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name: James Muriuki Maina
role: Rust & Systems Engineer
location: Kenya
status: Open to opportunities
work_arrangement:
  - Remote
  - Relocation
specialties:
  - Type-safe systems design
  - Async runtimes & concurrency
  - Distributed systems architecture
learning: Advanced async patterns, LLM integration with Rust

I'm a self-taught Rust engineer passionate about building efficient, type-safe systems that prevent entire classes of bugs at compile time. With a foundation in systems programming and distributed architectures, I create production-grade software that balances performance with correctness. Currently contributing to Symposium - exploring AI the Rust way.

BSc. Geospatial Information Science
Dedan Kimathi University of Technology

Self-Taught Systems Engineer
Deep exploration of Rust fundamentals, async runtimes, concurrency primitives, and type-safe domain modeling through building real systems and open-source libraries.

I'm deeply passionate about developer experience and tooling. I love designing and building:

• CLI tools & utilities - Efficient command-line applications that make developer workflows faster
• Build systems & automation - Streamlining compilation, testing, and deployment pipelines
• Development tooling - Leveraging Cargo, package managers, and language ecosystems effectively
• Infrastructure tooling - DevOps, containerization, and orchestration solutions that reduce friction

The best tools are invisible - they get out of your way and let you focus on the problem. That's what I aim to build.

Languages

Core Systems & Infrastructure

Web & Frontend

Databases & Persistence

Developer Tools

These are some of my most substantial works showcasing different domains of systems engineering.

A full-featured roguelike game built with Rust featuring procedurally generated dungeons, turn-based combat, and Entity Component System (ECS) architecture. Implements three map generation algorithms (Rooms, Cellular Automata, Drunkard's Walk), field-of-view mechanics, multiple enemy types with AI, and item systems. Built with bracket-lib and Legion ECS, showcasing game development fundamentals and complex system interactions.

Complete implementation of the Lox programming language interpreter written in idiomatic Rust. Features a full compiler pipeline (tokenizer -> parser -> AST -> evaluator) with REPL support, lexical scoping, and comprehensive error handling. Zero external dependencies, leveraging only Rust's standard library while demonstrating language implementation fundamentals.

Full-featured blockchain ecosystem with distributed node network, UTXO-based transaction model, and terminal wallet UI. Implements ECDSA cryptographic signing, peer-to-peer node synchronization, mining capabilities, and persistent CBOR storage. Built as a workspace with separate node, wallet, miner, and core library components showcasing large-scale systems architecture.

Custom async runtime featuring a priority-based task queue system with separate high and low priority queues. Implements work-stealing worker threads that intelligently fall back between queues, configurable worker thread pools, and built-in HTTP/HTTPS connector integration. Demonstrates deep mastery of async fundamentals, task scheduling, and fine-grained concurrency control.

Low-level concurrency experiments in Rust exploring the foundations of synchronization primitives. Features a hand-rolled mutex (LockMate) built on atomics and atomic-wait with spin + park strategies, channel message passing experiments, and lock benchmarking. Designed to build intuition for CPU behavior in concurrent systems and the trade-offs between spinning and parking threads.

I'm actively seeking opportunities where I can contribute to meaningful technical challenges while continuing to grow as an engineer.

Ideal Roles:

• Backend/systems engineering roles focused on correctness and performance
• Teams building infrastructure, async runtimes, or distributed systems
• Opportunities to work on type-safe financial or crypto systems
• Companies that value code quality, testing, and thoughtful architecture
• Collaborative environments with strong mentorship and learning opportunities

Currently interested in: Rust-first companies, infrastructure teams, and startups solving hard systems problems.

📧 Email: james.muriuki.dev@gmail.com
🔗 GitHub: @Gme-muriuki
🦋 Bluesky: @geniusinrust.bsky.social