About

I am Tyler J. Wagner, a technical leader with over 25 years engineering experience in software and networks. I’ve worked on planet-scale advertising and commerce systems, distributed Linux systems, satellite networks, and data centre infrastructure. I can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you’ve seen a user named “tolaris” somewhere, that’s probably me.

For over a decade, I’ve led teams of Google Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) who are responsible for the reliability of Google Ads and Google Shopping. Google is full of interesting people and hard problems. Standard disclaimer: The opinions stated here are my own, not necessarily those of my employer.

Until late 2014, I was the Chief Technology Officer of Talia Ltd, a satellite Internet services provider and Linux consulting and network engineering company. Talia operates its own teleport and maintains a VSAT network spanning 8 satellites and 1500 modems across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. I led the team that built this network from the ground up.

I have a personal collection of servers and workstations which run Ubuntu or Debian. I have managed some form of Unix since I was introduced to HP-UX 9 in 1996, and have run Linux on the desktop full time since 2005.

My wife and I lived in Iraq from August 2003 to May 2005, where I worked for ServiceSat International, later IraqSat, an Iraqi satellite-based ISP. You can read about our experiences there in the archive of our personal blogs at giantlaser.livejournal.com and slownewsday.livejournal.com. I recommend you start here. A friend also wrote an article about my time there; it’s an entertaining read if you have the time.

I’m a US/UK dual-national, live in rural Scotland, and love to travel. I have lived in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Baghdad, Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), and London. I hold a B.S. Computer Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

These are my thoughts.