Meet the Bees: Devin Nusbaum

Written by: Georgiana Patru

3 min read

Programming with Positivity and Purpose

Meet Devin Nusbaum, software engineer in North Carolina

It was as early as ninth grade when Devin Nusbaum first tried his hand at software programming. But it took a while before he fell in love with it. "I went to a magnet school for technology, and at the time, I actually didn’t want to go into software engineering,” Devin recalls. "I was more interested in the hardware side. I wanted to get an electrical engineering degree and design computer processors.” 

Somewhere along the way, says Devin, he started playing a video game similar to Mario Bros and became interested in replays – particularly how analyzing them can result in better high scores. So, he downloaded Python and made his first program: saving replays. "I mostly copied it from someone who had already written it, but I downloaded Python and ran the program myself – which was a big moment. I think that’s what changed my mind.”

Fast forward to the present day: Devin is a software engineer focused on providing new value for CloudBees. "I get pulled into different kinds of things, but right now I’m doing more planning and design work,” he says. While Devin still fixes plenty of bugs and implements new features like he used to, he says his role is more focused on strategy. For him, this means running planning meetings and discussions – what his team calls discovery work. "If the customer wants a certain capability, I have to ask myself: ‘How would it make sense to implement? Does it make sense to implement? Our competitor does X, Y, and Z – should we try to do something like that as well?’”  

As a natural problem-solver and engineer, Devin appreciates how his peers share the same level of interest and commitment regarding work. "At CloudBees, people actually care about software engineering,” he says. This is a far cry from the other places Devin has worked. "I’ve seen people who show up and do the bare minimum. They don’t care about the work as long as their performance reviews are good enough,” Devin explains. "At CloudBees, if I write code and ask for review, I know I can get meaningful feedback and that they’ll provide critiques that will make me a better engineer.”

Working on a large team can be challenging, but Devin says it helps when everybody is on the same page. "We all care about the quality, the implementation, and the long-term approach we’re taking here.” It especially helps working with experienced engineers who provide different problem-solving perspectives. "They do a great job of helping me understand how to frame problems and investigate things,” he adds. "I feel really lucky to work with them on a daily basis.”

Above all, Devin believes mentorship is what makes CloudBees so special. "The company does such a great job of helping people – teaching and mentoring people on the engineering side. There are so many people who are happy to help you learn.” And it doesn’t stop at engineering, he says. "It’s great how you can get people across the company to help you out. Everybody helping one another is something I find very unique.”

We are looking for new-bees to join the hive today: https://www.cloudbees.com/careers

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