Blake Howell / Backend Software Engineer
Mid-level backend engineer experienced in large-scale, correctness-critical payroll systems where accuracy, reliability, and maintainability are essential. Strengths include complex business logic, backend modernisation, performance-conscious development, and production support.
01 / Experience
–Current
Paycom
–
Search Pros Staffing
02 / Selected Project
Personal project / Local application / In progress
Server-rendered software for keeping complex tabletop encounters moving.
A Rust application for creating stat blocks, organizing encounters, and tracking combatant health, built with Axum, Askama, HTMX, SQLx, and a local SQLite database.
The application follows a vertical slice architecture, keeping each page’s routes, handlers, templates, and data models together. The goal is straightforward implementation with minimal architectural overhead.
Editing a stat block creates a new version with its own identifier. Existing encounters continue referencing the original, allowing the stat block library to evolve without changing encounters already underway.
The core local workflows are implemented. Shared stat block libraries and hosted deployment remain future work.
03 / Toolkit
Maintain and extend complex calculation software, implement functionality, resolve defects, and investigate production issues. Combine unit tests and manual verification with monitoring and diagnostic tooling to support correctness and make unexpected behavior easier to investigate.
Design schemas and optimize database access, balancing query performance, write overhead, and resource usage. Comfortable with indexing, partitioning, and helping teammates work through SQL questions.
Set up queues and implement message publishing and consumption as part of backend application development.
Use Linux daily and work with containers and deployment pipelines as project needs arise, including adding applications to deployment workflows and updating configuration.
Build small utilities that automate repetitive development tasks, support local testing environments, and simplify frequently used API interactions.
Build server-rendered applications using Axum, Askama, HTMX, SQLx, and SQLite. Explore vertical slice architecture, explicit data modeling, and simple implementations through the battle tracker.
Additional familiarity: Java, C++ (academic embedded projects), MATLAB.
04 / Background
Education
B.S. Computer Engineering
Relevant coursework: Data Structures, Computer Hardware Design, Computer Architecture, Electronics Laboratory
I prefer working close to the hardware, with statically typed, compiled languages and deliberate control over memory. I aim to avoid dynamic allocations and understand roughly what my code asks the machine to do. That awareness helps me spot unnecessary work and straightforward opportunities to improve performance.
I favor explicit assumptions, backed by assertions, and code that makes state and behavior easy to follow. I introduce abstractions when a concrete pain point makes their immediate benefit clear.
I value locality of behavior over strict adherence to the single responsibility principle: code that changes together should be easy to find and understand together. Too many layers of indirection can make software harder to maintain, even when maintainability was the reason for introducing them.
For CRUD-style applications, I prefer server-rendered HTML, adding client-side behavior where it improves the experience. My goal is a simple architecture whose complexity is justified by the problem it solves.