Mario
Mario Moorhead: career at a glance
Mario Moorhead founded Blacksky in 1998 and has been building software for 28 years. Before that he spent a decade as a working bassist in New York. He holds a BS in Communications from Parsons, an MSEd from Pace, and an MS in Exhibition Design from FIT. He taught in New York City public schools through the NYC Teaching Fellows from 2002 to 2006.
How the career breaks down
1989 – 1998, The music years: A decade as a working bassist in New York: two bands, a self-distributed album, a monthly residency, a German tour, and a Rawkus credit. 1998 – 2013, Blacksky Inc and early work: Founder-led studio. Agency, label, and cultural-sector builds alongside teaching and exhibition design. 2013 – 2026, Contract engineering: Twenty placements across media, federal agencies, healthcare, and financial services. Drupal 7 through 10, then AI-enabled platforms. 2024 – present, Blacksky LLC: Independent AI engineering. Products shipped, clients served, and a live civic platform. 1989 – 2008, Education.
Government and public-sector work
Through prime contractors, Mario has been the lead or senior architect on work for: NHLBI (Jan 2015 – Feb 2016); SEC.gov, OSHA.gov (Feb – Nov 2017); U.S. Dept. of Education, IFAP.ed.gov (Sep – Nov 2018); The World Bank (Feb – May 2019); U.S. Dept. of Transportation (May 2019 – Mar 2020); U.S. Dept. of Treasury (Apr – Nov 2020); Mastercard, FDA (Sep 2021 – Apr 2022); USAID (Dec 2022 – Oct 2023); NIH NINR (Oct 2023 – Jan 2024); HHS (Jan – May 2024); USDA FSIS (Jul 2024 – Jan 2026). The World Bank is international, not a U.S. agency. KnowGov is Blacksky's own civic platform.
Sectors
Federal agencies (12 engagements): NHLBI, SEC.gov, OSHA.gov, U.S. Dept. of Education, IFAP.ed.gov, The World Bank, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, U.S. Dept. of Treasury, Mastercard, FDA, USAID, NIH NINR, HHS, USDA FSIS, KnowGov · knowgov.info. Healthcare (6 engagements): NHLBI, Mastercard, FDA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Texas HHS, NIH NINR, HHS. Financial services (3 engagements): U.S. Dept. of Treasury, Vanguard, Mastercard, FDA. Media and publishing (9 engagements): Lyricist Lounge, Volume One · Rawkus Records, Def Jam Records, Gee Street Records, DK Stock, Mirrorball, Thrillist, Billboard.com, Cosmopolitan.com, Rap Research Labs. Education (8 engagements): NYC Teaching Fellows, NYC Dept. of Education, In Pursuit of Freedom, LMO Advertising, Baltimore, AFT ShareMyLesson.com, U.S. Dept. of Education, IFAP.ed.gov, Parsons School of Design, Pace University, Fashion Institute of Technology. Museums and culture (5 engagements): Avant Yard at ThoughtForms Underground, TriBeCa, Unified Field, New York, In Pursuit of Freedom, National Gallery of Art, Fashion Institute of Technology. Civic technology (1 engagement): KnowGov · knowgov.info. AI and machine learning (6 engagements): USDA FSIS, Blacksky AI product line, Rap Research Labs, Prism, AgentOS, KnowGov · knowgov.info.
What Blacksky does today
Since 2024 Blacksky LLC is an AI engineering company. Mario designs, builds and ships production AI systems: voice and phone agents, retrieval systems over private document sets, on-device models, privacy-preserving computer vision, and the AgentOS platform that runs Blacksky's agents. Maurice, the assistant answering this line, is one of those systems.
Common questions
Has Blacksky worked with the federal government? Yes. Since 2015 Mario has been the architect or lead engineer, through prime contractors, for NIH, the SEC, OSHA, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Treasury, the FDA, USAID, HHS, and USDA FSIS. Does Blacksky do healthcare? Yes: NIH, FDA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Texas HHS, and HHS. Does Blacksky do financial services? Yes: Vanguard, Mastercard, and the U.S. Treasury. How big is Blacksky? Mario is the founder and principal engineer and builds most systems himself, bringing in collaborators per project. How do I reach Mario? Maurice can have Mario call you back, or send details by email after the call.