Sam Jones Senior Software Engineer Co-founder, Refract Studio Santa Fe, New Mexico bsamjones@gmail.com LinkedIn

About

I'm a senior software engineer and co-founder of Refract Studio in Santa Fe. We design and build products across healthcare, computer vision, public art, and immersive technology.

I design the architecture for what we ship, from distributed systems to on-device computer vision to multiplayer XR. I like working inside real constraints: hospital basements with limited wifi, phones on a city street, a room full of strangers sharing one virtual space.

Over the past decade I've worked with Google, Snap, IKEA, Meow Wolf, and the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Our work has won MIT Reality Hack and MIT Founders Lab and been nominated for Webby and Auggie awards.

Highlights

• IRIS. Lead engineer and tech lead on a computer-vision app for hospital sterile processing that identifies surgical instruments and verifies trays. I designed the architecture and led the engineering team.
• Refract Studio apps. Lead engineer and tech lead on our apps for Snap, Google, IKEA, Meow Wolf, and the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. I lead the engineering teams and design the architecture, from distributed backends to on-device computer vision and multiplayer XR.
• Meow Wolf ticketing. I led the rebuild of tickets.meowwolf.com from planning through launch. It added $2M in annual revenue, raised purchase conversion by 5%, and cut more than 40 seconds from checkout.
• Omega Mart AR. Lead engineer on web AR portals for Meow Wolf on the Las Vegas Strip. Webby finalist, 2025.

Projects

Iris

On-device computer vision for surgical sterile processing. It recognizes instruments, gives processing guidance, and verifies trays.

Meow Wolf: Las Vegas

Browser-based AR portals to Omega Mart on the Las Vegas Strip, with no app download. Webby finalist, 2025.

Route 66 Remixed

An 18-mile public art experience along Albuquerque's Central Avenue for the Route 66 Centennial, with browser-based AR by more than 20 New Mexico artists.

Ojos Diferentes

An AR tour of Santa Fe's art and history, made with the City of Santa Fe.

Ready Care

EpiPen training on Snap Spectacles, with step-by-step guidance and real-time feedback. First place, Snap Lensathon 2024.

Yeigo

AR on Snap Spectacles that helps people set walker height and walk with safer posture, in English and Diné bizaad. Built in 72 hours at MIT Reality Hack, where it won the Gold Prize and the MIT Founders Lab Grand Prize.

Doulie

A birth education and planning app that helps expecting families prepare with clear, evidence-based guidance.

IKEA Biocompanion

An LLM home assistant for SPACE10, IKEA's innovation lab, that shares environmental information the way a friend would.

Meow Wolf: New Mexico

Web AR portals that open from places around New Mexico into Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return.

The Garage

A live-action Magic Leap performance at Meow Wolf, named one of Forbes' top XR installations of 2019.

Obsidiopolis

A crossover physical and digital activation at Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return.

Experience

Co-founder and Senior Software Engineer, Refract Studio, Santa Fe, NM. 2021 to present.

• Design and build the architecture for everything we ship: distributed backends, on-device computer vision, and multiplayer XR.
• Lead engineer and tech lead on three to five projects at once, including IRIS, Meow Wolf, and Route 66 Remixed, with budgets in the hundreds of thousands. Delivered on time and often under budget.
• Built MVPs with Google (an LLM language-learning game and AR navigation) and Snap (museum AR and medical simulation).

Software Developer, Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, NM. 2018 to 2022.

• Led the tickets.meowwolf.com rebuild: $2M in added annual revenue, 5% higher conversion, and checkout more than 40 seconds faster.
• Led artists and engineers on a multiplayer HoloLens 2 experience where guests could gain and share powers.
• Built a browser-based 3D exhibit-planning tool in Three.js so teams could work through designs together in real time.
• Built a CI/CD pipeline with staging and production QA for ticketing and web apps.

Full Stack Developer, Iterative Consulting, Albuquerque, NM. 2017 to 2018. Repaired and scaled codebases for Series A startups.

Freelance Full Stack Developer, Austin, TX. 2014 to 2017. Rails and Node.js apps for People Pattern, Everfest, and Outrider.

Awards

MIT Reality Hack, First Place, Lead Engineer (2025). Webby Awards Finalist, Meow Wolf AR (2025). Snap Lensathon, First Place (2024).

Education

Oregon State University, B.S. Computer Science. Washington State University, B.A. Public Relations.