Kirk Diamond
—

// technology leader · principal engineer · cto · ai

I build the platforms that drive the internet.

Backend systems, edge computing and network-layer code — the invisible infrastructure that lets the world's biggest brands bring themselves to market. Written mostly in Go, increasingly alongside AI. Shipped by teams I'm proud to have led.

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01

A career spent
at the hard end of the stack.

I've spent my entire professional life as an engineer — as a software engineer, a principal engineer, a CTO and an advisor to founders. The common thread is complexity: the platforms nobody sees, handling the traffic everybody depends on.

Most recently that has meant building extremely complex edge solutions — code that runs as close to the user as physics allows, making decisions in microseconds across a global footprint — and bringing AI into the way engineering teams actually work: integrating it into existing workflows, developing the usage patterns that hold up, and getting the best from it.

I care as much about how a team ships as what it ships. Good architecture and good leadership are the same discipline: reduce coupling, make the right thing the easy thing, and get out of the way.

Roles
Software Engineer → Principal Engineer → CTO → Advisor
Focus
Backend · Edge · Network layer · Go · Applied AI
Scale
Platforms behind some of the world's biggest brands
Also
Conference speaker · Startup mentor · Prototype builder
02

Selected work.

A few of the shapes the problems have taken.

  1. 001

    Global edge compute platform

    Designed and built a programmable edge layer executing customer logic in hundreds of points of presence — request routing, transformation and policy at the network edge, with sub-millisecond overhead budgets.

    • Go
    • Edge
    • Anycast
    • HTTP/3
    • Observability
  2. 002

    Digital commerce platforms for global brands

    Led the engineering behind platforms that let household-name brands launch, sell and scale online — high-concurrency backends, resilient integrations and peak-day traffic that would flatten most systems.

    • Distributed Systems
    • Event-driven
    • Multi-region
    • Leadership
  3. 003

    Network-layer & protocol engineering

    Low-level code where the internet actually happens: custom proxies, TLS termination, connection management and traffic-shaping — written for throughput, tuned for tail latency.

    • TCP/UDP
    • TLS
    • Proxies
    • Go
    • Performance
  4. 004

    AI in the engineering workflow

    Integrated AI into existing engineering and business workflows without breaking what already worked — defining the usage patterns, guardrails and feedback loops that turn a novelty into a dependable multiplier for teams.

    • LLMs
    • Agentic Workflows
    • Developer Tooling
    • Adoption
    • Guardrails
  5. 005

    CTO & startup advisory

    Fractional and full-time CTO roles, plus advisory seats with early-stage founders — turning ideas into working prototypes, prototypes into products, and first hires into engineering organisations.

    • Strategy
    • Hiring
    • Architecture
    • Prototyping
03

What I bring.

⟨/⟩

Backend & Distributed Systems

Systems designed for failure, built for scale, and instrumented so you can actually see what they're doing at 3am.

◎

Edge Computing

Moving compute to where the user is. Global footprints, tight latency budgets, and the hard consistency trade-offs that come with them.

⇄

Network-Layer Code

Protocols, proxies, sockets and the unglamorous plumbing that decides whether a platform is fast or merely functional.

go

Go

My language of choice for a decade of production systems — simple, boring in the best way, and brutally fast when treated with respect.

⌂

Leadership & Management

Building and running engineering organisations: hiring well, setting technical direction, and creating the conditions for teams to do their best work.

✦

Advisory & Mentoring

Helping founders and engineers navigate the messy middle — from first prototype to first million requests.

∴

Applied AI

Integrating AI into existing workflows, developing the usage patterns that actually stick, and getting the best from it — practical leverage, not hype. The goal is never "use AI"; it's shipping better, faster, with fewer surprises.

  • Workflow Integration
  • Usage Patterns
  • Agentic Tooling
  • Guardrails
  • Team Adoption

“The best infrastructure is invisible. You only notice it when it's gone.”

04

Speaking & community.

I've spoken at some of the industry's biggest stages and mentored founders through the earliest, hardest stages of building.

Talks

  • Building programmable edge platforms in GoKeynote
  • Tail latency is a product featureTalk
  • Putting AI to work: patterns that survive contact with a real codebaseTalk
  • From principal engineer to CTO — and backPanel
  • Network programming for people who think they don't need itWorkshop

Mentoring & advisory

  • Startup mentor — accelerator & incubator programmesOngoing
  • Technical advisor to early-stage foundersOngoing
  • Prototype & architecture reviewsOn request

Booking a conference or podcast? I'd love to hear about it.

05

Let's build something
difficult.

Advisory, leadership roles, speaking, or a genuinely hard engineering problem that needs a second pair of eyes — my inbox is open.