jj is looking for full-time employment

Hi! My name is JJ. I’m a linguist and an experienced programmer. If you’re reading this, you might be interested in hiring me. I am currently looking for a job within Canada, either remote or in-person in the greater Vancouver area, but I may be willing to relocate to Toronto or Montreal.

I am skilled at linguistics, programming language theory, computer security, formal methods, and general software development. I am looking for work that 1) is actively beneficial to society; and 2) will constantly teach me new skills, particularly around the engineering of robust software.

I hold a Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia, having graduated in 2026, majoring in mathematics and minoring in linguistics. Outside of my degree requirements, I also took the undergraduate courses in programming languages and compiler construction, and all their prerequisites – and additionally have audited several graduate-level courses in type systems.

As a linguist, I have considerable s-side chops – having taken nearly every semantics course offered at my university at both an undergraduate and graduate level. I’ve taken a bunch of syntax, too, and consider myself familiar with most aspects of the standard theory. My linguistics undergraduate education culminated in an eight-month Field Methods course: during which I learned the basics of fieldwork and how to work with speakers, and studied the syntactic structure of Blackfoot, eventually focusing on capturing the syntax and semantics of one of its quantifiers.

As a programming languages nerd, I am interested in all languages – but consider myself particularly capable with strongly typed languages like Rust and Lean 4, having worked on and contributed to many projects in these languages, and having seen how their abstractions scale to large codebases. I’m interested in most everything that isn’t bombs, blockchain, or generative AI, but my particular areas of expertise are in compilers and security: having done quite a bit of independent research and implementation into niche programming language features (such as effect handlers); having implemented a typechecker for a dependently-typed core calculus; having written a full-fledged compiler from x86 all the way up through a Scheme-like surface syntax (including closures!); and having been deeply involved with the local CTF (cybersecurity) team, Maple Bacon; among many more projects and a couple of other lovely clubs (incl. the Math Club). (I’m also good at Scheme and Typst, although these are more niche skills.)

As a mathematics afficionado, though I’ve taken the standard undergraduate maths curriculum (algebra, analysis, & a lot of calculus), my experience & education lays primarily in foundations: axiomatic set theory and intuitionistic type theory, both of which I’ve studied independently. While doing so, I’ve encountered the usual difficulties of independent study (in mathematics): particularly the lack of rigour that can occur without having someone to double-check your proofs. I’ve learnt various proof assistants as a result, and have particularly gravitated towards Lean 4. These proof assistants – and their ability to mechanize mathematics – are a particular interest & hobby of mine, as they are also (typically) underpinned by some particular foundational type theory.

I worked (unpaid) for the Software Practices Lab over the summer of 2024, learning the basics of programming language implementation for the purpose of modelling a region-based memory system. The next summer, I interned at Rising Tide Research, exploring effective compilation/rendering strategies for signed-distance functions (lossless 3D models). This summer, I’m working on robust OCR for Kwakʼwala, a nearby Wakashan language currently undergoing language revitalization efforts. My work experience prior to 2024 was all in my hometown; I’ve previously worked as a camp counselor, a roller hockey coach and referee, and as a garden shop employee.

I’m generally extremely capable with computers in all their aspects and interfaces, and I have a considerable amount of knowledge and experience around linguistics and mathematics, too. If you or your company is hiring and think I’d be a good fit, please feel free to shoot me an email.

A full resume (incl. references) is available upon request.