Brian Chamberlain

Skills

Strong: Ruby, JavaScript, Node.js, Rails, TailwindCSS, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Linux, macOS, Cloudflare, AWS

Recent and learning: Ruby, Elixir, Nomad, OpenTelemetry

Experience

1. tastytrade · Staff Software Engineer

   Feb 2023 – present

   Chicago, IL (remote)

   I lead observability for the brokerage platform: OpenTelemetry and shared metrics libraries across 30+ Ruby services, an upgrade of the core Elixir/Erlang messaging service, and the application and telemetry side of a datacenter migration.

   • Led the OpenTelemetry rollout: shared metrics and tracing libraries, tested and deployed across 30+ Ruby microservices, with the brokerage systems onboarded to Honeycomb.
   • Application and telemetry lead for the move to a new datacenter, running both sites side by side until the numbers matched. Gave a conference talk on it.
   • Upgraded the core brokerage messaging service, written in Elixir/Erlang.
   • Instrumented and diagnosed production performance problems in critical Ruby services, and ran telemetry talks and sharing sessions for the engineering team.

   Talk: De-risking datacenter migrations with observability

2. i-50 · Technical Advisor

   Jun 2020 – present

   Miami, FL

   Bi-weekly calls with an ML startup's engineering team on testing, architecture, and process. The fundamentals, mostly.

3. Window Grille Clips · Founder

   2020 – present

   Reproduction grille clips for vintage Andersen windows, four styles, printed to order. A tiny business, but a real one.

4. Made2print · Creator & host

   2020

   A YouTube channel about 3D printing as a practical tool: design walkthroughs and prints that fix something around the house.

5. ConsenSys Mesh · Senior Software Engineer & Researcher

   Dec 2018 – Feb 2023

   Brooklyn, NY (remote)

   Co-led Team Zero, an applied R&D group building community-testable prototypes: Datapult for social image sharing on IPFS, a zero-knowledge location-privacy prototype, a run of first-of-their-kind product launches, and the Baseline protocol with Microsoft and EY.

   • Co-led Team Zero, an applied R&D group building community-testable prototypes.
   • Technical lead on the Baseline protocol alongside Microsoft and EY; core maintainer and technical steering committee member after it launched as an OASIS project.
   • Designed, built, and launched Datapult, a first-of-its-kind product for social image sharing on decentralized storage, with an iOS app, website, and Cloudflare backend.
   • Built a zero-knowledge location-privacy prototype in Circom on Sony Spresense hardware.
   • A run of first-of-their-kind launches with artists and musicians, and an open source SDK for rights and royalties on live recordings.

   Team ZeroBaseline protocol

6. Grand Rounds · Senior Software & Infrastructure Engineer

   Mar 2016 – Dec 2018

   San Francisco, CA

   Tech lead on the time-constrained, business-critical projects: EDI and SSO for the largest customers, a homebuilt CI and ephemeral-environment system on Docker Swarm, and the pager when production misbehaved.

   • Tech lead on the time-constrained, business-critical projects.
   • Built the custom EDI data exchange and SSO systems for the largest customers, and ran the SFTP exchange they sent data through.
   • Managed the homebuilt CI and ephemeral-environment system on Docker Swarm, and planned the next platform on Kubernetes, Istio, and Envoy.
   • Created the product planning process for the infrastructure engineering team. On call for production, ran the post-mortems.

7. MadeParts · Founder

   2016 – present

   Hard-to-find parts re-manufactured on demand. Zero inventory, direct digital ordering, low-volume plastic parts nobody else will make.

8. Lucid Design Group · Product Manager, Controls & Integrations

   Sep 2014 – Mar 2016

   Oakland, CA

   Managed the integrations between building and utility hardware vendors and BuildingOS, helped design its public API, and planned the controls platform and a demand-response pilot.

   • Managed the integrations between third-party utility and building hardware companies and BuildingOS.
   • Worked with the engineers to design the BuildingOS API, and set up application analytics and user metric reporting.
   • Planned the controls platform and a demand-response pilot with a large utility aggregator.

9. IFTTT · Senior Software Developer, Head of Hardware

   Jul 2013 – Jul 2014

   San Francisco, CA

   Shipped 15 hardware channels in six months with Nest, Fitbit, Belkin, Withings, Netatmo, and others, and swapped the aging Sphinx search for Solr. The job where hobby IoT and day-job IoT were the same thing.

   • Created 15 hardware channels in six months, and platform IoT usage went up with them.
   • Specced, built, and launched device channels with Nest, Parrot, Withings, Fitbit, Belkin, Netatmo, Automatic, Lockitron, and others.
   • Replaced the aging Sphinx search with Solr, deployed with Chef on AWS.

10. Belly · Senior Software Developer, Open Source Manager

    May 2012 – Apr 2013

    Chicago, IL

    Scaled the core Rails app from 300k to over a million users and co-built the management and monitoring system for 4,000+ in-store terminals.

    • Scaled the core Rails application from 300,000 to over a million users.
    • Co-designed and built the management and monitoring system for 4,000+ in-store terminals.
    • Built the custom reporting database the business analysts worked from, and mined performance and behaviour data with the product directors.

11. Tree Farm Creative · Founder

    2010

    Designed, manufactured, and sold home goods made from renewable materials. My first go at building a brand and a marketplace.

12. Northwestern University Bio-Informatics Core · Software Engineer

    2008

    Chicago, IL

    Patient registries, trial-monitoring systems, and a survey authoring platform for clinical research, in Rails.

13. NIH Clinical Center · Software Engineer

    2006

    An informed-consent authoring platform for clinical research, built in Rails back when Ajax was the exciting part.

14. Ratchet Web Design · Freelance Designer & Developer

    2005

    Solo web design and development for a while.

15. Guidewalk · Co-founder & Developer

    2000 – 2002

    A Palm Pilot navigation startup with a few friends. I built the engine that turned vector map art into interactive maps on PalmOS for nine travel guides published with Let's Go.

Education

1. Northwestern University· BS, Information Systems 2011
2. University of Maryland, College Park· Electrical Engineering 1998 – 2003