jak tiano

Jak Tiano Applications & Systems Engineer

He/him · Burlington, Vermont · jaktiano@me.com

git.studiopollinator.com/jak · git.studiopollinator.com/pollinator

Overview

Applications and systems engineer whose career spans shipped product work, technical research, and sustained independent engineering across native mobile, games and XR, spatial computing, Linux, and self-hosted AI tooling. I specialize in turning unsettled platform capabilities into legible applications and supporting infrastructure, from Magic Leap's on-device application store and spatial UI framework to current work across distributed computing, private data, networking, permissions, and agent tooling.

My work sits at the boundary of application architecture, interaction design, and systems engineering. More recently, I have been exploring the application and infrastructure layer around self-hosted AI: how models, private data, tools, permissions, and interfaces can come together as useful personal systems.

Languages

Go, C#, Objective-C, Swift, C++, and Rust; working Python, JavaScript, and shell.

Applications

Application architecture, iOS and Apple platforms, native and engine-based UI, Unity, spatial interfaces, and server-rendered web.

Systems and agents

Linux administration, daemons and CLI tooling, systemd, Docker, SQLite, HTTP and IPC, WireGuard, MCP, and agent harnesses.

Current Engineering Work

I continue to build independent software through Studio Pollinator alongside my policy work. These projects are most representative of my current engineering; the software page includes fuller descriptions, interface prototypes, and earlier research.

Cord

A lightweight, self-hosted WireGuard control plane for private networks spanning home systems and cloud servers.

Confidant

A functional prototype that gives agents scoped access to a synchronized, searchable cache of private email.

Consent

A deployed identity service for small server-rendered applications, backed by reusable Go integration packages.

Go Agent Skills

The cross-harness engineering guidance and learning loop I use throughout my current Go projects.

Experience

Studio Pollinator · Independent Software Research & Engineering

2022–present · Burlington, VT
  • Operate an independent engineering practice encompassing software research, open-source systems, and occasional consulting, continuing alongside policy work since 2024.
  • From 2022–2024, designed co, a content-addressed research programming language, and cohost, its Rust virtual machine, under the broader Coalescent Computer project.
  • Since 2025, focused on self-hosted AI tooling and surrounding application infrastructure, including networking, private data, identity, agent harnesses, CLI tools, and server-rendered applications.
Narrative context

Studio Pollinator is the umbrella for my sustained independent technical practice rather than a conventional single-product company. The work has moved from programming-language research and Unix systems toward applied AI systems and the compact infrastructure needed to make them useful, understandable, and durable.

Let's Build Homes · Policy Director

2024–present · Burlington, VT
  • Joined as the organization's first employee and helped establish its research, communications, coalition-building, and legislative functions in collaboration with the executive chair.
  • Lead policy research across zoning, infrastructure, and housing finance; translate technical legislation and regulation into strategy memos, public explainers, and coalition support, including the bipartisan $2 billion Community and Housing Infrastructure Program passed during the organization's first legislative session.
Narrative context

I entered housing policy without a planning background, developed subject-matter expertise through independent research and local organizing, and was recruited to help turn that work into a statewide organization. The role has strengthened my research, communication, institutional judgment, and ability to take ownership in an unfamiliar domain.

VEIC · Full Stack Data Applications Engineer

2021–2022 · Burlington, VT
  • Inherited a fragmented Python and Redis data pipeline split between wiki-documented shell deployments and an AWS Kubernetes segment; converted its services into structured, documented containers.
  • Replaced the over-engineered Kubernetes deployment with existing on-site Apache Airflow workflows, reducing operational complexity and eliminating its AWS infrastructure cost.
  • Shipped a major overhaul of an energy-use dashboard for field technicians and utility customers, then built Streamlit tooling and support that enabled analysts to publish their own data applications.
Narrative context

After relocating to Vermont during the pandemic, this role gave me room to move from native and engine applications toward Linux administration, data systems, deployment, and the operational side of software.

Magic Leap · Senior 3D Applications Engineer

2017–2020 · Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • Joined before production hardware or application frameworks existed; built a simulation environment in Unity and developed against changing future hardware specifications while interaction conventions evolved alongside the device.
  • Owned the C# architecture and implementation of Magic Leap World, the headset's native application and content store; shipped 1.0 and a major 2.0 redesign informed by production hardware and developer behavior.
  • Introduced “Concepts” for sharing demos and experiments, built a reusable spatial UI framework with UX, and integrated catalog, account, and payment systems with backend teams.
  • Delivered Japanese text rendering, contextual localization, and UI updates for the NTT Docomo launch; promoted to Senior Engineer and team lead with two direct reports.
Narrative context

Magic Leap was still pursuing a consumer spatial-computing platform, so application engineering meant helping invent the product conventions and software frameworks while the hardware itself was changing underneath us. It was an unusually direct education in building for a new technical paradigm.

Xemory · Game Programmer

2015–2016 · Burlington, VT
  • Served as primary designer and programmer for an educational game in Unity and C#, spanning gameplay, interface, online services, and the product website.
  • Worked with a physics postdoctoral researcher to translate evolutionary-robotics research into interactive systems.

Education

Champlain College · B.S. Game Design

Minor in Game Programming · Coursework in engine architecture and cognitive psychology · President, CCGDA

2011–2015 · Burlington, VT
Summa Cum Laude

High Technology High School

Top-ranked public STEM magnet school · Began iOS development with the original SDK · IYKYK

2007–2011 · Lincroft, NJ

Selected Recognition

Apple WWDC Student Scholar

Selected in 2013 and 2014 for independent iOS application work.

Published Technical Author

Wrote Learning Xcode 8, an approximately 500-page guide to Xcode, Swift, iOS, and watchOS development.

Vermont Citizen Planner of the Year

Recognized in 2024 for housing research, advocacy, and local implementation.