Log · Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan · UTC+9
AI engineering leader, twelve years into building and scaling systems — from AWS's early API Gateway to a five-month platform rewrite at Attuned.
I read systems the way I read terrain: by the signal they leave behind. That habit runs through the code and through the years I spent off the grid entirely — nature school, tracking, permaculture — before coming back to engineering with the same attention to what's actually there, not what's supposed to be there. These days I'm in Matsumoto, in the mountains of Nagano, working mostly in Tokyo.
1995
First computer · a Compaq Presario
Grew up tinkering with it long before any of this was a career plan.
1998
Learned to program · QBasic, then Visual Basic
The first taste of making the computer do what you tell it.
1999
Self-taught OOP · Java
Worked through objects and classes alone, ahead of any formal training.
2000—2007
B.Computer Science, Co-op · University of Waterloo
Six co-op work terms across the degree, including one at Seiko-Epson in Matsumoto — the town I'd end up living in two decades later. Graduated with distinction.
2008—2010
Software Engineer · Affinity Systems, Mississauga
Bespoke Java EE web apps for public- and private-sector clients; helped launch the Webkinz Jr. backend.
2010—2014
Software Development Engineer · Amazon, Kindle Content Store
Early member of the team building browsing and purchasing across web, tablet, and e-ink devices.
2014—2017
SDE II · AWS, API Gateway
Founding engineer on the service from its 2015 launch through billions of requests a month.
2017—2022
Career break · Seattle & Vancouver
Studied and worked part-time as a nature school instructor, massage therapist, and coding mentor.
2023—2025
Lead Backend Developer · Attuned.ai
Rebuilt observability across all backend systems and drove company-wide adoption of infrastructure as code.
2026—
AI Engineering Lead · Attuned.ai
Led an AI-enabled rewrite of the engineering workflow and the platform itself — new architecture delivered in five months with a team of two.