Dr. Bandy joined the National Security Agency in 1967, and spent his career in all aspects of microelectronics, including integrated circuit design, fabrication and test. He started and ran the first in-house fabrication facility in the mid seventies. In 1985 he was detailed to DARPA where he managed a $30M per year microelectronics research program that encompassed projects at over 20 research institutions in the areas of computer-aided design of electrical and mechanical systems, computer-aided manufacturing and technology infrastructure. His tour was extended in 1988 to serve as the first program manager of the newly formed $200M per year SEMATECH industry and government consortium.

In 1989 he was designated the executive director of the National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors, a presidential committee mandated by Congress to study the state of the U.S. semiconductor industry and to make recommendations. In 1990 he returned to NSA to become the director of the Microelectronics Research Laboratory. In 1999 he retired from NSA and co-founded Matrics Technology Systems, Inc., for the development and production of low-cost, high-performance Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag technology and product. Matrics was bought by Symbol Technologies, Inc. in 2004 for $230M. He left Symbol in May 2006 to co-found Innurvation. He is the inventor of 30 patent and patent applications.