Hi, I’m Zack.

About Me

My name is Zack Robinson. I write software (and occasionally words) to help people accomplish their goals.

I have a particular interest in human-computer interaction, embedded systems, efficient infrastructure, and cross-disciplinary integration. Currently, I'm working at SpaceX to provide Internet from space for humans on earth.

I tend not to focus on specific languages, and can quickly learn new technologies and frameworks as needed. With that said, I’ve done non-trivial work in Python, Typescript, HTML/CSS/JS, Java, Kotlin, and OCaml, plus some exposure to Rust, C/C++, and Verilog. I’m familiar with deploying and running code in a variety of environments: embedded systems, mobile apps, on-prem servers, Kubernetes clusters, and purely serverless cloud-based architectures.

I completed a BA in Computer Science (with minors in Engineering and English Literature) at Swarthmore College. During my time there, I was president of the Swarthmore College Computer Society, a 33-year-old chartered student organization with about 65 members.

I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and now live in the Seattle area. I used to be a student on FIRST® Robotics Competition Team 1540, and I’m still involved in the program through volunteering as a Control System Advisor and contributions to competition-specific libraries.

Projects and Past Work

In (roughly) reverse chronological order

• SpaceX: I'm a full-stack software engineer on the Starlink Consumer Platform team at SpaceX. We build the apps, websites, and customer support tools to deliver the world's most advanced satellite Internet service to over five million customers and counting.
• Arcesium: I worked as a software engineer at Arcesium in New York City. In my role on the Infrastructure team, I helped manage several thousand Linux servers and provide 1,000+ engineers with the compute, networking, access control, CI/CD, observability, and cost accounting that they needed to deliver Arcesium's advanced data, operations, and analytics software. I interned on the Corporate Technology team prior to my full-time work.
• FPGA video processing: Together with Thomas Makin, I spent a semester trying to play video files off of an SD card using an FPGA. This was a lot more difficult than we expected, and we didn't end up anywhere close to getting it working. But we learned a lot about hardware development along the way, and also wrote a full report to help anyone who tries to do the same thing in the future.
• Slate: A flexible file-based productivity app for people with deadlines. Slate was my final project for CIS 4120: Intro to Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Pennsylvania (which I took through Swarthmore's cross-registration program). My group conducted user interviews, created low- and high-fidelity prototypes, and finally put everything together into a functional desktop app which reimagines file management with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. You can download it here. We also did a full process writeup.
• SAUCE: I was the primary developer and maintainer of the SCCS Account and User Control Engine (or SAUCE), a new homepage, account management system, and CMS for the Swarthmore College Computer Society.
• Crumb Cafe: I was the project lead for a new point-of-sale and ordering system developed by SCCS for Swarthmore’s student-run late-night establishment.
• Polaris: I spent Summer 2022 as a System Administrator Intern at Polaris, one of the world’s leading powersports manufacturers. Using Ansible Playbooks and some PowerShell, I helped migrate several hundred legacy Windows virtual machines from an on-premises system to a cloud-based hosting provider. I also helped my intern team win the companywide “Innovation Challenge” by developing and presenting two new features for Polaris’s connected vehicle offerings.
• Streem: I spent Summer 2020 helping to make the world’s expertise more accessible as a Software Engineer Intern at Streem. I developed several Android utilities to generate test files and proofs-of-concept for a new video backend system, and worked on a new system for logging and metrics ingestion from WebRTC streams using Amazon Kinesis pipelines.
• FRC Team 1540: In high school, I was a very involved student on FIRST® Robotics Competition Team 1540, the Flaming Chickens. We built 150-pound industrial robots from the ground up in about six weeks. I wrote significant chunks of the control code for three competition robots, two of which won software awards.