Tyler Young

Tyler Young

Senior Software Dev in Kansas City, MO, He/him

About

I'm a software developer specializing in soft-real time systems, including game dev, networking, video streaming, and distributed command-and-control systems. In the last couple years, I've written mainly Elixir/OTP, but I also have significant experience in C++, Swift, Python, Node.js, and more.

I thrive when I'm working on products that make the world better. I'm crazy about great user experiences, performance & scalability challenges, and improving products based on real-world feedback.

Work Experience

2022 — Now
Remote

I work on the full-stack of our mapping app—Elixir, Typescript, React, and Postgres.

2021 — 2022
Remote

I led a team of six working on our application's full-stack. In our Elixir back-end, we made extensive use of BEAM/OTP platform features like distribution, supervisor trees, error recovery, and more. I also worked on our web front-end written in Elm, communicating with the back-end via GraphQL.

Generac Grid Services' primary SaaS application, Concerto, does soft-real time control of distributed grid-connected devices (like generators, battery packs, and home solar arrays). A lot of our work focused on improving the scalability of the system to orders of magnitude more devices, as well as improving reliability and our ability to recover from errors.

I also worked closely with our product & QA teams to define acceptance criteria and testing requirements.

2021 — 2021
Remote

Primarily responsible for the iOS app, including video & interaction streaming over the network. I also implemented features in the Mac & Windows host apps as necessary to support new iOS features.

2014 — 2021
Remote

I was part of a small, fully remote team of developers working on the X-Plane desktop & mobile flight simulators, as well as their server back-ends.

I was responsible for rewriting the entire X-Plane user interface for the X-Plane 11 release—a change that was quite well received in reviews. (E.g., flyawaysimulation.com/news/4889/ ) The overhauled UI brought more than a sleek new look: I reworked the entire user experience to be heavily visual, and heavily interactive, where before it was text-based and unintuitive.

I was also solely responsible for the design & implementation of our massive multiplayer system (both client & server side), capable of supporting thousands of simultaneous players in a single shared world. I chose Elixir for the implementation and fell in love with it—it allowed us to go from concept to shipping an MVP in 8 months.

In addition to working in the simulator's C++ codebase, and the massive multiplayer server written in Elixir, I was the full-stack developer responsible for many of the company's web applications, and I managed an ever-growing stable of internal Python tools.

Teams

Current
Felt