So I’m still looking for work.

For those that didn’t catch the news, my former employer Yubico decided to cut costs back in April as a reaction to That Whole Pandemic Thing™ and their Melbourne engineering team (myself and one other person) were a cost they elected to cut. That kinda sucked as I was very much enjoying myself and doing good work there but, well, life does kinda suck at points.

I’ve had a bunch of chats with various outfits, and done some fairly serious interviewing, but nothing’s gotten to the point of an offer yet. I’m not in serious financial danger but I’m very much unemployed rather than Funemployed if you get my drift.

You Should Hire Me

My experience is rather broad. I’ve worked at every level of the software stack. Yes, kernel included. I can do embedded, I can do device drivers. I can do low-level application code as well as business logic. I can do front-end logic if you need it although my design skills are… well, let’s just say I have amazing levels of respect for the front-end folks because I find it inordinately hard to do what they do.

I can work in Python, C, Rust, Go, Javascript, Typescript, Ruby, Java, Perl, PHP and a bunch of others. I’d rate myself as an expert in Python and C. Most other languages I can write code in with no troubles but I’d need some spin-up time on the common libraries and idioms.

I can manage engineers. I went from 0 to 11 direct reports in under a year, starting with a six-person team and then adding a second five-person team later. I’m not in a hurry to manage that number of people again but I’d happily take on a smaller team.

I’ve constructed, run, and delivered both smaller and larger projects. My largest project ran for over a year with a core team of six people and required coordination across almost the entire rest of the group. It was delivered successfully and on time.

I can be the technical lead on teams. Again, I’ve done this on smaller and larger projects and my focus is always not just on successful delivery but on unlocking future potential of both the systems I’m working on and the people I’m working with. Mentorship is something I enjoy and something I see as vitally important.

I can communicate. Obviously as a manager and a technical lead I’ve had to communicate within organisations but I’ve also done a fair amount of public speaking including my biggest hit to date, The Tragedy of systemd.

What I’m Looking For

My ideal role at this point is some kind of principal engineer or technical leader. By that I mean someone who has a seat at the table where the serious decisions are made, someone who is expected to get their hands dirty in the Code Mines but also someone who ensures that things are working properly at the personal level too.

I’m based in Melbourne, Australia and I’m not looking to move right now. That said, I’ve worked for employers based in Seattle while in Melbourne, San Jose while in Seattle, and Stockholm/Palo Alto/Seattle while in Melbourne. I get remote. I get timezones. I can make it work if you’re willing to work with me.

If I sound like someone you’d like to have on your team, you can check out my resume, or you can find me on LinkedIn, or you can email me at benno@jeamland.net. I’d love to have a chat.