William Timlen
Senior Software Engineer building backend systems that work quietly and reliably
About MeAbout Me
William Timlen CPA New Jersey Bill TimlenI'm a Senior Software Engineer at a fintech company in New York, based in Hoboken, New Jersey. I work primarily on backend systems—the kind of infrastructure no one notices unless it breaks.
My core stack is Python, Java, and Go. I spend most of my time designing distributed services, optimizing data pipelines, and making sure APIs behave predictably under load. I'm usually the person people call when something starts timing out at scale.
I didn't start out wanting to be a software engineer. I studied applied mathematics and stumbled into programming because it gave me leverage—one person, one laptop, and suddenly you could influence systems used by millions. I enjoy refactoring legacy codebases, untangling years of technical debt, and leaving systems cleaner than I found them.
At the end of the day, what I do is build systems that don't surprise people. When everything works quietly, when money moves correctly, when data arrives exactly where it should—that's success.
What I Do
I build backend infrastructure that works invisibly. The kind of systems where success means nothing went wrong.
Distributed Systems
Designing and building services that scale reliably under load. I focus on consistency, fault tolerance, and predictable behavior across distributed architectures.
Data Pipelines
Optimizing data flow from ingestion to delivery. Building pipelines that handle high throughput while maintaining data integrity and low latency.
API Design
Creating APIs that behave predictably under pressure. I obsess over edge cases, error handling, and making interfaces that other engineers actually want to use.
AWS Infrastructure
Deep experience with ECS, Lambda, DynamoDB, and S3. I architect cloud solutions that balance performance, cost, and operational simplicity.
System Reliability
Thinking in failure modes before they happen. On-call incident response, root cause analysis, and building systems that recover gracefully.
Technical Debt
Refactoring legacy codebases and untangling years of accumulated complexity. I leave systems cleaner than I found them.