Eric Shull

Principal software engineer

Available for contract work →

From vision to execution, from refactor to rewrite, from mentoring to automation—in 15+ years as a software engineer, I've worked the whole arc of a project: sketching a system before it exists, prototyping greenfield projects, refactoring legacy code nobody wants to touch, and building the tools and habits that help other developers do their best work. I bring a steady hand and a positive attitude to tackle tough problems.

I prefer Clojure, but I take ideas from many places to wherever I'm needed.

I'd love to talk with you!

Iterative Tangents

My curiosity journal of math, physics, programming, astronomy, and more.

From vision to execution

I take projects from rough idea to shipped, well-understood system, writing architecture docs that map how everything fits together, leading refactors, and migrating prototypes through to launch. I ask the right questions up front so the team solves the right problem, then create visibility for stakeholders by documenting decisions, progress, and work to be done, staying on top of the bigger technical and product picture.

Specific work
  • Changed development team's culture to avoid long-running development branches and ship sooner, faster, and more reliably
  • Documented company-wide architecture from browser to backend, identifying service boundaries and infrastructure decisions
  • Applied broad vocabulary of technical concepts to find out-of-the-box solutions to unique customer problems

From refactor to rewrite

A lot of my work is unglamorous. I pair engineering and math fundamentals with pragmatism that keeps code quality high, one review and refactor at a time. I've designed data migrations with schema transformations, validation scripts, and automated comparisons that proved nothing was lost in translation. I've chased performance problems that only manifested in production down to their root, and traced bugs across from frontend to backend, in whatever languages the stack was built on.

Specific work
  • Removed dead code and brought legacy code up to spec, helping teammates find what's most important
  • Stewarded comprehensive integration tests to ensure reliability of a Java SDK
  • Scripted a full interface rewrite of Java annotations to upgrade to OpenAPI 3

From mentoring to automation

I remove friction for myself and my team, whether it's automating a clunky workflow or improving the efficiency of the culture. I've built, shared, and documented countless scripts to make day-to-day tooling less painful. I've written clear explanations of technical concepts, simple enough for non-specialists to understand. I mentor without gatekeeping, guiding junior developers with quick PR reviews and constructive feedback, time spent making sure people know not just what needs fixing but what they're doing well and how to grow into even better developers.

Specific work
  • Custom automation for Git worktrees, terminal multiplexers, and workspace setup
  • Same-day PR reviews with scoped feedback that teaches principles
  • Technical writing and mentoring that gets new hires and non-specialists up to speed and confident