About Me

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Hey, I am Zach! 👋

I’m a recovering SysAdmin/DevOps/SRE/Operations person who’s been keeping the digital lights on for 20+ years. I’ve worn so many technical hats that I’m basically a virtual hat rack at this point - from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 behemoths, I’ve seen it all.

I’m passionate about technology and staying connected. My relationship with the internet has helped me consume information like breathing air - it’s become a superpower that fuels both my career and curiosity.

What I’m Up To Now

Professional Chaos Management

I’m a Principal Architect at a sizable financial services and technology company where it’s like herding cats in exchange for a paycheck. Most of my time is spent in the merger & acquisition space, figuring out how to blend different tech ecosystems without everything catching fire, and turning complex technical realities into something business folks can understand (and fund).

My actual job description is something like:

  • Architecture Visionary - Creating holistic views of complex systems that transform “what the hell is this?” into digestible, actionable understanding
  • Meeting Survivalist - Navigating the corporate calendar jungle while maintaining my will to live
  • Tech-to-Human Interpreter - Converting engineer-speak into something executives can understand without their eyes glazing over
  • Relationship Engineer - Putting people first, because even the best tech is worthless without trust
  • DevEx Champion - Advocating for developer experience and smoothing the journey from startup culture to enterprise reality
  • Team Elevator - Helping others grow through mentorship, creating opportunities, and getting out of their way

Tech That Actually Excites Me

When I escape the corporate matrix, you’ll find me playing with:

  • Cloud Infrastructure - API-driven everything because life’s too short for clicking through consoles
  • Kubernetes - My digital playground for orchestrating containerized chaos
  • Open Source Everything - Contributing, advocating, and supporting the community that powers the internet
  • Gen AI & LLMs - Running Ollama locally and building agentic systems that actually do useful things
  • Golang - For when Python is too slow
  • Infrastructure as Code - Because clicking buttons in a UI is for people who don’t value their time
  • Ruthless Automation - If I have to do it twice, I’m scripting it yesterday
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My Tech Philosophy

I have a few strong opinions (weakly held):

  • If it can be simpler, make it simpler - complexity is just tomorrow’s technical debt
  • Solve real problems - not the ones you wish you had
  • Share what you know - I’ve learned everything the hard way so you don’t have to
  • Never stop learning - the moment you think you know it all, you’re obsolete
  • Always be humble - admit when you’re wrong, when you don’t know something, and seek help early
  • Find the balance - never be that person everyone hates, but don’t be the hero either

I believe great code is like a good joke - if you have to explain it, it’s probably not that good. And documentation isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a fundamental responsibility.

Life Outside the Terminal

Believe it or not, I do close the laptop for short periods of time. You might catch me:

  • Sharing life with my wonderful wife who somehow still tolerates me
  • Exploring trails with a camera, sometimes sharing adventures on YouTube
  • Traveling wherever my points and miles strategy takes me
  • Learning random skills - I’m a forever student with an ever-growing list of interests
  • Keeping current with world events, intelligence, cybersec, and security trends

Let’s Connect

If you want to talk tech, swap horror stories, or just say hi:

I promise my response times are faster than a well-optimized database query (usually).