About Tim

My Story

I’ve been a professional software engineer since 2009, working across several industries including EdTech, e-commerce, and platform integrations. Along the way, I’ve led development teams, mentored engineers at all levels, and built everything from analytics platforms to social networks.

At the core of my satisfaction in all those endeavors was supporting others to succeed. Whether it’s answering questions, giving a talk, writing blog posts, or contributing to open source; I enjoy helping people improve. Through programs like Underdog Devs and Djangonaut Space as well as maintaining packages, and answering help questions, I’ve been able to support developers at all stages of their careers. Better Simple is an extension of that same mission.

Professional Experience

Over 15+ years, I’ve worked on a variety of projects across different industries:

EdTech Analytics: Built systems to identify at-risk students and provide actionable insights to educators. Led the development team.
E-commerce: Developed online stores with payment processing, shipping integrations, and inventory management
Social Platforms: Engineered notification systems, real-time updates, and background processing for social networks
Integrations: Connected systems with LMSes, Google’s APIs, Stripe, FedEx, and several other APIs

I’ve worked as both an individual contributor and a development lead, giving me perspective on technical challenges and team dynamics alike.

Community Involvement

Current Roles

Django 6.x Steering Council: Helping guide Django’s technical direction (2025–2026)
Django Commons Administrator: Helping support maintainers for community-maintained Django packages (2024–present)
Djangonaut Space Admin: Overseeing the mentorship program for Django contributors (2023–present)
Space Reviewer: Reviewing contributions in the Djangonaut Space program (2024–present)

Past Roles

DEFNA Secretary/Director: Django Events Foundation North America (2023–2024)
DjangoCon US Organizer (2023-2024)
Google Summer of Code Mentor: Mentored async support for django-debug-toolbar (2024)
Djangonaut Space Navigator: Mentor in Session 1, supported Sessions 4 and 5.
Django Discord Moderator (2023)
Underdog Devs Mentor: Project Underdog program (2021–2023)