Senior Systems Architect

By Frederick Lowe, Sep 12, 2024

People often ask me how I got into software, and my answer , like most of my answers , probably feels like navigating a maze.

In 7th grade, I learned to touch type, thanks to a forward-thinking middle school program aimed at preparing students for the coming age of ubiquitous computing. My school didn't have computers or a lab yet, but daily practice on the futuristic-looking IBM Selectric typewriters laid the foundation: basic typing skills.

In 9th grade, I got into trouble for modifying all 30 copies of Oregon Trail in our computer lab to drop swear words during the ASCII hunting scenes. Classmates giggled in mild shock as 'NICE SHOT …' became 'HOLY SHIT…' I thought it was uproarious. Clever even. The principal, not so much.

A three-day suspension followed, during which I scarfed down double-batches of hastily prepared Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and transcribed BASIC programs from Creative Computing magazine on my Commodore 64.

A keystone of my personal mythology is that my high school computer teacher told my dad I'd never amount to anything "in computers". I may yet prove him wrong.

In 1985, I got an Atari 130XE for Christmas. By that point, I'd taught myself enough BASIC to write joystick drivers, simple programs for painting and generating sounds, and text games. I kept tinkering with computers and networks throughout high school and eventually studied Computer Science formally at a decent Midwestern university.

My first industry job started when I joined a new kind of company , a "Web Development" firm. Our main client (and eventual buyer) was one of the world's largest ad agencies. We built comically expensive, sprawling Websites for global brands, won shiny interactive advertising awards, and grew at pace with the exploding demand for our services. Irix and Solaris were supplanted with IIS. Perl and c gave way to VisualBasic.

After 18 months, a former professor offered me a Director of Development role at a startup. There, I learned how to translate C-Suite musings to project plans, design and optimize enterprise-scale relational databases, juggle product development to support a sales team, set up IP networks, and , critically , how to scale everything. In 18 months, we grew from 10 to more than 100 employees, hitting $15MM per quarter in revenue.

Just before the company went public, my CEO explained that several interns on my team would not receive the options I had been authorized to promise them; promises that had kept them in their roles through the quarter preceding our IPO. Now, safely near the finish line, our executives and board had developed "T-Rex" arms. Some interns had rearranged their course schedules to stay. One had sacrificed a full-ride scholarship, expecting a payout that would never come.

Over the next 20 years, I served as an individual contributor, project manager, team lead, or technical executive in multiple companies.

I delivered hundreds of projects for major brands and media companies, taking me all over the United States , San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Austin , and eventually beyond, to Tokyo, Beijing, Taipei, Singapore, and Peru. Along the way, I worked with most forms of web and internet tech , dozens of programming languages, databases, APIs, protocols, frameworks, and service platforms.

My professional history makes it possible for me , the world's second-most reluctant self-promoter , to confidently wear a Senior Systems Architect lanyard. But it's less a badge of attainment than a statement of experience.

Even today, I'm still "getting into" software. It's a discipline where the finish line runs away as soon as you approach it.