From 2bf2e75d36499be885ef09297b0fc9863deb9874 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "russell@unturf.com" Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2026 10:40:01 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] 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 --- CLAUDE.md | 22 +++++++++++++++ ...and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst | 4 +-- .../2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - .../2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...25-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...rriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...tax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...r-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...ull-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...e-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...er-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...er-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 + ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 + ...liability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 + ...ngineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 + ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 + ...-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...liability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...structure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 4 +-- ...fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 3 +-- ...os-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 6 ++--- ...-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...or-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 1 - ...eer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst | 2 -- ...-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 2 -- ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...tegration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...p-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ ...-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst | 27 +++++++++++++++++++ pelicanconf.py | 1 + 41 files changed, 235 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-) create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-bluebird-kids-health-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hoodie-analytics-ai-automation-integration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hypothesisbase-python-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-illumen-group-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-known-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-opendp-harvard-senior-data-privacy-software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst create mode 100644 content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-skycatchfire-senior-python-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md index b41d5b4..5bf9fab 100644 --- a/CLAUDE.md +++ b/CLAUDE.md @@ -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** diff --git a/content/2025-07-13-building-and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst b/content/2025-07-13-building-and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst index cbeb0b2..165dbf1 100644 --- a/content/2025-07-13-building-and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst +++ b/content/2025-07-13-building-and-modding-multimower-with-dry-engine.rst @@ -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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst index dee34f8..40071d6 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-chime-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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. diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst index d5429b9..6ec2086 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-gitlab-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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. diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst index dfe5231..c4e5a8d 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-10-28-magicschool-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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. diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst index 49af5fd..38bcdfc 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ Canonical - Containerization & Virtualisation Engineer ======================================================= :date: 2025-10-28 -:slug: 2025-11-03-canonical-russell-ballestrini-cover-letter To Canonical: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 69fa594..a05e4e7 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-datadog-curriculum-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst index 260dbf0..5d0bb68 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-lumin-digital-sre-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 4c17f98..5c9e304 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-synthropic-detection-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst index 181a094..d7679a1 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index be7ff46..046e6dd 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-automattic-senior-systems-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 1e6686a..36cfc68 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-04-band-full-stack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 80244d5..4479fe5 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-06-river-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst index ec9e79d..4750541 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-glass-health-founding-software-engineer-backend-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index bf0ad56..1549bd1 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-13-schoolhouse-world-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst index 2f7f317..ac56f6d 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-15-zapier-senior-software-engineer-enterprise-zone-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-29-runpod-principal-software-engineer-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-29-runpod-principal-software-engineer-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst index 4484c30..42acfca 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-29-runpod-principal-software-engineer-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-29-runpod-principal-software-engineer-storage-systems-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ + **Russell Ballestrini** russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-coinbase-ai-growth-lead-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-coinbase-ai-growth-lead-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 76a8447..8cc655b 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-coinbase-ai-growth-lead-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-coinbase-ai-growth-lead-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ + **Russell Ballestrini** russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-virta-health-senior-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-virta-health-senior-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 269f615..0da7d25 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-virta-health-senior-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-virta-health-senior-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ + **Russell Ballestrini** russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-webflow-staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-webflow-staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst index 79ad496..ede177e 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-webflow-staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-30-webflow-staff-software-engineer-applied-ai-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ + **Russell Ballestrini** russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-12-13-energyhub-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-12-13-energyhub-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 78c0975..8c82e69 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-12-13-energyhub-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-12-13-energyhub-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ + **Russell Ballestrini** russell@unturf.com | 860-333-3047 | https://russell.ballestrini.net diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 34d6243..209e673 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-hatchet-founding-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 087b56f..1236b90 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-radar-site-reliability-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 89e0946..3c05dd2 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-redpanda-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index b62542e..51ebb9d 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-temporal-technologies-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst index f6eabe6..46087d5 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-05-trunk-tech-lead-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 5c086d1..65ee672 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-10-kobold-metals-senior-infrastructure-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index ac22e63..870bc01 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-careforce-ai-senior-fullstack-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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. diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 20bf15d..e50c846 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-lumos-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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. diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 79c95bb..817b337 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-octane-staff-platform-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst index c83ed72..9b7d264 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-17-prompt-health-senior-devops-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -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: diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst index 28debb9..e9fc922 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,5 +1,3 @@ -:slug: 2026-01-25-phantom-senior-backend-engineer-money-movement-russell-ballestrini -:status: hidden Russell Ballestrini =================== diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst index 32892a4..e66b967 100644 --- a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -1,5 +1,3 @@ -:slug: 2026-01-25-solflare-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini -:status: hidden Russell Ballestrini =================== diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-bluebird-kids-health-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-bluebird-kids-health-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34f6a9c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-bluebird-kids-health-staff-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Staff Software Engineer | Bluebird Kids Health** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hoodie-analytics-ai-automation-integration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hoodie-analytics-ai-automation-integration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43336dc --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hoodie-analytics-ai-automation-integration-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**AI Automation & Integration Engineer | Hoodie Analytics** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hypothesisbase-python-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hypothesisbase-python-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76b814f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-hypothesisbase-python-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Python Software Engineer | HypothesisBase** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-illumen-group-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-illumen-group-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..461f7ac --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-illumen-group-developer-senior-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Developer, Senior | Illumen Group** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-known-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-known-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..132f4dc --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-known-senior-software-engineer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Senior Software Engineer | Known** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-opendp-harvard-senior-data-privacy-software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-opendp-harvard-senior-data-privacy-software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..adc5041 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-opendp-harvard-senior-data-privacy-software-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Senior Data Privacy Software Developer | OpenDP / Harvard University** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-skycatchfire-senior-python-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-skycatchfire-senior-python-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ba3c0a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/pages/cover-letters/2026-01-27-skycatchfire-senior-python-backend-developer-russell-ballestrini.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + +Russell Ballestrini +=================== + +.. class:: center + +**Senior Python Backend Developer | SKYCATCHFIRE** + +.. class:: center + +russell@unturf.com | `russell.ballestrini.net `_ | `GitHub `_ + +---- + +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 diff --git a/pelicanconf.py b/pelicanconf.py index 8d6b26d..685eeca 100644 --- a/pelicanconf.py +++ b/pelicanconf.py @@ -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}/"