About
Two decades building production systems with minimal self-inflicted complexity, while exorcising it from existing ones. Building and leading engineering teams under regulatory and market pressure. Startups through successful exits, enterprise projects, new builds and legacy rescues. Hands-on technical leadership, not slide decks.
Author of mutant, the mutation testing engine for Ruby, and infrastructure-level open source across Rust, Haskell, and Ruby. Security vulnerabilities in third-party financial infrastructure (Avalara, CircleCI) found and responsibly disclosed during regular client work. DataMapper and ROM core team alumni. Remote-first, primarily with US clients. German expat based in Malta.
Manifesto: Self Inflicted Complexity
Most software complexity is not domain-inherent. It's self-inflicted: needless distribution, trapped in dynamic languages, missing tooling, misdiagnosed root causes. The cost is hidden until it isn't.
Self-inflicted complexity is self-reinforcing. Teams "just add another service, database, or vendor" instead of solving the actual problem.
The Exorcism
Diagnosing these problems, adding mitigations to free up development time, and leading the change to fix root causes. With developers, stakeholders, and boards. Not an armchair general: hands-on work that makes it happen.
Writing
The Contribution Threshold (February 17, 2026): Every project has a contribution threshold. Below it, contributions hurt the project even if CI is green. The gap is filled by human discipline, the most volatile resource you have.
Pattern Parrots and the Semantic Knot (February 7, 2026): AI code generators are great amplifiers. But amplifiers amplify misalignment too. On mutation testing as the deterministic closed loop.
Open Source
Stratosphere: The only type-safe CloudFormation generator for both Haskell and Rust.
mrs: Rust monorepo with tooling for PostgreSQL (clients, migrations, ephemeral instances), OCI containers, typed HTTP, Git worktrees, and CI automation.
Unparser: The only complete Ruby AST to source converter.
Many more across object systems, data mapping, database drivers, AI tooling, and (cloud) infrastructure at github.com/mbj.
How to Engage
Technical leadership, due diligence for acquisitions and products, advisory boards. Focused on high-impact, decisive technical action. Not audits that collect dust. Typical clients retain for years, not weeks. Most client work under NDA.
Limited availability, but a conversation is always welcome.
Reach out: info@schirp-dso.com
Engagement Model
I embed 2-3 days/week. Diagnosis starts immediately. Hands-on in the codebase, giving direct feedback to engineers while mapping where the complexity lives and what it costs. I build alignment with stakeholders, and if needed, directly with the board, on what to fix and why, then lead the change alongside your team. Not just a report. Not just a roadmap that collects dust.