Farewell, DataSift!

Monday the 5th of September will be my last day at DataSift. Since I started here in November 2012, I’ve seen the company quadruple in size and launch several very cool technologies, such as the ability to search everything on Facebook in realtime.

Personally, I’ve learned a ton about system design, testing and building robust, usable APIs and daemons. On top of that, I’ve learned how to deploy and monitor those same services across multiple different machines and environments, as well as how to automate the entire process from a commit on my desktop to that service being released to production (yes, actual continuous deployment!). I even managed to speak at/attend more than a few conferences thanks to the things I’ve learned along the way and the conference day allowance that the company provides.

It saddens me to be leaving, but after almost four years it’s time to look for a new challenge where I can learn new skills. I’m taking a month off to drive down the west coast of the USA, but in October I’ll be returning to a job at digi.me, where I’ll be taking the title of TIMBR lead.

TIMBR stands for Tools and Infrastructure, with Managed Build and Release. I’ll be working on the automation systems and infrastructure at digi.me as well as working with the team and partners to define processes and statements that ensure that any code that we write that accesses partner systems hasn’t been compromised. This will involve work on their continuous integration platform, as well as some legal documentation that certifies the builds that we’re producing.

I'll only be working at digi.me four days per week, taking the final day to work on personal projects such as books and conference talks. Hopefully I'll be able to follow in the footsteps of the Grumpy Programmer himself

So, thank you DataSift for an amazing few years. You were definitely the right place for me during the formative years of my development career. I’m looking forward to taking what you taught me, iterating on it and helping share that knowledge with others too.