Looking for a job

Matthew Dobson

@matthewdobson

Message

Senior software architect bridging system design, distributed systems and production engineering.

Netherlands

Message

What I'm looking for

I seek senior engineering roles solving hard systems and distributed problems, in collaborative teams with strong engineering practices, cloud-native infrastructure, and opportunities for technical leadership.

I am a senior software architect and engineer with 25 years of experience across industry and academia, focused on designing and implementing robust distributed systems and production infrastructure.

I have led backend and cloud infrastructure for high‑traffic commercial platforms, designed highly scalable OS and runtime components for distributed compute, and contributed upstream to the Linux kernel with over 100 accepted patches.

My work spans startup product prototyping, integrations with third‑party data providers, and academic research in wireless sensor networks and decentralized protocols; I combine deep systems knowledge with practical delivery skills in cloud, CI/CD and infrastructure as code.

I thrive on hard technical problems, mentoring teams, and building reliable, performant systems using technologies such as C#, Rust, Terraform, Azure and multi‑cloud deployments.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Software Architect & Engineer

Current

The49

May 2020 - Present (5 years 4 months)

Designed, developed, and maintained backend and infrastructure for HealthCompare.com, enabling hundreds of agents and generating millions in commissions through reliable integrations and compliant data storage. Led prototyping and architecture for internal incubator startups, improving delivery and scalability.

C++Azure Terraform Git CI CD Backend Infrastructure Database Management

Chief Architect

Hadean

Mar 2017 - Apr 2020 (3 years 1 month)

Designed and implemented HadeanOS for scalable distributed compute and spatial simulations, led technical collaborations and achieved a Guinness World Record for concurrent players via platform scalability work. Drove adoption of novel tooling and multi-cloud deployment support.

Distributed Systems Rust NixOS Terraform Azure GCP)AWS Systems Architecture

Co-Owner / Software Engineer

Coders’Co

May 2014 - Feb 2017 (2 years 9 months)

Ported and extended the Rax interpreter for cross-platform support, implemented HiveQL integration, and developed web/mobile apps while building and maintaining virtualization and CI infrastructure. Improved cross-platform script compatibility and installer tooling.

JavaScript Firebase wix Jenkins Virtualization Hadoop Cross Platform Development Rax

Software Engineer

International Business Machines (IBM)

Sep 2001 - May 2006 (4 years 8 months)

Contributed 100+ patches to the mainline Linux kernel focusing on virtual memory, CPU scheduler optimizations, and SMP/NUMA scalability; owned the kernel Topology API to optimize CPU, memory, and I/O locality for performance.

Linux Kernel C++Virtual Memory Performance Optimization Linux APIs Systems Programming

Intern

Compaq Computers

Jun 2000 - Dec 2000 (6 months)

Added NUMA support to the AdvFS file system, improving file system performance via enhanced memory locality and reduced lock contention through finer-grained locking.

C++Performance Tuning Concurrency Locking

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

PhD / Postdoctoral Research, Computer Science

2008 - 2014

Activities and societies: Research in decentralized gossip-based ultra-low duty-cycle TDMA networks; multi-university experiment coordination; conference and journal publications.

Conducted systems-level research in wireless sensor networks and ad hoc networking protocols, resulting in multiple peer-reviewed publications and coordinating a multidisciplinary experiment involving over two hundred participants.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Master of Science, Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems

2006 - 2008

Activities and societies: Master's Project on instant messaging protocol and Pidgin plugin; Master's Thesis on gossiping protocols for wireless networks.

Completed a selective Topmaster specializing in Parallel & Distributed Computing Systems with a master's project implementing an IM protocol and a thesis on gossiping communication protocols for wireless sensor networks.