logo development, web design, layout and print design, as well as high level art and creative direction.
As with most creatives, Carly doesn’t limit her artistic energy to her day job but instead dabbles in a variety of mediums including digital illustration and more traditional handcrafts such as painting, wood burning, fiber art and stained glass.
Product Support Manager
Brad is a customer support professional with more than 8 years of experience in various fields. Born and raised in Beaverton, OR when he isn’t working you can find him out and about finding the next good food spot or finding specialty ingredients for his next cooking adventure.
In his free time he enjoys 3D printing and painting Dungeons and Dragon figures as well as hunting for the next soft coral to add to his salt water aquarium.
Lead Software Developer
Yunus Emre, Lead Software Developer for Vape-Jet, graduated from Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi in Turkey. Yunus is passionate about building new things, and software development gives him the opportunity to take his knowledge to new levels. During his time as a college student, Yunus partnered with his colleague to build test web applications. After graduating from Orta Doğu Teknik, Yunus worked as a contractor, and this led him to his career with Vape-Jet. Yunus has helped create unprecedented new automation technology in this nascent industry, and is critical to the Vape-Jet team.
In his free time, Yunus likes cycling on sunny days, and immersing himself in technology and artificial intelligence related content. He also enjoys helping his younger siblings with their school and course work.
Design Engineer
Andi Stiller is a CAD expert, explorer and tinkerer. Working in the past for Heidelberg Printing press and in the automotive industry. After traveling and resettling in South East Asia (Indonesia) started working as a teacher, tinkering in a FABLAB, working for several NGO’s and now working full time as a freelancer.
In his free time he explores the countryside with the motorbike or bicycle, making tropical fruit wines and chilling in the garden.
Sales Consultant
Sawyer Sheppard is a Sales and Marketing professional with a marketing degree from Portland State University. Sawyer is passionate about business development, consultative sales, branding, and copy writing. He brings experience from a diverse background including the medical tech industry, real estate industry, and food service industry. He is passionate about getting to know his clients, being an aid in decision making, and meeting the audience he serves where they are at.
Outside of his time at Vape-Jet Sawyer enjoys camping in Oregon & Washington state parks with his partner Chloe and friends, creating and discovering new music, reading books on philosophy & business, as well as playing video games online with friends.
Manufacturing Technician
Originally from Michigan, Stefanie brings previous experience in various manufacturing roles from cannabis gummy manufacturing and packaging to plastic injection molding manufacturing. Bringing together communication and mechanical skills, she works to build our awesome machines starting with the newest Jet Fueler 2.0.
When out of the office, Stefanie enjoys creative outlets such as knitting, cooking and baking especially. She can usually be found doing either something creative indoors or walking or roller skating outdoors, enjoying the Oregon summer weather.
Product Support Technician
Dennis is an experienced problem solver with a technical mind and a passion for learning. His diverse background includes work as a paramedic in northern California, 9-1-1 dispatcher in southern Oregon, and sugar beet farmer/software tester in northern Minnesota.
Dennis has always been captivated by computers, gadgets, and anything tech related. He loves tinkering with computers and taking things apart to learn how they operate. He looks forward to sharing his knowledge, experience, and passion as the Product Support Technician at Vape-Jet.
Outside of work, you can often find Dennis with his fiancé, Emily, and their corgi, Wall-E. They enjoy exploring the west coast, cooking, and playing board games together as well as with friends.
Manufacturing Technician
Aeython has been studying horticulture, micro biology, nutrition science, medicine, and mycology for two decades. He is a musician and composer who produces, records and engineers. He has been building and working on computers since an early age for use in business functions like CAD and design. He is originally from Virginia but have been in Portland for 12 years now. He has been working the cannabis industry in various capacities for the past 6 years.
Product Support Technician
Nathan is a self-proclaimed technologist with more hobbies than free time—most recently electric skateboarding around Tom McCall waterfront, weather permitting…. When not dreaming, of sunny days, you might find him tinkering on some random idea involving computer vision, augmented reality, or spatial audio. Has held jobs as far north as Egegik, Alaska and as far south as Perth, Australia. In general, he likes to think of everything as a puzzle and has a fierce excitement in finding out how pieces should fit together.
One of his true passions is his Tuxedo cat named Penguin, he might be biased but he still believes he has the best cat that ever was. A long-term goal is to be able to take some time to study veterinary medicine and operate a nonprofit mobile veterinary service. A secondary passion is absolutely food, any type anywhere. You just might find him exploring local eateries in Portland.
Manufacturing Technician
Manufacturing Technician
Jeremy’s background is in chemistry and has been working in the cannabis technology industry for nearly 5 years. With extensive experience in product design, R&D, and quality control, he assists the manufacturing team with the production of the state-of-the-art Vape Jet 4.0.
When not in the office, Jeremy spends most of his time at Portland State University fulfilling requirements to attend the Speech Sciences master’s program there. He also has a passion for food; whether its eating at one of Portland’s many amazing restaurants or making a complex meal from scratch, Jeremy lives to eat! Listening to his record collection helps fill in the rest of his time, along with playing with his two cats. When he can, he also loves to explore the most remote natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest.
Assembly Technician
Josh has spent the previous 6 years working in the cannabis industry in a variety of roles. He also has worked in multiple different fields including cable installation and manufacturing. He also played a large role in developing manufacturing processes for tesla in their seating division and was a trainer for said processes for a time. He always strives to bring a high level of positivity and professionalism to any situation.
In Josh’s free time he is an avid Magic the Gathering player, is typically involved in a tabletop RPG campaign of some variety, or actively advancing his music production skills. He is also a devoted father to his daughter and enjoys being in nature with his family.
Software Developer
Yusuf is a Software Developer with 2 years of experience. He spent most of his time developing Web applications. As a software developer, he is passionate about software architecture and software development techniques, also he is interested in learning new technologies about software development.
In his spare time, he likes to play basketball and chess, also he likes nature walks and visiting historical places.
Operations Assistant
Julie is a copywriter from Illinois with a diverse work background. From TV news in Florida to cannabis startups in Oregon, Julie considers herself a jack of all trades. She’s passionate about learning, crafting, and honoring the balance between hustle, rest, and play.
Julie likes to spend her free time snacking with friends, being in the sunshine with her dog, and daydreaming about retirement on her ancestral lands. You can find her bopping around Vape-Jet offices helping with inventory and other administrative tasks to best support the team.
Copywriter
Mike is a content marketing specialist with 5 years of experience. He received his Master’s degree in English from Portland State in 2021.
Early in his career, he produced, edited, and wrote for several film projects, eventually turning his passion for creating diverse media into a digital marketing career. After developing his copyediting, social media, and video development skills, Mike worked at Portland State University Graduate School and Cascade Corporation. Focusing primarily on the manufacturing sector, he creates global marketing campaigns, manages social media accounts, writes industry articles, and builds website content.
In his free time, Mike freelances as a copywriter, enjoys extensive backpacking trips, and publishes academic articles on comparative English literature.
Technical Sales Assistant
Carissa Fitzgerald, Technical Assistant, uses her experience in startup business development and sales leadership to empower the Vape-Jet team. With a degree in sales and marketing from Central Michigan University, she has been working with businesses in the cannabis industry since 2018. Carissa is passionate about helping businesses develop and grow through process and tool alignment.
Outside of her time at Vape-jet, Carissa acts as a Client Success Manager for Maramba Consulting, providing sales strategy and sales enablement services. She also likes to spend her time singing for the jazz group, Portland Standard Time, baking french patisserie, or reading a scary novel.
