Small-town developer building tomorrow's tech

I'm Doug Fenstermacher, and I build software from a place where the internet still goes out when it storms. Growing up in rural Gloucester, Virginia where I downloaded MS-DOS games on dial-up as a child, taught me that great technology works everywhere, not just in tech hubs.

My path from funeral home assistant in high school to engineer wasn't straight, but those detours taught me real solutions come from intimately understanding real problems. After 10 years building cutting-edge systems in tech research, I bring both the theoretical depth to build it right and the practical wisdom to build what matters.

Engineering for the other 70%

The Tidewater region, like most of rural America, exists in a different technological reality than Silicon Valley assumes. Here, broadband and cell phone service are not ubiquitous, and technical literacy varies dramatically. These deficits act as design constraint that produces better engineering.

Resource-constrained environments demand more robust architecture. Every optimization matters when serving users who can't upgrade their way out of problems. The same rigor I brought to NLP models and distributed systems becomes essential when serving users who can't upgrade their way out of problems. But beyond the technical challenge, I've seen well-designed systems transform possibilities: rural students accessing MIT courseware on limited connections, elderly neighbors consulting specialists via telehealth, local businesses finding customers beyond county lines. Thoughtful engineering dismantles structural disadvantages.

Where Research Meets Resource Reality

My skillset reflects a decade of work in higher education and research institutions filtered through the lens of real-world applicability. Each capability listed below has been tested at scale and refined for environments where resources cannot be taken for granted.

This isn't a comprehensive inventory but a curated selection of where I can deliver immediate value. The connecting thread is systems thinking: whether optimizing database queries, implementing ML pipelines, or architecting distributed systems, I approach problems holistically, considering not just technical elegance but operational reality.

Data Persistence

Data architect at heart, I build robust database bridges, connecting applications to their information lifeblood. Performance matters, so I wield MySQL/PL/SQL and NoSQL like finely honed tools, sculpting schemas and optimizing queries for speed and stability.

DevOps

My DevOps toolkit revolves around automating the noise away. I’ve built robust Gitlab CI/CD pipelines for websites, from linting code to deploying releases, ensuring pristine pixels and seamless updates. Monitoring dashboards and intelligent alerts keep me in the loop, letting me focus on innovation, not firefighting.

Front-end Web Development

For over 10 years, I’ve tackled front-end challenges with frameworks like BackboneJS, EmberJS, AngularJS, and ReactJS. Whether online or offline, I build solutions that are both delightful and dependable.

Natural Language Processing

I’ve delved deep into natural language processing, training and serving PyTorch text classifiers through REST APIs. My toolbox includes hierarchical loss functions and classification methods, diverse topic modeling approaches like multi-grain and hierarchical pachinko allocation, and even crafting information extractors from dependency tree rules. In short, I’m passionate about extracting meaning from text, whatever form it takes.

Operations Research

I navigate complex resource allocation challenges with the power of operations research (OR). From linear and combinatorial optimization to min cost flow and graph coloring, I untangle intricate problems and find efficient solutions. My expertise extends to sensitivity analysis and risk management, ensuring my recommendations adapt to real-world uncertainties.

Server/Cloud Administration

I manage Linux web servers for dozens of domains, ensuring smooth sailing with SSL certificates, partition management, security updates, and Docker deployments and load balancing. Disaster recovery? Prepped and ready. No drama, no stress, just dependable infrastructure for online ventures.

Server-Side Web Development

Over 10 years crafting server-side magic in Django, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Laravel, and more. SQL dance at my fingertips, weaving APIs and WebSockets that sing in harmony with the front-end. I bridge the gap between server and screen, building cohesive experiences that users simply enjoy.

System Architecture

Craft resilient, scalable systems that hum without ego. I wield Docker, orchestration, and microservices like sculpting tools, shaping architectures that handle heavy loads gracefully. My systems dance and communicate via gRPC/REST APIs, forming a resilient mesh fueled by experience, not hype.

Through the Looking Glass of Literature

My reading habits, ranging from speculative fiction to technical papers, reflect a Tidewater upbringing where books were windows to elsewhere. This wasn't escapism but education in perspective. Le Guin taught me that all systems embed values. Butler showed how power structures replicate in new technologies. Gibson reminded me that the future is unevenly distributed.

This literary foundation matters in engineering. When you've spent years thinking about alternative worlds, questioning the architecture of a system comes naturally. The same critical lens I apply to narrative structures helps me identify unstated assumptions in codebases.

The Long Run Home

There's a particular clarity that comes from running the same routes where I trained in high school, now with a decade of Silicon Valley experience to reflect on. The patience required for long-distance running directly translates to system architecture: both require thinking in longer cycles than the industry typically rewards.

The View from Between

I work from the Tidewater by choice, not circumstance. This positionphysically removed from tech hubs but deeply embedded in their networks—offers perspective that pure immersion cannot. I see both what technology promises and where it fails to deliver.

My value lies not in bridging worlds but in understanding why they diverged in the first place.