5.5+ yrs
Professional experience
Hands-on shipping products, platforms, and developer tooling.
VP of Engineering · LearnCard · TypeScript, Rust, C++, AI/ML
I lead engineering and build across the stack, from shaders to AI.
I'm Taylor Beeston — VP of Engineering at the Learning Economy Foundation, where I've worked on LearnCard since 2020. I write TypeScript/Node, Rust, C++, Ruby and shaders, and I work on AI/ML: RLHF, computer vision, local AI video generation, and building software with orchestrated AI agents.
4–6 devs
Technical leadership
Player-coach leadership while staying close to implementation and operations.
<5 sec
Performance tuning
Reduced a 3+ minute query to under 5 seconds in a production graph-backed system.
75%
CI/deploy improvement
Cut deployment time dramatically by improving tooling, build flows, and release paths.
Focus
What I work on.
Engineering leadership at LearnCard, systems and graphics programming, and hands-on AI/ML.
Engineering Leadership at LearnCard
VP of Engineering at the Learning Economy Foundation since 2022 (on the team since 2020), leading a player-coach team while staying hands-on in the code.
- Own engineering across the open-source LearnCard monorepo and products
- TypeScript/Node services, React frontends, and Rust-based SSI/DID tooling
- Mentoring engineers and keeping delivery fast and reliable
Systems + Graphics
I enjoy work close to the metal and the pixels, across compiled and interpreted languages.
- Rust and C++ for performance-sensitive code
- Shader programming and real-time graphics
- TypeScript/Node and Ruby for product and tooling work
AI/ML
Hands-on AI/ML work, from training-data feedback to running models locally.
- RLHF and model evaluation work
- Computer vision and local AI video generation
- Agent-orchestrated building: coordinating AI agents to plan, write, and verify software
Selected work
Things I've built.
Open-source lifelong learning passport platform where I lead hands-on engineering across a large monorepo and the systems that power LearnCard products.
TypeScriptNodeRedisMongoDBNeo4jAWS LambdaRustCI/CD
Orch3stra
A self-hosted AI filmmaking studio that turns a story and cast into a rendered short film using locally run video models through WanGP. A browser editor covers story, references, voices, coverage planning, a timeline and a finishing room, while a Node.js server and a headless Python worker drive renders with live progress, ETA estimates and recovery from failed or cancelled jobs.
Node.jsJavaScriptPythonWanGPFFmpegPlaywrightLLM planning
Rust SSI / DIDKit Work
Hands-on work with Rust-based decentralized identity tooling through my ssi and didkit forks, integrated as submodules in the LearnCard ecosystem.
RustSSIWASMDeveloper tooling
Experience
Leadership without stepping away from implementation.
Mar 2022 — Present
VP of Engineering · Learning Economy Foundation
Leading engineering while staying hands-on in the codebase: shipping product, improving developer experience, mentoring engineers, and keeping LearnCard systems moving smoothly.
Aug 2020 — Mar 2022
Software Engineer · Learning Economy Foundation
Built across frontend, backend, infrastructure, performance, and developer tooling, then grew into broader technical ownership and leadership.
Selected impact
- Promoted to VP of Engineering after growing into technical leadership while remaining hands-on.
- Helped migrate away from a Meteor monolith toward more modular frontend and backend architecture.
- Reduced CI deployment time by roughly 75% and improved local build speed with better tooling.
- Cut a 3+ minute production query to under 5 seconds and improved initial load performance from ~15 seconds to a few hundred milliseconds.
- Built a custom translations microservice that reduced recurring cost from $500+ per month to effectively negligible spend.
- Maintained clear technical documentation, reusable packages, and async collaboration patterns across a distributed team.
About me
I like making real things work.
I've programmed since writing TI-BASIC on my calculator in high school. Today I lead engineering at LearnCard while staying hands-on in the code.
Outside of that I spend my time on Rust, C++ and shader work, and on AI/ML: RLHF, computer vision, local AI video generation, and agent-orchestrated building.
I am based in Lake Stevens, Washington, and work remotely.
Toolkit
Technical strengths
TypeScriptNode.jsReactRustC++RubyShadersAI/MLRLHFComputer visionLocal AI video generationAgent orchestrationRedisMongoDBNeo4jAWS LambdaOpen source
Current side project
Orch3stra, a self-hosted AI filmmaking studio built on local video models.
Get in touch
Want to talk shop?
Happy to chat about LearnCard, Rust, graphics, or local AI tooling.