Why you should hire me

I am currently (spring of 2026) looking for work! Here’s why you should hire me, in a bit more detail than on my résumé.

I am a seasoned software developer with over two decades of experience in all of the following:

• Hands-on backend software development in many languages and frameworks
• Designing architecture for, implementing, and operating large scale, reliable systems
• Growing companies, sites, and teams from small to large
• Leading large projects and teams as a TL, managing small teams as an engineering manager

In addition to engineering work, I care about and want to be involved directly with the needs of end users and of the business. You can trot me out to speak with customers, and I work well with product, UX, and customer support teams.

The best fit for me is a small to medium sized company poised for growth. If you need to scale out an early version of a system and make it reliable for customers, this is something I have done over and over again in my career. If you need to grow your engineering team and make its culture healthy and rigorous, this is something I am super passionate about. I prefer being an senior IC and TL, but have experience managing small teams as needed.

Some concrete examples of things I have tackled in the past include:

• Owning a new business line “end to end,” from talking to customers and collecting product requirements, all the way to implementing things deep in the backend
• Coming up with ways to unify different backend systems from many acquisitions and historical mergers
• Lifting and shifting entire datacenters’ worth of running services with no downtime
• Creating highly reliable backend services, including distributed datastores and many sundry integrations
• Completely overhauling hiring process, including running interview training and implementing a “Bar Raiser” program

I love learning about new industries. In my career, I have picked up specialized domain knowledge in:

• Trucking: large vehicle types and restrictions, the business needs of delivery logistics companies
• Vehicle routing: CRP (customizable route planning), map data representations, on-demand ride hailing and delivery
• E-commerce: order and inventory management, payment processing, consumer fraud prevention
• Telephony and voice recognition (IVRs and early speech assistants)

I am always asking: what problem are we trying to solve?

Why you shouldn’t hire me

Okay, so maybe I’m the best thing since sliced bread. But, I might not be the best fit for:

• Management-only roles. I’ve managed small teams, and enjoying mentoring and counseling developers, but I really want to spend at least half of my time doing hands-on work.
• Early startups that need to build and throw away a lot of prototypes as quickly as possible. This can be fun, and I’ve built prototypes before, but ultimately, I’m passionate about high quality code and making things reliable and rigorous.
• Management that judges engineers by lines of code, tokens used, or butts in seats. I believe developers should be judged by their impact, the makers should choose the tools, and poorly chosen proxy metrics hurt code and team health.

I’m located in Oakland, California, and not willing to relocate. I’m happiest in a hybrid (2–3 days in-office) arrangement where remote and WFH workers are treated as first-class citizens.