about
My name is Daniel May. I'm originally from the UK, but now I live in Los Angeles.
I started writing code when I was young because it was the quickest way to automate a game I got bored with. I've turned that curiosity and passion for self-directed learning into a twenty-year software engineering career, and now I've had the opportunity to impact millions of people's interactions with computers. You might be one of them! :)
The first real chunk of my professional experience was in London's finance sector, building low-latency foreign-exchange trading platforms before leading engineering teams on other investment banking and ad-tech projects. From there I founded Ring Leader Solutions, a boutique consulting firm, and grew the engineering team from zero to ten while delivering systems for investment banks and energy brokers.
In 2017 I moved to the US and joined Whole Foods Market in Austin, leading the platform program that replaced the in-store mobile fleet and reshaped experiences for store team members, saving thousands of hours. I stayed on as an SDM at Amazon after some reshuffling, but eventually went west to Riot Games and spent three and a half years leading the VALORANT Build Platforms team, working to deliver infrastructure for more than five hundred developers behind a game with tens of millions of players.
Now I'm looking into machine learning, applied agentic AI, and understanding the future of the software engineering landscape.
work with me
For the past few months I've been looking at that as independent research, following wherever applied agentic AI actually leads rather than where the hype points. It's been a good run, and now I'm figuring out my next full-time step.
If you're building something where a generalist engineer with two decades across trading, retail, and game platforms would help, or you're aware of a role that might fit, I'd love to hear about it!
mentoring
I like to mentor engineers. That's mostly folks earlier in their careers trying to find direction, or sometimes working engineers seeking a second read from someone who's made the call before. I'm especially glad to support marginalized and underrepresented groups in engineering, such as women and others who may be self-taught, though I won't turn anyone away.
Reach out about mentoring [email protected] →disclosures
I don't receive any compensation for the things I write about here. No sponsorships, affiliate links, or paid placements. I currently hold no professional or academic affiliations either. If any of that changes, I'll say so plainly.
