San Francisco, California

Hey, I'm John.

I'm a software engineer with a background in mathematics and physics. I spent the better part of seven years at Instacart, where I went from a founding engineer on a new API platform to leading teams as an engineering manager, hiring, growing, and shipping with people I genuinely liked working with.

What I actually love is making things. Code is the obvious one, but it shows up everywhere: in the kitchen, on a fretboard, behind a camera, and lately in a stack of Japanese flashcards. I'm a generalist by temperament and a perfectionist by accident.

Download résumé (PDF)

Selected experience

  1. 2019–2025

    Instacart

    Joined as a founding engineer on the Connect API and grew into engineering leadership, ending as a Senior Engineering Manager leading ~20 engineers across mobile and backend.

  2. 2018–2019

    Coral Health

    Built a health-records application from the ground up on serverless infrastructure, integrating with 200+ health systems.

  3. 2015–2018

    IBM · Vena Solutions

    Tuned a high-performance replacement for the IBM java.lang.Math library and the XL compiler, then sped up enterprise software by multiples at Vena.

The full history lives in the résumé.

Music

I've played in a few bands, including a progressive metal project. These days I play guitar at home and tinker endlessly with gear and signal chains. There's a whole page about the rig.

Languages

I got Mandarin to a comfortable B2 (HSK 4) and I'm bringing it back from rusty. Japanese is the daily focus right now.

中文 · B2 / HSK 4日本語 · N4 → N3

Video

My YouTube channel collects cooking, culture, and travel videos from years of living and eating around the world.

The animals

A dog and a cat run the household. I'm mostly staff.