Kenneth Love
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, United States
- resume@thekennethlove.com
- Resume
- https://thekennethlove.com/resume
- GitHub
- https://github.com/kennethlove
- https://linkedin.com/in/kennethhate
Summary
Principal Engineer with 20+ years of experience brings knowledge, practices, and
mentoring, seeks position with low drama, interesting problems, and a positive
impact on the world. Successfully led and advised multiple teams delivering real
solutions to complex problems. Created, administered, and refined a department-wide
onboarding program, introducing 50% of new engineers to a large codebase.
Authored and maintains django-braces, a Django library with millions of
installs in an untold multitude of projects.
Skills
- Mentorship and training.
- Software architecture and design.
- Python, Django, and Rust.
- HTML, CSS, htmx, and JavaScript as required.
- AI-related tools such as Claude Code, Codex, and several more.
Experience
O’Reilly Media
Principal Engineer • –
- Developed internal tools to migrate 100+ services’ documentation, ease pub/sub adoption, and other needs.
- Contributed to and maintained a custom framework used by 100+ services.
- Aided engineers on 15+ teams throughout the engineering department.
- Used AI-related tools for development assistance, research, and as a component of larger systems to support all engineers and teams across the department.
- Onboarded new hires as they arrived.
Engineering Manager • –
- Lead an engineering team of four to meet product needs for the search experience. The search project was the focus for the entire duration.
- Collaborated with multiple project and product managers, third-party providers, and other engineering teams to achieve company goals.
- Wrote tickets, helped plan sprints, and handled other needs as they arose to ensure the team met their goals. Most sprints were correctly sized, leading to quicker accomplishment of priorities.
- Worked to promote all engineers on the team both in title and to better team fits. Resulted in two promotions and a terrific team move.
- Investigated and tested AI tools and reported findings, to help set AI usage expectations and practices in the department.
- Continued to onboard new engineers to the department.
- Provided one-on-one coaching to engineers through the department’s mentoring program, advising 10+ engineers.
Senior Software Engineer • –
- Worked on multiple product teams building new features and improving existing ones. Responsibilities ranged from planning and implementing new microservices, finding and fixing bugs, and preparing the platform for upcoming features.
- Onboarded several more engineers through my program. The program also evolved with every new hire.
- Participated in the department’s mentoring program, coaching multiple engineers across a variety of topics.
Software Engineer • –
- Contributed to projects on multiple engineering teams including search, customer analytics, and others.
- Advanced an internal framework to make development and deployment simpler and quicker. The framework has been used continually for almost all projects since then, supporting 100+ microservices and frontends.
- Created, organized, and ran an onboarding program used for all new engineers. This program centralized and standardized orientation and also saved the company from having to pay for travel for new hires and their mentors.
- Helped define a departmental mentoring program, participated in the program most quarters, and became an active working group member for program management.
Treehouse Island Inc
Python Instructor • –
- Designed, wrote, and presented 20+ curricula to teach Python, Flask, Django, HTTP, and related technologies.
- Supported thousands of students worldwide at all experience levels.
NewCircle
Instructor • –
- Taught Python and Django to various companies and groups of professionals.
Freelance
Developer • –
- Developed various Web applications for clients, usually in Python and Django.
- Created a ridiculously complex CMS for dozens of apartment communities and internal designers, using Nginx, Redis, MongoDB, Lua, Python, and JavaScript.
- Helped multiple clients migrate to Python and Django from custom PHP projects. This opened them up to support and information from all over, not just myself or internal teams.
Mentoring • –
- Helped mentees understand new concepts such as programming, Python, or Django resulting in improved skills and job prospects.
- Advised mentees on their career progression and new skills to learn.
- Provided guidance on effective, thorough, and kind onboarding practices.
Technical Reviewer • –
- Hello Web App, 1st edition.
- Two Scoops of Django, 1st edition.
- Python Crash Course, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th editions.
- Python Beyond the Basics, 1st edition.
Open Source
Open Source Contributor • –
- Created
django-braces, a popular collection of mixins for Django’s GCBVs. This package regularly receives 200,000+ downloads per month. - Contributed to authentication mixins to Django itself, the Beeware project, and many other open source projects.
- Released packages to make form handling, admin customization, running management commands remotely, and migrations easier for Django users.
Community Achievements
Conference Speaker • –
- Cascadia PHP () - “Growing Your Engineering Garden”
- PyCascades () - “Those Who Care, Teach!”
- PyOhio () - “Those Who Care, Teach!”
- PyCon US (, ) - Django tutorials
- DjangoCon US () - “Views Can Be Classy”
- Other conferences and events
Organizer • –
- DjangoGirls Portland (three events in )
- DjangoCon US (, , )
Member
- Django Software Foundation Board Member ()
- Django Software Foundation Individual Member ()
- Python Software Foundation Fellow ()
Education
Associate of Science (A.S.), Multimedia Technology
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology-Okmulgee • –