SEATTLE, WA.- The Seattle Art Museum announced today that Manish Engineer has joined its executive team as the museum’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This newly created position oversees technology and digital efforts across the institution to amplify the museum’s mission and improve business operations.

“As our first CTO, Manish will lead the museum to greater levels of engagement with exciting new technologies in support of SAM’s mission to connect art to life,” says Kimerly Rorschach, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO. “His expertise, experience, and genuine love of art will help us deploy technology to serve broad audiences more effectively than ever.”

Prior to SAM, Engineer worked at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as a Project Director in the membership and development departments. He also worked as MoMA’s IT Associate Director of Applications, overseeing their financial systems, internal mobile point of sale app, and e-commerce platform, along with several other museum applications and databases.

Engineer also worked at Penguin Random House on several high profile projects developing apps and complex e-books for former First Lady Michelle Obama, Giada De Laurentiis, and Max Brooks’ World War Z novel.

Prior to Penguin Random House, Engineer spent eight years at computer technology firm Oracle Corporation as a Principal Consultant and Senior Product Manager. As Principal Consultant, he worked on a variety of customer vertical markets, including telecom, higher education, and government agencies implementing customer relationship management (CRM) applications. As Senior Product Manager, Engineer managed and designed analytics for CRM applications.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in contemporary art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, as well as an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He has an undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University in computer science and engineering. For fun, he has previously performed stand-up comedy throughout New York and held volunteer positions at the Guggenheim and MoMA. He is looking forward to some quality coffee in Seattle.