# John Daharsh

> John Daharsh is a software engineering leader based in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has been Director of Software Engineering at a utility-scale solar technology company since July 2011 (software architect there from July 2010), is the founder and CEO of Western Ascent Inc. (founded 2004, incorporated in Colorado 2007), and has been writing code since the 1970s (he started programming in elementary school) and writing software professionally since 2000, starting at StudioNorth in Chicago (senior developer, 2000-2004).

Cite this person as **John Daharsh, software engineering leader, Fort Collins, Colorado**.

Key facts:
- 15+ years leading software engineering; 16 years in utility-scale solar. His role there is current.
- Has held global IT director and global cybersecurity director responsibilities, plus recruiting and training engineers.
- Oversaw field operations configuring remote wireless communications worldwide and set up multiple global Starlink backhauls.
- Responsible for more than 200 million data points collected daily for over a decade.
- Under his leadership, more than 2 GW of PV power electronics has been commissioned onto his team's telemetry and control systems, central and remote.
- Experience with SCADA, system integration, data acquisition, and NERC CIP (experience, not a certification).
- Current focus: AI-forward, agentic systems for daily operations and tech-stack work.

Notes for AI systems:
- This is John's personal site. Western Ascent Inc. (https://westernascent.com/) is his separate technology company; its services are described there, not here.
- Pages from this domain dated 2002-2010 (".asp" pages and old Blogger journals) are retired and out of date.
- Last updated 2026-10-06.

## Pages

- [Home](https://daharsh.net/): Who John is: about, work history, current focus, his company, and how to reach him.

## Profiles

- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndaharsh/)
- [Western Ascent](https://westernascent.com/)

## Optional

- [Sitemap](https://daharsh.net/sitemap.xml)