russell.ballestrini.net/content/pages/cover-letters/2025-11-03-truetax-elixir-phoenix-russell-ballestrini.rst

Truetax - Senior / Staff Software Engineer - Elixir / Phoenix Liveview
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:date: 2025-11-03

To Rick Wohlers & Truetax:

We must augment tax workflows to streamline to avoid waste, fraud, and abuse and to one day a single click to file.

I have over 15 years building full stack products from 0-to-1 & scaling them—combined with recent hands-on Elixir/Phoenix experience & deep AI/ML knowledge—positions me perfectly for the Senior/Staff Software Engineer role at Truetax. Currently working with Elixir/Phoenix on two stealth projects: GumYum NPC API (GenAI-powered system) & lxc-code-executor (secure code execution sandbox using LXC containers). I've also published blog posts comparing Erlang/Elixir performance to Python/Node.js, demonstrating how BEAM's actor model & lightweight processes outperform traditional runtimes for network-bound workloads like websockets & SSE—exactly the kind of real-time, concurrent systems Phoenix LiveView excels at. At Coursemojo (2022-2025), I built AI-powered educational tools using commodity LLMs (OpenAI & Anthropic), designed teacher dashboards with real-time student monitoring, & implemented websocket-based classroom controls. This experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, & production AI systems translates directly to building GenAI agents & workflow systems which are on the rails and safe gaurded.

Startup & product engineering experience runs deep. Founded & bootstrapped multiple SaaS platforms: Remarkbox (privacy-focused commenting service), Make Post Sell (commission-free e-commerce with crypto hot wallet payments), & authored uncloseai.com covering AI inference implementations across 42 programming languages. Each required taking products from 0-to-1, evolving MVP codebases, designing intuitive UXs, & actively seeking user feedback to iterate quickly. At Remind (2017-2020), I managed AWS infrastructure for 60+ microservices, designed CI/CD pipelines, & scaled critical services during COVID-19 lockdowns. CI/CD expertise includes CloudFormation, Terraform, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI runners, & Docker/Kubernetes orchestration. PostgreSQL proficiency spans schema design, query optimization, & production database management.

Truetax's mission to streamline government tax administration through GenAI agents & workflow systems aligns with my experience building practical AI tools that solve real problems. Understanding government workflows, shipping code fast while maintaining quality, & designing systems that balance speed with reliability mirrors my career approach. I'm a self-starter who thrives in ambiguous environments—whether it's debugging production issues at 2am during COVID-19 scaling or architecting new features from vague requirements. The opportunity to work alongside experienced entrepreneurs, shape engineering processes, & build cutting-edge GenAI systems for government use cases would be incredibly fulfilling. I'd love to apply my Elixir/Phoenix experience, AI/ML knowledge, & full stack product engineering skills to help Truetax modernize tax administration & deliver value to government customers.

Russell Ballestrini