I’m a senior engineer and infrastructure architect who has spent the last 20+ years building everything from high-concurrency data pipelines to bare-metal server clusters. I’ve worn the corporate VP hat at JPMorgan Chase leading teams managing over 100,000 servers, and I’ve worn the founder hat running my own consulting firm, Theta 42.
But honestly? I miss the early stage startup energy. I miss the environments where we pivot fast, build from a whiteboard to production, and where everyone dons multiple hats to smash the next milestone.
What I bring to your team:
Real-world leadership & mentorship: I don't just manage tasks; I grow engineers. I've led development teams from scratch, run a tech consulting firm, and even spent years as a head instructor teaching Python/Django backends—maintaining a documented 90% job placement rate for my graduates. I know how to unblock a team and keep execution high.
Deep infrastructure, backend roots: I'm a self taught engineer who started with Perl in '99 on a WebTV. I’m a native Linux user who deeply understands networking, hypervisors, and storage layers (think Proxmox, LXC, and ZFS), not just cloud abstractions.
Pragmatic AI execution: I’m actively building local AI pipelines, structured tool-use interfaces, and agentic RAG infrastructure. I know how to cut through the LLM hype and implement local models (Ollama/vLLM) that actually solve business problems.
If you’re an early-stage startup or a tightknit team looking for a seasoned technical leader who can anchor your backend, architect your infrastructure, and mentor your engineers without losing the hunger to get into the weeds and write code, let’s talk.
The major difference is Linux can update in the background, with out much effect on working performance. Linux also doesn't force you to update, or block shutdown/boot events to perform an update. Its simply a much better experience.
Windows update is the number one driver for people switching to Linux in my experience. I personally know at least 20 people who are are non-technical who switched to Linux solely because of windows update.
Remote: Yes (Remote or hybrid/in-person in NYC)
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Go, PostgreSQL, ZFS, Linux (Mint/Debian/Ubuntu), Proxmox VE, Docker, Git, AWS, GCP, OpenAPI, MCP (Model Context Protocol), local LLM deployment (Ollama, vLLM), agentic RAG infrastructure.
Résumé/CV: https://william.mantly.vip (At bottom of page)
Email: [email protected]
Hey HN,
I’m a senior engineer and infrastructure architect who has spent the last 20+ years building everything from high-concurrency data pipelines to bare-metal server clusters. I’ve worn the corporate VP hat at JPMorgan Chase leading teams managing over 100,000 servers, and I’ve worn the founder hat running my own consulting firm, Theta 42.
But honestly? I miss the early stage startup energy. I miss the environments where we pivot fast, build from a whiteboard to production, and where everyone dons multiple hats to smash the next milestone.
What I bring to your team:
Real-world leadership & mentorship: I don't just manage tasks; I grow engineers. I've led development teams from scratch, run a tech consulting firm, and even spent years as a head instructor teaching Python/Django backends—maintaining a documented 90% job placement rate for my graduates. I know how to unblock a team and keep execution high.
Deep infrastructure, backend roots: I'm a self taught engineer who started with Perl in '99 on a WebTV. I’m a native Linux user who deeply understands networking, hypervisors, and storage layers (think Proxmox, LXC, and ZFS), not just cloud abstractions.
Pragmatic AI execution: I’m actively building local AI pipelines, structured tool-use interfaces, and agentic RAG infrastructure. I know how to cut through the LLM hype and implement local models (Ollama/vLLM) that actually solve business problems.
If you’re an early-stage startup or a tightknit team looking for a seasoned technical leader who can anchor your backend, architect your infrastructure, and mentor your engineers without losing the hunger to get into the weeds and write code, let’s talk.