Andrii Khmelkov

Systems, quality, code. Now, people and processes.

I'm Andrii Khmelkov, an engineering leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. I build high-performing teams and deliver in high-ambiguity environments.

I'm a jack of all trades, and that's the point. Having worked on problems from every angle helps me find holistic solutions instead of fixing one layer at a time.

Message me on LinkedIn See how I got here
Portrait of Andrii Khmelkov

A career built in layers

Each role sits on top of the one before it. The surface is where I work today, but I still stand on everything underneath. Click a layer to take a core sample.

  1. Now

    Engineering leader

    At Delos Insurance Solutions, which uses the best wildfire risk modeling to help Californians insure their homes. I build high-performing teams and deliver where the path isn't mapped yet.

  2. Software engineer

    Building software with a tester's eye for edge cases and a sysadmin's respect for production.

  3. QA engineer

    Known by colleagues as thorough, dependable, and analytical, with a deep understanding of how software fails.

  4. System administrator

    Where it started: keeping servers, networks, and people running, and learning what it takes to make systems dependable.

Principles from my journal

I write the most impactful quotes down in my journal. These three shaped me at different stages of life.

  • Acceptance

    "I am human, nothing human is foreign to me."

    Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.

  • Courage

    "Justification = reluctance."

  • Optimism

    "The primary cause of unhappiness is not the situation, but your thoughts about it."

    Eckhart Tolle

Away from work

I travel, film, photograph people and places, and keep notes on the living things I find along the way.

  1. Two people silhouetted at the mouth of a sea cave above a sunlit ocean
  2. A person in an orange parka watching a flat-topped iceberg from a small boat on still water
  3. A woman in a plaid coat glancing back on a cobbled street lined with bicycles and autumn trees
  4. A wooden barn on a green valley floor beneath towering red cliffs
  5. The long ornate stone facade of a monastery under a bright sky
  6. Mushroom-shaped sandstone hoodoos casting long shadows across a desert
  7. A quiet street of timber-framed houses leading to a twin-spired church
  8. A steep alley of rainbow-painted steps between mural-covered walls
  9. A camper van parked on an empty desert road below sandstone spires
  10. A woman in a white dress descending a sunlit stepped alley lined with shops and plants
  11. A boat of people in yellow parkas facing a low sun over pack ice
  12. A red brick corner building with turrets above an empty crossroads
  13. A Gothic stone building with spires standing above a canal at dusk
  14. Brightly painted houses stacked up a steep hillside, with a mural across one wall
  15. A boat of people in yellow parkas crossing broken pack ice under a heavy sky

  • Travel films

    Video captures energy and mood better than photos can, so I film trips to share with family and friends. The latest series follows an expedition to Antarctica.

    Imperfect Travels on YouTube

  • Photography

    Nature, architecture, and people in their natural environment when I travel. Portraits are a newer passion: they capture character and the mood of a moment.

    Instagram Portrait portfolio Postcards

  • Nature notes

    I log the wildlife and plants I come across, from western fence lizards to southern giant petrels: more than 600 observations of over 400 species since 2017.

    Five species are hiding on this page, too. How many can you spot?

    iNaturalist

  • Reading

    History, philosophy, and science fiction. Books that stayed with me: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Be Water, My Friend by Shannon Lee, and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

    Goodreads

  • Curious about

    Human history and the events that shaped our world; finance, markets, and investing; and self-directed learning that never really ends.

    Republic

  • Giving back

    I contribute to Wikipedia, iNaturalist, and Numista, and support independent journalism: Ukrainska Pravda, Censor.net, and The Kyiv Independent.

    Wikipedia

visitor@khmelkov.net: ~