austin hartline

strategy

• I have lead domain driven design ventures to build alignment between stakeholders and technical ICs.
• I have lead teams of developers: driving CI/CD testing process, mentoring individuals, facilitating design alignment, and resolving conflict.
• I have lead months-long business critical projects, coordinating 3-6 ICs at a time to align, collaborate, and deliver iteratively.
• I have significant experience modernizing tech stacks for improved extensibility / reliability without business disruption.
• I have worked closely with compliance practitioners in spaces with financial regulators (FINRA, SEC), ecommerce (PCI DSS), healthcare (HIPPA / PHI), and SOC2.
• I have significant hands-on experience with cloud architecture and infrastructure in AWS and GCP.
• I have significant hands-on experience with data infrastructure, executing large data migrations, regulatory reporting, database design, SQL optimization, data pipelining, and safe security patching.

philosophy / experience

modernization

It is always critical to start with automated tests that document the current system behavior before making significant changes.

migrations

Rewrites / large refactors are very rarely a fruitful pursuit.

A system that could be rewritten 1 for 1 without introducing radical deviation from the current implicit business invariants, load bearing defects, and other subtle nuances is likely not a system providing a worthwhile value prop. (Or it is a system that is so fungible and simple that it can be treated as an atomic component to something larger.)

build strategy

When faced with clinical uncertainty, the safest bet is almost always to approach with minimalism in mind. Minimal changes, minimal design, minimal engineering. Let the nuances of the problems being solved emerge naturally in parallel with the domain of the problem being solved.

This does not mean that we do not adhere to essential measures for tomorrow's extensibility or maintainability for things that will see a tomorrow.

process (evolution)

Process change cannot be dictated, enforced, or solicited. It happens slowly, when collective participants observe an action that works less effectively than a known different, more rewarding one. This can only be effectively influenced through understanding, knowledge sharing, demonstration, and active mentorship.

tools

Tools come and go. Attachment / evangelism is a bid for misalignment and conflict.

Tools are a vessel for ideas. Ideas can prove far more lasting than the latest iteration of my favorite tool. CQRS can be applied almost anywhere. The unix philosophy of small single purpose tools is a paradigm that can be implemented anywhere.

In a world where LLMs can deliver anything (if you just ask the right question), it's more and more attractive to reach for more "exploratory" tooling. Mastery of one's tools makes the craftsperson. Limited / finite scope is a necessity in a world of finite human reasoning, in spite of infinite compute reasoning.

conflict

Conflict of ideas is mostly a function of communication errata and ego. Separate the individual and misalignment from the idea through prose and illustration. Write it down for group consumption. Revise. Refine. Review. Acknowledge the reversibility of the decision. Sometimes, the only path forward is Disagree and Commit.

Other types of conflict can usually be met with curiosity and attention to nuance. Sometimes all it takes is an apology and accountability. Other times, cultural seams express themselves and demand considered action, be it behavior change, coaching, or structural change.