We were honored to have several really solid candidates apply for the most recent opening on my team at Highwinds, but in the end we could only choose one. Brian LeGros joined us today as a Senior Software Engineer.

I have known Brian for a few years, and his contributions put him head-and-shoulders above the rest of the pack on my technical leadership/architecture team at CFI, where we worked together for about eighteen months. Unfortunately, the commute became a bit much, at which point Brian took a position at a company much closer to home. Brian's also a veteran of FCE, where my other team mates Russ and Mario worked for several years, so his arrival today was a reunion on multiple fronts.

Brian brings an awful lot to the table in terms of... well, pretty much everything that contributes to successful software development, so we're thrilled to have him aboard at Highwinds. I'm glad we were able to work out a scenario where he could work remotely most of the week, making the commute to Winter Park much less of a barrier.

Brian spent most of his first day drinking from the Highwinds fire hose as we brought him up to speed on the StrikeTracker development environment and our way of working. He's also piloting a Mac for the first time, which always proves interesting for the rest of us. Don't worry Brian; it only takes about two weeks to forget the ways of Windows, and then you'll wonder why you ever used a non-*NIX OS for development.

We're about to do some major work on StrikeTracker to prepare for an ambitious roadmap we recently laid out for 2009, and I know from experience that Brian's presence will make for a much better product. We're budgeting for my team to grow yet again by several positions next year, so keep your eyes on my blog if you are interested in joining the Highwinds team in the future!