
Russell Ballestrini
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**Senior Developer Relationship Engineer | The Matrix.org Foundation**

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russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_ | `Media <https://media.unturf.com>`_

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To the Matrix.org Foundation team:

15+ years building open-source infrastructure, writing technical content, & growing developer communities. I've published 180+ technical blog posts since 2010, maintained open-source projects with active contributor bases, & built developer-facing platforms from scratch. Developer relations feels like a natural convergence of everything I've done.

Open-source community work runs through my entire career. I created remarkbox, a hosted comment system that embeds in static sites, serving a community of publishers who integrate via a simple JavaScript snippet. I built unsandbox.com, an anonymous code execution API supporting 42+ languages, designed for both human developers & machine learning agents. I authored ``ago``, a Python library that humanizes datetime objects, released to the public domain. Each project required developer documentation, onboarding guides, & ongoing community engagement to sustain adoption.

On content production: my blog at russell.ballestrini.net covers Python, DevOps, AWS, security, & infrastructure topics with a 15-year publishing history. I've written technical guides, architectural deep-dives, & ecosystem commentary. I also authored "uncloseai. Machine Learning Reference Guide to Inference Clients," covering streaming techniques across 42 programming languages. Translating complex technical concepts into accessible developer content comes naturally.

The technical foundation matches what you need. I've worked as a sysadmin (Unix administration at CSC for DoD), a DevOps engineer (Mandiant, now Google), & a site reliability lead (Remind, 30M users, 60+ microservices). I write Python, Bash, Go, JavaScript, Elixir, & Ruby. I run my own infrastructure on bare metal & cloud, manage DNS, deploy with CI/CD pipelines, & operate containerized services. When developers ask technical questions, I can answer from direct experience.

Matrix's mission resonates with my own work. I use Matrix daily & administer channels on matrix.org, so I know the platform as both a user & a community operator. I wrote a permacomputer manifesto advocating for infrastructure that outlasts its builders, decentralized by design, open by default. Federation, open protocols, & community governance align with how I think about technology. I'd bring genuine conviction to promoting Matrix, not just professional polish.

I'd welcome the chance to discuss how my experience fits what you need.

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Russell Ballestrini
