Apps

Jonathan has worked in the games and tech industry for fifteen years with an unwavering commitment to delivering quality experiences. Most recently, his work for Impact Biosystems has him overseeing the vision and strategy of developing The Pact iOS app. Jonathan also played multiple roles at the smart speaker company Sonos, both as a Beta Program Manager and Manager of Beta Quality Engineering team.

The Pact

As Director of Digital Product, Jonathan guided a cross-functional team of developers to create The Pact mobile app (launched in October, 2022.) Working with Impact Biosystem’s ground-breaking new hardware, the Pact system includes a muscle scanner that assesses the health and stiffness of your muscles, as well as a handheld massager to relieve your muscle tension. The Pact app helps users collect their scan data, review their stiffness and asymmetry results, and delivers a customized recovery session.

Sonos

As the Beta Program Manager, Jonathan collaborated closely with product, engineering, user research, and QA teams to execute successful beta tests of new mobile app features and integrations. Jonathan also guided the Beta Quality Engineering team, collecting and acting on qualitative and quantitative data. Through both roles, Jonathan’s mission was to act as an advocate for the user, proposing feature enhancements and escalating high priority issues.

VIRTUAL REALITY

Circle

Jonathan is co-founder of the virtual reality developer Trio VR, creator of Circle, a music therapy experience that allows players to explore an amorphous scene while creating their own musical tapestry. The inherent elements of mindfulness and music therapy offer an opportunity to explore music in a calming and passive way, bringing participants on a relaxing journey through sound and space.

SAXOPHONE

Jonathan is also co-founder of The Pardo Brothers, developing the dark comedy SAXOPHONE. Using the Oculus Touch controllers, SAXOPHONE allows for the most authentic representation of a musical instrument using native video game controllers. With a bizarre and comedic storyline, plus gameplay that encourages the player to be musically expressive, SAXOPHONE surprises and delights players with a depth that only two sax-playing brothers could have created.

Games

Before co-founding Trio VR and The Pardo Brothers, Jonathan spent 10 years developing AAA titles at Harmonix Music, the creator of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Whether it be as a QA Lead, Product Owner, or Producer, his creative background as a composer & performer has always influenced his work. He has designed features, voiced characters, and even starred in game trailers.

Beatniks

Jonathan was the Audio Lead on the first musical virtual pet game, BeatNiks, which had a live-recorded original soundtrack featuring jazz musicians from Boston and Nashville. He also voiced multiple characters and co-designed some of the music-centric features.

Fantasia: MUsic Evolved

Whether designing features as a Product Owner or recording voice over as a singing yeti, Jonathan was able to contribute in many different ways to Fantasia. His operatic singing voice can be heard in multiple songs & remixes, and he contributed his own remix of the Peter Gabriel song "In Your Eyes."

HMX Livestream theme

 "Quite possibly the greatest theme song ever written," - Jonathan's mom

This twenty three second masterpiece is the intro theme music for the multi-weekly Twitch broadcast of the Harmonix Livestream.

knee deep

Nominated for a G.A.N.G. award in the Best Original Vocal Song - Pop category, Jonathan co-wrote the song "Cut Her Down" with his brother Steve Pardo for Knee Deep (Prologue Games.) The song became the main theme of the title, inspiring many instrumental covers that are present throughout the game.

ROck Band blitz

Jonathan wrote the original music used for the tutorials of Rock Band Blitz. The tutorial song "Baby Fat" went on to become a cult classic in the Rock Band community, with moving lyrics such as "We gotta lose that little caboose if it's the last thing we do / We're getting rid of baby fat."

Jaguar guitar reveal

Inspired by Apple's minimalist T.V. ads, Harmonix commissioned Jonathan to write a song worthy of the first foldable Rock Band guitar.

Rock Band VR

As the QA Lead on RBVR, Jonathan was part of the team tasked with redesigning Rock Band specifically for virtual reality. The new mode, which allows players to generate their own unique guitar parts, was described by Geekdad as "the way Rock Band should always have been played." (Listen to Jonathan's interview about RBVR in the Voices of VR podcast.) 

The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band broke new ground in the RB franchise, as well as music gaming in general, as the first game that offered three-part vocal harmonies. As the Vocal System Owner, Jonathan worked closely with the engineers to create this new feature and studied the soloed vocal recordings, straight from Abbey Road Studios, to confirm that all harmonies in the game were absolutely correct. 

releases

Opal Puckett

The debut E.P. released by Opal Puckett.

Released January 6, 2014.

Hymns

A collection of traditional hymns and spirituals arranged by Opal Puckett.

Released August 28, 2015.

RSVIP

An important album. The most important album? Very likely.

Release January 1, 2020.

Jonathan Pardo has worked in the cross section between hardware and software for over a decade with a consistent mission of being an advocate for the user. Whether it be as a Program Manager, Product Director, or QA Lead, his strengths lie in leading development teams to create the most user-friendly product. He is currently the Senior Producer at Owlchemy Labs, developing a brand new multiplayer VR game for the Quest 3. Prior to Owlchemy, Jonathan was the the Director of Digital Product at Impact Biosystems, guiding an amazing team of engineers, designers, and animators to make the best athletic recovery app.

Prior to Impact, Jonathan worked for three years at the smart-speaker company Sonos as well as a decade at Harmonix Music. He has held multiple roles over the years, from Beta Program Manager at Sonos to Product Owner on Fantasia: Music Evolved to QA Lead on Rock Band VR. Virtual Reality development is a passion of Jonathan’s, cofounding the virtual reality development company Trio VR as well as The Pardo Brothers, currently working on their launch title, SAXOPHONE.

Jonathan is also an award-nominated composer and vocalist. He attended Berklee College of Music and the Hartt School of Music where he was trained in music engineering, vocal jazz, and opera. His original music for the game Knee Deep was nominated for a G.A.N.G. award in the Best Original Vocal Song - Pop category. At Harmonix, Jonathan was the Audio Lead on the musical pet game, BeatNiks, and the Vocal System Owner on The Beatles: Rock Band, implementing vocal harmonies (multiple singers singing together) for the first time in a Rock Band game. He currently lives in Somerville, MA with his wife, three children, and cat.