Dirkjan Ochtman (NL, 1983)
- Bilthoven
- +31 6 52035289
- dirkjan@ochtman.nl
- https://dirkjan.ochtman.nl/
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Summary
I am an experienced software engineer, motivated by deep technical challenges and
long-term product thinking on how technology can serve us better.
I am fascinated by the tools and processes involved in software engineering
and like to think about every aspect of the process, including identifying what
requirements will satisfy customers, how to build high-performance teams
and what tools and best practices can support the business's goals.
Professional experience
Jan 2022 – Aug 2024: CTO at Instant Labs
I participated in YCombinator's Winter 2022 batch with Instant Labs.
We set out to build Instant Domains, an ICANN-accredited domain registrar
and site builder product. We later built Strobe to help brands evaluate and
manage creators at scale.
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Built much of our backend in Rust, including a DNS server, HTTP
proxy, WHOIS server, ACME client and EPP client. We published
several components as open source libraries, including
instant-acme,
instant-epp and
instant-xml.
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Hired 3 engineers for the backend team and supported hiring
for the frontend team.
2007 – present: Open source software projects
I help maintain many popular Rust libraries.
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rustls
is a widely used safe and efficient TLS implementation.
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Quinn
is a popular implementation of the QUIC protocol.
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I also help maintain
chrono,
indicatif,
Hickory DNS,
and tonic.
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Wrote two accepted Rust RFCs and implemented several Cargo features.
Sep 2020 – Dec 2021: Consultant, Rust engineering
Dec 2018 – Aug 2020: Dev Engineer at ING Nederland
Was a development engineer on ING Distributed Ledger Technology team.
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Acted as tech lead for the ValueX initiative and built its MVP.
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Built a microservice for
distributed ECDSA key generation and threshold signing in Rust.
2014 – Mar 2018: Software Delivery Director at ActiveVideo
Became an engineering director after starting as a senior C++ software engineer.
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Worked with product management to coordinate release management.
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Hired many software engineers during a rapid growth phase.
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Supported the platform architecture team.
2007 – 2013: Co-founder, Automation & Operations at KenTyde
Was the founding software engineer at KenTyde, an asset management startup.
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Built a web-based user interface to the
operational environment in Python and JavaScript.
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Built and open sourced fixlib, a Python library for dealing with the
FIX protocol.
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Built a ZeroMQ-based market data network in C++ and Python.
Education
2019: Cryptography I, via Coursera
- Completed the course, which is based on Stanford's CS255.
2015: Maximizing Leadership Potential, at the Center for Creative Leadership
- Attended the program in Brussels, BE.
2012: Compilers, via Coursera
- Completed the course, which is based on Stanford's CS143.
2001 – 2010: Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
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Completed an MSc in Information and Communication Technology in 2010.
- Completed a BSc in Computer Science in 2006.
- Completed a BSc in Psychology in 2008.
1994 – 2000: Gemeentelijk Gymnasium, Hilversum
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Graduated in 8 subjects (one more than required): Math A, Math B,
Physics, History, Dutch, English, French and Ancient Greek.
Miscellaneous
Language skills
- Dutch: fully fluent
- English: fully fluent
- French: reasonably good
Technology
- Expert-level Rust developer
- Persistence: PostgreSQL, Redis
- Web technology: REST, JavaScript, HTML, CSS
- Other: Git, Python, Google Cloud Platform, Temporal
Hobbies