Tylar Spencer isn’t playing games. 

Well, she does still play video games, but now she’s also a Quality Assurance Technician II at Dynepic, where her experience as a QA lead in the games and VR training industry makes her a perfect fit! 

Prior to joining our team, Tylar worked as a Lead Compliance Tester on the popular video game Titanfall 2, receiving a credited role in the game, and served as a Functional Tester on Bejeweled Mobile, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Sims 4, and various EA sports titles. Tylar also partnered regularly with Dynepic during her time at King Crow Studios, a longtime vendor. 

“I thoroughly enjoy QA work, and feel incredibly fortunate to be part of the Dynepic team!” Tylar shared. “It wasn’t a surprise given I’d worked with them at a high level before, but I’m pleased to report the people here are genuinely passionate, dedicated, and hard working. It’s a wonderful fit for me.” 

Tylar is currently supporting the evolution of MOTAR 2.0, including updates to its Digital Thread Version Control System capabilities. While the deadlines are tight and the work critical, the remote setup of our team allows her to find the balance that works best for her. 

“I enjoy the freedom and flexibility it allows me to have on a daily basis,” Tylar shared. “Not to mention being able to cuddle with my kitties during work is for sure an added bonus!”

In addition to her feline friends, Mavis and Oliver, Tylar finds joy in everything creative including 3D printing, painting miniature figurines for tabletop gaming, and creating unique craft props for holidays. Her most recent project was constructing a huge Audrey II plant from Little Shop of Horrors to display on her porch for Halloween. 

She added, “Despite working in QA for nearly seven years, I’m still an avid gamer and enjoy finding weird glitches in the games that I play during my personal time.” 

Thank you, Tylar! 

Crystal Arn has many nicknames - Bruh, GOAT, Organizer of Chaos - but Mom is her favorite. 

“My family is my tribe - everything I do is with them in mind,” she shared. 

She takes a similar approach with her role as Vice President of Operations and Human Resources at Dynepic. Whether it's recruiting, hiring, or managing employee benefits, Crystal always has others top of mind. 

“I’ve been part of Dynepic long enough to remember when we were just a few employees and had to build our own booth for industry events!” Crystal said. “Its been a wild ride and it just keeps getting better.”

Crystal came to Dynepic nine years ago after working in pediatric health, dreaming of a company that oozed purpose, was focused on a mission, and valued its people.  Raising three boys with her husband, a local fire investigator in Sherwood, Oregon, the remote workplace provided her the flexibility she needed and the support to grow alongside the company. She also felt confident in the leadership and knew firsthand the passion and perseverance the CEO was putting into business growth. 

“There aren’t many family members I could work with, but my sister-in-law and I compliment each other in a way that makes it possible,” Crystal said of Krissa, Dynepic’s Co-Founder and CEO. “We’re both focused on the success of Dynepic and while we can passionately disagree sometimes, two minutes later we’ll be facetiming with the kids and it's all about family.” 

As Dynepic evolves and grows, Crystal has been hard at work revamping processes and streamlining all the behind the scenes pieces of the company. When she’s not on her laptop, Crystal can be found shuttling her boys to one of their many sports practices (lacrosse, soccer, skiing…the list goes on!), hanging out by the fireplace with her two pups, Ivy and Aspen,  and best of all in her mind - getting out on the boat. 

“Being on the water allows me to relax, have fun, and really focus on my family.” she said. “Bonus points if it's blue skies and hotter than 90 degrees!”

Thanks, Crystal - we are so happy you’re part of the Dynepic team! 

Karen Bickford is a master at making big changes sound fun and is a puuuuurfect fit at Dynepic! 

As a Technical Product Manager IV, Karen says you can think of her role as a switchboard - coordinating and focusing communication among many connections, and radiating information in return to empower everyone to move forward.

“This role requires keen communication, creativity, and experience,” Karen explained. “Right now I’m learning how to do custom automations in Jira to help streamline cross-company initiatives such as ATO maintenance and employee onboarding. The depth of these programs is vast and will continue to grow along with the company, so it's critical we start this now to save more time and money in the future.”

One other attribute that's been important to Karen’s success is her willingness to learn new things and “just dive right in!” 

During her career, Karen spent more than a decade as an environmental scientist for state and local government, managing and building databases and companion GUI’s that could handle the amount of data she was collecting. Looking for a new challenge, she pivoted to freelance work and started her own business building databases and applications for a home inspection company. 

“That’s where I figured out I didn’t want to do my own payroll and taxes,” she said half-jokingly. “Sometimes being a sole proprietor isn’t as exciting as people say.”

Before joining Dynepic, Karen once again switched up her goals and went to work for the FinTech industry as a software engineer and eventually a Site Reliability Engineer. She “transitioned from writing code and managing platform infrastructure to coordinating the backlog for people writing code and managing platform infrastructure.” Pretty soon, she set her sights on the opportunity to be part of a smaller company and continue to work remotely with the Dynepic team. 

“I love that it’s a much smaller organization than what I’m used to - things move much faster at Dynepic than other companies I’ve worked with,” she shared. “Plus, I can still wear yoga pants and the commute is fabulous!”

Remote work also provides Karen more time for the things she loves most - outdoor adventure and her four cats who regularly make appearances on Zoom calls: Bucky Barnes, Peter Parker, Rosie, and the very sweet but a tad grumpy Maine coon, Kiki. 

A Florida native, Karen is an experienced scuba diver, a certified instructor for the American Canoe Association, and mountain biker. 

“For those who can’t wrap their head around the irony that Florida has no mountains and yet we mountain bike, we can heretofore refer to it as off-road trail riding,” Karen explained. “Peninsular Florida has excellent off road trails built on former phosphate mining pits, which provide a surprisingly fun variation in topography that mimics what it’s like to ride on mountain trails.”

Looking ahead, Karen said she’s excited to be part of Dynepic’s growth and a company that is a “force to be reckoned with in our market space.” 

“I have no doubt we’ll just continue to kick ass!”