Kia ora!
I'm Joseph Wynn, an engineering team lead and software developer based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. My experience ranges from building high-traffic distributed systems to growing and supporting engineering teams; from crafting rich interactive UI components to implementing real-time data processing pipelines.
On my journey to build better systems I've become a polyglot and a generalist. I've written software in many languages at almost every layer of the web stack: database, backend, API, frontend, CDN/edge, tooling, and testing.
Outside of my professional work I maintain several open source projects, (infrequently) write software development guides, and (even less frequently) write about other stuff.
Want to know more? Ask me to walk you through SpeedCurve's real user monitoring (RUM) architecture, or how I coordinated several teams building the BBC's next web platform.
Originally joining a small team, I had the chance to work on everything from the data layer, API, and backend to the web interface and developer tooling. I took ownership of SpeedCurve's real user monitoring (RUM) product, improving the capabilities of the real-time data pipeline, data warehousing, and reporting system. I have also enjoyed providing customer support and writing documentation. During this role I transitioned to Head of Engineering where I expanded the engineering team and oversaw technical direction while still contributing as a developer.
Working across several teams, I helped to deliver the BBC's responsive web platform and new front-end component library. I worked on the CI pipeline that enabled teams to move from weekly deploys to several deploys per day, and built automated testing tooling to increase QA productivity. I later moved into a Principal Engineer position where I led the team responsible for building a better BBC News front page and the BBC's next web platform. As my role shifted to include more management responsibility, I focused on growing & supporting the people around me.
Working closely with product developers and designers, I helped build Rightster's new video distribution platform. This role involved writing a lot of code and co-ordinating feature development with other teams. In between shipping features, I implemented a Git workflow that helped to reduce the chaos of multiple teams working on the same source code. It was this Git workflow that led me to write A Hacker's Guide to Git. It was very satisfying to build a product from the ground up, and to ensure our development practices allowed the team to grow quickly.
Built websites for magazine brands, just as print media started dying. Learned a myriad of useful things including programming at the CDN edge, proper change management, automated testing, and data-driven product development.
Web work at various agencies in Christchurch and London. Let's talk over a cup of tea if you want to know more!
Below are a few of my open source projects. You can find the rest of them on GitHub.
A tiny (800 byte) library that converts absolute dates to relative, human-readable strings. If you've used npm, then you've used this project!
A popular responsive image plugin for the Jekyll static site generator.
A framework for server-rendered React apps with delcarative data fetching and opt-in client-side rendering. Many of Second's features are now part of React core.
A fast, experimental JavaScript component framework based on the original Elm architecture.
Hey, you made it to the end! If you want to know more about me, or you just want to chat, you can find me on Bluesky or GitHub. You could also email me: joseph at wildlyinaccurate dot com.