I architect systems that scale to millions
Specializing in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and performance optimization
From distributed systems to open source libraries, here's what I've built
Staff Engineer
DataScale Inc • 2023
Built a columnar query engine in Rust processing 10TB+ daily with 100x performance improvement over Spark. Implemented vectorized execution, predicate pushdown, and custom memory allocator. Zero-copy Arrow format integration reduced serialization overhead by 90%.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Staff Engineer
TechGiant Inc • 2022
Architected and built a globally distributed caching layer handling 50M requests/second across 6 regions. Implemented consistent hashing with virtual nodes, multi-tier caching with hot/warm/cold data separation, and custom serialization reducing memory footprint by 40%. Zero-downtime migration from Redis cluster.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Creator & Maintainer
2021 - Present
Created and maintain a high-performance distributed caching library for Go that outperforms Redis in single-node scenarios. Features include TTL support, multiple eviction policies (LRU/LFU/ARC), sharding, and cluster mode. Adopted by major tech companies for mission-critical caching needs with 10M+ weekly downloads.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
DataStream Corp • 2021
Built a real-time stream processing platform handling 2M events/second with exactly-once semantics. Implemented custom Kafka connectors, Apache Flink for stateful computations, and time-series database for analytics. Achieved sub-second end-to-end latency for fraud detection system.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Principal Engineer
ScaleDB Inc • 2020
Led zero-downtime migration of 100TB PostgreSQL database to horizontally sharded architecture. Implemented custom sharding logic with consistent hashing, cross-shard transactions using 2PC, and built migration tools for live data movement. Scaled from single node to 128 shards handling 1M TPS.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Systems Engineer
CloudEdge Systems • 2019
Developed a high-performance WebAssembly runtime for edge computing, executing untrusted code with near-native performance. Implemented JIT compilation, sandboxing with capability-based security, and memory isolation. Achieved 95% of native speed while maintaining complete isolation between tenants.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Passionate about building products that matter
Started coding at 12, building games in Python. What began as curiosity evolved into a passion for solving complex problems at scale. My journey took me from a computer science degree at Stanford to startups where every line of code mattered. I learned that great engineering isn't just about algorithms—it's about building systems that are maintainable, scalable, and actually solve user problems. Today, I specialize in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure, having scaled applications from zero to millions of users.
I believe in pragmatic engineering—choosing boring technology when it works, and innovating where it matters. My approach: Write code for humans first, computers second. Optimize for maintainability. Measure everything. Ship early and iterate. Every technical decision should map to business value. I'm passionate about mentoring junior engineers and building engineering cultures that balance velocity with quality.
When I'm not debugging distributed systems, you'll find me contributing to open source, writing technical blog posts, or speaking at conferences. I'm an avid rock climber (V7 boulderer), coffee enthusiast (I roast my own beans), and I run a YouTube channel teaching system design with 50K subscribers. I believe the best engineers are well-rounded humans who bring diverse perspectives to problem-solving.
Real feedback from colleagues and leaders I've worked with
"Blake is the rare engineer who can dive deep into complex technical problems while never losing sight of the business impact. Their work on our real-time systems was transformational."
"Blake is the rare engineer who can dive deep into complex technical problems while never losing sight of the business impact. Their work on our real-time systems was transformational."
VP of Engineering
"The best engineer I've ever worked with. Blake doesn't just write code—they architect solutions that stand the test of time and scale."
CTO
"Blake's open source contributions have been invaluable to the Go community. FastCache is a masterclass in API design and performance optimization."
Senior Staff Engineer