jlord — About

I'm an architect turned developer and product manager, which isn't as odd as it sounds. I've coded since middle school but intentionally avoided it as a career until I saw it as a means of solving problems I cared about: open source. My architect-brain puts users first, I'm always thinking about how people understand the environment they're in. All together, I'm well suited as a product manager on a technical product. I love open source and working to build an approachable web for all.

In December 2022 I contracted Covid for the first time which led to Long Covid immune dysfunction and continues today. I left work in August 2024 to destress and focus on my recovery. A year later, I'm excited to now return to the energy of work and building good things with great people.

View my CV
My speaking history
Get in touch: jess dot lord at gmail dot com

Highlights

After college, as an architect I worked in a small Atlanta firm designing single and multi-family homes. Earned LEED BD&C accreditation (since lapsed, of course).
As an urban designer for the City of Boston in the Urban Design Technology Group, I worked on neighbourhood planning, modelling studies and building design rebuttals. Earned LEED ND accreditation (since lapsed, of course).
In 2012 I received a Code for America fellowship and built an open source budget transparency tool for city governments.
With a grant from Knight-Mozilla Open News I turned that budget tool into a general purpose, open source, spreadsheet-as-database tool.
After joining GitHub as a software developer in 2013 I worked across dotcom, created a Git & GitHub learning event, application and course material (still in use) and started the Electron team, the library that now powers apps such as Slack, Teams, Skype, Figma, Notion and much more.
At Splice and Glitch I developed my engineering and engineering leadership skills, eventually becoming a Director of Engineering. I loved working on a code editor at Glitch.
A bucket list opportunity: I worked with the non-profit arm of my favourite urban designer's firm, Gehl Institute, to open source their standard for measuring public life in a city.
In 2021, I re-joined GitHub to lead the Sponsors team, the functionality within GitHub that aims to help make open source sustainability a reality and has seen over $30M pass through the program.
I've given talks across the globe to audiences small and large about open source, specific technologies and best practices.

But also

I am more than my work! In the midst of the pandemic in 2020 I moved myself to London after discovering I'm technically British and the UK gave me a passport. Here I indulge in long city walks, long canal walks and long village walks. Sitting on a train is my happy place. I've got a camera with me most of the time, lots of pens and stationery and I am perfecting my roasties.