5.5+ yrs
Engineering in production
Hands-on ownership across product systems, platform services, and developer tooling.
Platform-minded engineering leader · Linux/cloud systems · remote-first
I make production systems faster, steadier, and easier to operate.
I'm Taylor Beeston — a hands-on engineering leader who likes the operational side of software: production debugging, distributed-system problem solving, automation, performance tuning, and clear technical ownership in a fast-moving open-source platform.
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.
Platform fit
Why my background maps to platform and infrastructure work.
My strongest experience is in the habits platform teams need: stability, scalability, performance, automation, metrics-minded debugging, documentation, and cross-functional technical ownership.
Linux + Cloud Operations Fit
I do my best work close to production: reliable infrastructure, Linux systems, cloud primitives, automation, and practical operations.
- Comfortable on Linux-based systems and remote-first operational workflows
- Experience with cloud-hosted products, APIs, caching, queues, and production debugging
- Strong bias toward clear runbooks, documentation, and cross-functional communication
Distributed Systems + Performance
My strongest accomplishments are in making complex systems faster, more stable, and easier for teams to operate.
- Reduced a 3+ minute query to under 5 seconds
- Improved initial load performance from ~15 seconds to a few hundred milliseconds
- Helped move a Meteor monolith toward more modular frontend and backend architecture
Automation + Reliability Mindset
I like improving operational systems over time, not just keeping them alive. That matches how I approach engineering work.
- Built internal services and tooling that reduced recurring cost and manual work
- Improved monorepo workflows, CI/CD speed, and day-to-day developer experience
- Interested in going deeper on storage observability, Linux internals, and cloud infrastructure operations
Selected work
Relevant proof: production ownership, not demo projects.
Open-source lifelong learning passport platform where I lead hands-on engineering across a large monorepo and the production systems that power LearnCard products.
Linux workflowsTypeScriptNodeRedisMongoDBNeo4jAWS LambdaRustCI/CD
Drove practical reliability and performance wins: faster deploys, faster local builds, major query improvements, and reduced recurring infrastructure spend.
Distributed systemsPerformance tuningCI/CDInternal tooling
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.
RustWASMSystems learningDeveloper tooling
Experience
Leadership without stepping away from implementation.
Mar 2022 — Present
VP of Engineering · Learning Economy Foundation
Lead engineering while staying hands-on: production debugging, platform improvements, developer tooling, performance work, mentoring engineers, and keeping systems moving reliably.
Aug 2020 — Mar 2022
Software Engineer · Learning Economy Foundation
Built across frontend, backend, infrastructure-adjacent services, CI/CD, performance, and internal tooling before growing into broader technical ownership.
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 the operational side of engineering.
I enjoy the work that keeps a platform usable: debugging production issues, making slow paths fast, improving deployment reliability, writing down what the team learns, and building automation so the same problem does not keep coming back.
I am especially interested in infrastructure work that is close to the systems layer while still being software-defined: Linux, storage concepts, networking, virtualization, Kubernetes, metrics, alerting, and cloud operations.
I am based in Lake Stevens, Washington, work well remotely, and can collaborate across engineering, operations, and product stakeholders without needing heavy supervision.
Tech + domain fit
Technical strengths
LinuxDistributed systemsCloud hosting conceptsObject/block storage conceptsPerformance tuningObservability mindsetPython/Bash scriptingTypeScriptNode.jsRustRedisMongoDBNeo4jAWS LambdaCI/CDTechnical documentation
Current learning focus
Deepening hands-on knowledge of storage operations, Linux storage internals, infrastructure observability, and cloud platform reliability.
Open to the right full-time role
Looking for a platform-minded engineer who can learn fast and own outcomes?
I bring production engineering judgment, performance instincts, documentation habits, and a strong desire to go deeper in cloud infrastructure and platform operations.