I spent the last 2 years working as the senior developer advocate for OpenSearch at AWS. I loved my role ♥️ The community was incredibly welcoming and I got to work with some of the most brilliant engineers. During my time there I presented 33 times in 7 different countries. I covered everything from GenAI to deploying open source OpenSearch on Kubernetes.

So why leave? Amazon has a serious return to office initiative. The pressure to relocate was relentless. The uncertainty about my position and the notifications I got about being "non-compliant" was unmanageable. I have two small kids, 1.5 and 4 years old, and most of my family and my wife's family live locally. There was just too much support for me here to be willing relocate. I strongly hold to the belief that my family comes first.

I'm not the one to typically leave before I have a plan for what's next. This time was different though. My last day was on Friday March 8th 2023. Without a plan in mind I left AWS. The first few weeks I spent interviewing with different companies, catching up with people, and praying for God to show me what He had in store for me. ~30 interviews and meetings later I still hadn't come across a role that I felt fit what I was looking for.

Naturally (or not) my next move was to take a vacation with my family. 😆 Not the move most people make when they are looking for work. During this time I reflected on what it is that I liked so much about my role at AWS. The truth is I loved sharing my expertise with others. I also am passionate about the OpenSearch community.

I’m Consulting!

After all that time I’ve decided that what works best for me is continuing to help others with OpenSearch! I’ll be taking what I’ve learned over the last two years and helping others get started on their journey with OpenSearch. My experience working with the different companies and tool sets within the OpenSearch community prepared me to best help you!

If you are looking for help with OpenSearch particularly with anything from configuring your cluster to generative AI I am here to help! I am doing a free consultation where we can talk about the initiatives your team has. We'll then create a plan to get you on a roll.

If you've enjoyed working with me or referenced some material I've created I need your help sharing! Starting out as a consultant is challenging and I won't be successful without the continued support of the community (that means you too!). With that you can signup to get all the latest blog posts on making OpenSearch work better for you. Thanks to everyone who's supported me so far and I'm looking forward to continuing to share this journey with you!