modified: CLAUDE.md

modified:   content/2025-07-13-building-and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-29-runpod-principal-software-engineer-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-coinbase-ai-growth-lead-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-virta-health-senior-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-webflow-staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2025-12-13-energyhub-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-bluebird-kids-health-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hoodie-analytics-ai-automation-integration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hypothesisbase-python-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-illumen-group-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-known-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-opendp-harvard-senior-data-privacy-software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	new file:   content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-skycatchfire-senior-python-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst
	modified:   pelicanconf.py
This commit is contained in:
russell@unturf.com 2026-02-03 10:40:01 -05:00
parent 5bd0d956fa
commit 2bf2e75d36
41 changed files with 235 additions and 39 deletions

View file

@ -205,6 +205,28 @@ venv/bin/python lib/tag_stats.py 5 # only tags with 5+ posts
- Tags should be capitalized (e.g., "Python" not "python")
- Avoid single-use tags; consolidate into broader categories
## RUSSELL'S PROJECT TECH STACKS
**NEVER assume or guess what language/framework a project uses. Check the actual repo.**
| Project | Stack | Description |
|---------|-------|-------------|
| unsandbox.com | Elixir / Phoenix | Customer portal (accounts, API keys, billing) |
| api.unsandbox.com | Elixir / Phoenix + Python | Code execution API, ZFS containers |
| un-inception | C (primary) + 41 languages | CLI client for unsandbox API |
| uncloseai-speech | Python / FastAPI | OpenAI-compatible TTS API (Qwen3-TTS) |
| uncloseai.com | JavaScript / Node.js | Embeddable AI assistant widget (Hermes 3) |
| make_post_sell | Python / Pyramid | E-commerce (Stripe, PayPal, crypto payments) |
| remarkbox | Python / Pyramid | Hosted comments service |
| neopig | Python / FastAPI | Web archival, crawling, full-text search, dedup |
| dry | C++ / CMake | Urho3D fork, 2D/3D game engine |
**Key corrections for cover letters:**
- unsandbox.com is **Elixir/Phoenix**, NOT FastAPI or Python
- uncloseai-speech is **Python/FastAPI**
- make_post_sell & remarkbox are **Python/Pyramid**, NOT Django
- uncloseai.com is **Node.js**, NOT Python
## DATE HANDLING FOR NEW CONTENT
**CRITICAL: ALWAYS check the current date BEFORE creating ANY new documents**

View file

@ -991,7 +991,7 @@ Part 3: Death and Victory Effects
**Result**: When you destroy the last enemy tank, a massive and exciting victory celebration appears around your mower with 50 sparkles, 20 trails, 3 lights, and victory sound - making you feel like a true tank commander with a spectacular fireworks display!
Complete Game Development Results
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After implementing all three parts, you'll have:
@ -1048,7 +1048,7 @@ Engine and Game Size
- **Build Time**: ~30-60 seconds
Our Game Development Impact
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Code Changes Made**:
- **Files Modified**: 4 source files

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Chime - Senior Software Engineer, Application and Language Frameworks
=======================================================================
:date: 2025-10-28
:slug: 2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
I'm excited to apply for the Senior Software Engineer - Application and Language Frameworks position at Chime. With over 15 years building & scaling distributed systems—including extensive AWS experience with SQS, SNS, ElastiCache, RDS, & ECS—I bring deep expertise in messaging, caching, & low-latency data-sharing platforms. At Remind, I managed infrastructure supporting millions of teachers & students, implementing pub/sub patterns with SQS, optimizing Redis caching strategies, & scaling critical services during COVID-19 lockdowns using CloudFormation & infrastructure-as-code. I've also contributed to Ruby-based tooling (SlashDeploy at Remind enabled GitHub deployments via Slack commands, pioneering automation before modern CI/CD platforms existed) & have strong Python experience across Flask, Pyramid, & async job processing systems. My work spans the application-infrastructure boundary: designing CI/CD pipelines at Coursemojo, implementing Terraform-based AWS controls at Cofense, & building self-service deployment tools that empower engineering teams.

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ GitLab - Staff Backend Engineer, AI Engineering: Code Creation
================================================================
:date: 2025-10-28
:slug: 2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
I'm excited to apply for the Staff Backend Engineer - AI Engineering position at GitLab. With over 15 years architecting & scaling distributed systems—combined with deep Python expertise & hands-on AI integration experience—I bring the technical depth this role demands. At Coursemojo, I designed CI/CD pipelines for AI microservices, scaled language model integrations (OpenAI & Anthropic), & built real-time educational tools processing thousands of concurrent AI requests. I've also authored "uncloseai.com: Machine Learning Reference Guide to Inference Clients," documenting AI inference client implementations & streaming techniques across 42 programming languages—giving me comprehensive understanding of how different languages interact with AI models. My experience building high-performance APIs (Flask, Pyramid, uWSGI), optimizing database queries (PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB), & architecting containerized deployments directly aligns with GitLab's code creation tooling goals.

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ MagicSchool - Staff Software Engineer - AI
===========================================
:date: 2025-10-28
:slug: 2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
I'm excited to apply for the Staff Software Engineer - AI position at MagicSchool. With over 15 years building & scaling distributed systems—including 3 years at Coursemojo developing AI-powered educational tools for public schools—I bring the exact blend of technical depth & educational domain expertise this role demands. At Coursemojo, I designed CI/CD pipelines for AI microservices, scaled language model integrations (OpenAI & Anthropic), & built teacher dashboards for real-time student activity control. I've lived the challenges of deploying AI in K-12 environments & understand how to balance innovation with the safety & reliability teachers need. My experience architecting sandboxed execution environments (AWS ECS, Docker, Firecracker) & managing multi-LLM orchestration directly aligns with MagicSchool's agent architecture goals.

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Canonical - Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer
=======================================================
:date: 2025-10-28
:slug: 2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Canonical:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Datadog - Senior Technical Curriculum Developer - Security
===========================================================
:date: 2025-11-03
:slug: 2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Datadog:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Lumin Digital - Senior Site Reliability Engineer
================================================
:date: 2025-11-03
:slug: 2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Lumin Digital:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Synthropic - Detection Engineer + GenAI Email Response
========================================================
:date: 2025-11-03
:slug: 2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
Subject: Detection Engineer + GenAI Role - Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Truetax - Senior / Staff Software Engineer - Elixir / Phoenix Liveview
========================================================================
:date: 2025-11-03
:slug: 2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Rick Wohlers & Truetax:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Automattic - Senior Systems Engineer
======================================
:date: 2025-11-04
:slug: 2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Automattic:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Band - Full-Stack Software Engineer
====================================
:date: 2025-11-04
:slug: 2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Band:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ River - Senior Software Engineer
=================================
:date: 2025-11-06
:slug: 2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To River:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Glass Health - Founding Software Engineer (Backend)
====================================================
:date: 2025-11-13
:slug: 2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Glass Health:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Schoolhouse World - Senior Software Engineer
============================================
:date: 2025-11-13
:slug: 2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Schoolhouse World:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Zapier - Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise Zone
===================================================
:date: 2025-11-15
:slug: 2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
To Zapier:

View file

@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
**Russell Ballestrini**
russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net

View file

@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
**Russell Ballestrini**
russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net

View file

@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
**Russell Ballestrini**
russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net

View file

@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
**Russell Ballestrini**
russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net

View file

@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
**Russell Ballestrini**
russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Hatchet - Founding Engineer
===========================
:date: 2026-01-05
:slug: 2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Applied 2026-01-10
.. Applied 2026-01-10
To the Hatchet team:

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Radar - Site Reliability Engineer
==================================
:date: 2026-01-05
:slug: 2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Skipped - surveillance tech, privacy concerns
.. Skipped - surveillance tech, privacy concerns
To Radar:

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Redpanda - Software Engineer
============================
:date: 2026-01-05
:slug: 2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Skipped - Go/Connect role expired, remaining roles require heavy C++/Raft
.. Skipped - Go/Connect role expired, remaining roles require heavy C++/Raft
To Redpanda:

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Temporal Technologies - Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure Observability
==============================================================================
:date: 2026-01-05
:slug: 2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Applied 2026-01-10
.. Applied 2026-01-10
To Temporal:

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Trunk - Tech Lead / Senior Platform Engineer
=============================================
:date: 2026-01-05
:slug: 2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Skipped - SF hybrid only
.. Skipped - SF hybrid only
To Trunk:

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ KoBold Metals - Senior Infrastructure Engineer
==============================================
:date: 2026-01-10
:slug: 2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Applied 2026-01-10
.. Applied 2026-01-10
To KoBold Metals:

View file

@ -2,14 +2,13 @@ Careforce AI - Senior Fullstack Engineer
========================================
:date: 2026-01-17
:slug: 2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: draft
To the Careforce AI team:
Administrative burden in healthcare is a solvable problem. Clinicians shouldn't spend more time documenting than treating. AI agents that actually reduce that burden while maintaining accuracy is exactly the kind of work I want to do.
**Python & FastAPI**: 15+ years of Python. Currently building unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant remote code execution API using FastAPI with containerized isolation, artifact generation, & async execution. Production FastAPI services handling concurrent workloads with proper async patterns.
**Python & FastAPI**: 15+ years of Python. Currently building unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir with containerized isolation, artifact generation, & async execution. Also built uncloseai-speech, a real-time speech API in FastAPI handling concurrent audio workloads.
**LLM integration at scale**: At Coursemojo (2022-2025), I scaled AI-powered educational tools using OpenAI & Anthropic APIs. Built the infrastructure layer that let the product team iterate on prompts & features without worrying about rate limits, cost optimization, or reliability. Authored "uncloseai: Machine Learning Reference Guide to Inference Clients" covering streaming techniques across 42 programming languages.

View file

@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Lumos - DevOps Engineer
=======================
:date: 2026-01-17
:slug: 2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: Applied 2026-01-18
.. Applied 2026-01-18
To the Lumos team:
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Identity governance is one of those problems that compounds. Every new app, ever
**Observability**: Introduced Datadog at both Remind (EC2 agents) & Coursemojo (Fargate sidecars). APM, logs, custom metrics, SLO definition. Understanding how to instrument systems so engineers can debug production issues fast.
**Python proficiency**: 15+ years. Comfortable contributing to large codebases. Currently building unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution platform in Python/FastAPI.
**Python proficiency**: 15+ years. Comfortable contributing to large codebases. Currently building unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir.
Building infrastructure for identity governance at enterprise scale is exactly the kind of challenge I'm looking for.

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Octane - Staff Platform Engineer
=================================
:date: 2026-01-17
:slug: 2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: draft
To the Octane team:

View file

@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Prompt Health - Senior DevOps Engineer
======================================
:date: 2026-01-17
:slug: 2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter
:status: draft
To the Prompt Health team:

View file

@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
:slug: 2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini
:status: hidden
Russell Ballestrini
===================

View file

@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
:slug: 2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini
:status: hidden
Russell Ballestrini
===================

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Staff Software Engineer | Bluebird Kids Health**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the Bluebird Kids Health team:
Python on AWS at staff level, connecting clinical workflows to modern patient-facing apps. That's a very specific combination, & it happens to describe a significant portion of my career. I have 15+ years of production Python building web applications with Pyramid, FastAPI, & Flask. Django is a close relative of Pyramid & I'm comfortable working in any Python web framework. At Remind, I built & maintained AWS infrastructure using EC2, ECS, RDS, SQS, Lambda, & CloudFormation supporting 30M users & 60+ microservices. At Coursemojo, I ran Python services on Fargate with auto-scaling for AI-powered educational tools serving 60,000+ public school students.
At Remind, the education communication platform handled massive spikes during COVID-19 lockdowns when distance learning demand exploded. Systems stayed up. I understand the reliability requirements when real people depend on your software to access critical services. The pattern of connecting different user types through a reliable platform is familiar territory. I built infrastructure for teachers, students, & parents. Healthcare adds compliance & data sensitivity requirements on top of that, & I've worked in SOC2/FedRAMP environments at Cofense & Mandiant where data handling, auditability, & security were first-class concerns.
I've bootstrapped four SaaS products where I owned every technical decision: Remarkbox (comment platform), Make Post Sell (e-commerce with crypto payments), unsandbox.com (code execution PaaS built in Elixir), & uncloseai-speech (real-time speech API in FastAPI). At larger companies like Remind, Cofense, & Coursemojo, I've led architecture initiatives & helped other engineers grow. Staff means setting technical direction & making others more effective. That's how I work.
Building reliable systems that connect patients with the care they need is meaningful work. I'd welcome the chance to discuss how my experience fits.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**AI Automation & Integration Engineer | Hoodie Analytics**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the Hoodie Analytics team:
Data pipelines, Python automation, AI agents, & AWS infrastructure. I've built all four in production, often wiring them together into systems that run without babysitting. I have 15+ years of production Python & I've built web scrapers, data processing pipelines, & ETL workflows. At Remind, I managed infrastructure processing millions of messages daily across 60+ microservices with RabbitMQ. I write the kind of Python that handles edge cases, retries gracefully, & logs what matters.
At Coursemojo, I built AI-powered education content generation using LLMs for 60,000+ public school students. I built uncloseai-speech, a real-time speech API in FastAPI handling concurrent audio workloads with streaming responses. I understand prompt engineering, API orchestration, & the practical challenges of making AI outputs reliable in production workflows. REST APIs are core to my work. At Make Post Sell, I integrated 4 cryptocurrency blockchain APIs with webhooks, polling, & confirmation tracking. At unsandbox.com, I built a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir with structured input/output across 42+ programming languages.
My AWS experience spans 10+ years: EC2, ECS, RDS, SQS, Lambda, S3, CloudFormation. At Remind, I supported infrastructure for 30M users. I understand serverless patterns, container orchestration, & cost optimization. I've bootstrapped four SaaS businesses. When you're the only engineer, you automate everything or you don't survive. I've built deployment pipelines, monitoring systems, & data workflows that let small teams punch above their weight.
I'm interested in how Hoodie Analytics is using AI to solve data integration challenges. Happy to discuss how my background fits your team's needs.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Python Software Engineer | HypothesisBase**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the HypothesisBase team:
Python, Linux, git, data structures, & a willingness to learn new technologies. That's your requirements list. Here's what I bring beyond the baseline. I have 15+ years of production Python across web services, data processing, infrastructure automation, & AI applications. I've shipped Pyramid, FastAPI, & Flask applications at scale. At Remind, I built Python services supporting 30M users. I write clean, tested code & I care about maintainability.
I've lived in Linux environments my entire career. At Remind & Cofense, I managed production Linux infrastructure on AWS. I built deployment pipelines, monitoring systems, & container orchestration with Docker & Kubernetes. At Remind, I managed RabbitMQ infrastructure handling millions of messages across 60+ microservices. I've built ETL workflows, data pipelines, & processing systems on AWS. I understand distributed systems patterns, queue-based architectures, & the reliability challenges of production data processing.
At Coursemojo, I built AI-powered content generation systems for 60,000+ public school students. I built uncloseai-speech, a real-time speech API in FastAPI. I also built unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir. I understand the intersection of software engineering & AI, building the infrastructure that makes AI outputs reliable & useful.
I've maintained a technical blog at russell.ballestrini.net for 12+ years, covering Python, DevOps, AWS, & distributed systems. I've mentored engineers, led architecture discussions, & communicated technical decisions to diverse audiences throughout my career. I'm looking for challenging technical problems where I can contribute meaningfully. Happy to complete your assessment & discuss how my experience fits.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Developer, Senior | Illumen Group**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the Illumen Group team:
Modernizing federal systems from legacy to cloud-native on AWS is exactly the kind of work I've done throughout my career. At Remind, I built AWS infrastructure supporting 30M users & 60+ microservices using EC2, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, SQS, Lambda, & CloudFormation. I led cloud cost optimization while maintaining reliability during COVID-19 usage spikes when the education platform became critical infrastructure. Currently I'm building unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir on AWS with containerized components.
I've written production Python for 15+ years across web services, data processing, & infrastructure automation. At Remind, I shipped Python services handling education communication at national scale. I've built APIs in FastAPI, Flask, & Pyramid, & I write clean, tested, well-documented code. My SQL & database expertise runs deep. PostgreSQL schema design, query optimization, migrations, & replication at scale. I've translated complex business logic into relational models & written the SQL to make them performant.
I've containerized applications, built CI/CD pipelines, & managed production container orchestration on both ECS & Kubernetes. At Cofense, I worked in SOC2/FedRAMP environments where auditability, compliance, & reproducible builds were requirements. At Mandiant (FireEye), I worked on security infrastructure for federal & enterprise clients. I understand the rigor federal work demands.
I'm a U.S. citizen & I'm looking for impactful work modernizing systems that serve the public. Federal statistical systems are exactly that kind of meaningful infrastructure.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Senior Software Engineer | Known**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the Known team:
Your stack reads like my career summary. At Remind, I built & operated infrastructure for 60+ microservices serving 30M users on AWS. I managed the RabbitMQ cluster handling millions of messages daily across event-driven services, performed PostgreSQL upgrades & migrations at scale, & introduced Datadog with container agents for APM & observability. During COVID-19 lockdowns, usage spiked dramatically as schools went remote. Systems stayed up because the distributed architecture & monitoring I'd built gave us visibility into what was breaking before users noticed.
I've built production systems across multiple languages & frameworks. unsandbox.com is a multi-tenant code execution PaaS I built in Elixir with containerized isolation & resource quotas. uncloseai-speech is a real-time speech API I built in FastAPI handling concurrent audio workloads. At Remind, I shipped Python services across the microservice fleet & managed Docker containers on ECS. I write Dockerfiles, deployment pipelines, & infrastructure-as-code daily. Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, event-driven architecture, & message queues are core to how I design systems.
I bring 15+ years shipping production systems & 12+ years working remote. My security engineering background at Mandiant & Cofense gave me experience in SOC2/FedRAMP environments where reliability & compliance were non-negotiable. I've also built frontends in React & Vue for my SaaS products, so I can contribute across the full stack when needed.
I'm looking for a team building real distributed systems where I can contribute meaningfully. Known's focus on data-driven products with serious backend infrastructure is exactly that.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Senior Data Privacy Software Developer | OpenDP / Harvard University**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the OpenDP team:
Privacy-preserving software that works at scale requires more than algorithm expertise. It requires engineering discipline: clean APIs, thorough test suites, documentation that serves both researchers & practitioners, & deployment infrastructure that's reproducible. At Mandiant (FireEye), I worked on security infrastructure protecting enterprise & government clients. At Cofense, I worked in SOC2/FedRAMP environments where data handling, access controls, & auditability were requirements. I understand the mindset of building software where data privacy is a first-class constraint, not an afterthought.
I have 15+ years of production Python. I write well-tested, well-documented code. At Remind, I built Python services serving 30M users across 60+ microservices. I've built & maintained open-source Python packages & I understand the discipline required for library code: backwards compatibility, clear documentation, thoughtful API design, & comprehensive test coverage. I've maintained a technical blog for 12+ years communicating complex topics to audiences with varying backgrounds.
At Coursemojo, I built AI-powered content generation systems for education. I built uncloseai-speech, a real-time speech API in FastAPI, & unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir. I understand ML frameworks, training pipelines, & the infrastructure that supports them. While differential privacy is a new domain for me, I learn quickly & I'm genuinely interested in the intersection of privacy & machine learning.
Rust isn't my primary language, but I've worked in polyglot environments my entire career across Python, Elixir, Ruby, JavaScript, Java, & C. I pick up new languages by reading codebases & contributing incrementally. Building privacy tools that enable researchers to work with sensitive data responsibly is important work. I'd welcome the opportunity to contribute.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
Russell Ballestrini
===================
.. class:: center
**Senior Python Backend Developer | SKYCATCHFIRE**
.. class:: center
russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net <https://russell.ballestrini.net>`_ | `GitHub <https://github.com/russellballestrini>`_
----
To the SKYCATCHFIRE team:
Transforming complex business processes into elegant data models & APIs. That's the sentence in your listing that got me. It's also the thread that runs through my entire career. I've spent 15+ years building production systems in Pyramid, FastAPI, & Flask. I've designed APIs that serve 30M users at Remind, processed crypto payments across 4 blockchain networks at Make Post Sell, & built unsandbox.com, a multi-tenant code execution PaaS in Elixir. I prioritize long-term reliability & clarity over quick fixes because I've maintained the codebases that didn't.
Turning messy business logic into clean schemas is the work I enjoy most. At Make Post Sell, I modeled the full e-commerce lifecycle: product catalogs, cart management, order processing, payment confirmation across multiple cryptocurrency chains, & automated fulfillment. At Remarkbox, I designed the data model for an embeddable comment system handling nested threads, moderation workflows, & multi-site tenancy. PostgreSQL is my primary database. Schema design, query optimization, migrations, indexing strategies. I've managed databases at scale serving 30M users & designed schemas from scratch for greenfield products.
I actively use AI tools in my development workflow. I've built AI-powered features at Coursemojo for education content generation & integrate LLMs into my current projects. I also built uncloseai-speech, a real-time speech API in FastAPI handling concurrent audio workloads. I understand both the integration patterns & the infrastructure requirements for making AI features reliable in production.
I build things end-to-end, from data model to deployment. Remarkbox, Make Post Sell, unsandbox.com. I'd love to talk about what you're building & how my backend experience can help.
|
Russell Ballestrini

View file

@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ DEFAULT_PAGINATION = False
# RELATIVE_URLS = True
DISPLAY_PAGES_ON_MENU = False
SLUGIFY_SOURCE = "basename"
# teach pelican to use directory/index.html files
ARTICLE_URL = "{slug}/"