About Me

I’m Andrew Tarrh — a software engineer with a backend / data-engineering bent. I’ve spent my career building and operating data pipelines and cloud-native systems, with a particular focus on reliability, privacy, and cost-conscious design.

Earlier in my career I worked on Amazon Alexa’s Machine Learning Data Platform, where I helped maintain large-scale ETL workflows and the operational tooling behind them. That environment shaped how I work: I care about clear ownership, pragmatic instrumentation, and making systems easier (and safer) to operate. It also made me AI-forward early on. Today I use AI tools throughout my own development workflow, and they’ve changed how quickly I can pick up a new stack.

After Amazon I stepped back from full-time roles and took on independent contract work, including evaluating LLM code generation and mentoring engineers on data infrastructure. I also put a lot of time into building out a van, which is still a work in progress (and a future blog topic). Along the way I spent about six months volunteering with WeVote, a nonpartisan civic-tech nonprofit, contributing UI components and bug fixes to its Node/React/Flux web app and improvements to its Python/Django API server.

Since April 2026 I’ve worked on the Platform team at Arizona State University’s Learning Enterprise, contracting through Dexian. We build and modernize the backend systems and data integrations behind ASU’s enterprise applications and digital learning platforms, like Salesforce and Canvas. Lately I’ve focused on data consistency: making sure records agree as they move between systems. The work is fully remote, with a few in-person meetups a year, which suits me well.

If you're interested in my professional experience, you can download a PDF version of my resume here.

What I’m doing now

  • Working on data integrations and cross-system consistency for ASU Learning Enterprise’s Platform team.
  • Volunteering with Voter Choice Arizona, a nonpartisan group that educates voters about ranked choice voting. In Tucson I collect signatures, talk with people at community events, and do some public speaking.
  • Writing here more often — about infrastructure, civic tech, and whatever else I’m learning.
  • Chipping away at the van build.

What I care about working on

I’m happiest helping a small-to-mid-sized team build dependable data infrastructure: pipelines, integrations, observability, and the patterns that keep systems secure and maintainable. I’m drawn to organizations that take privacy seriously and work on public-benefit problems like education, health, and climate. Green energy is a long-standing interest — my master’s capstone forecast energy use for university buildings.

I’m based in Tucson, Arizona, and I work remotely.

A note on values

I care a lot about community, civic engagement, sustainability, and housing justice. I’m interested in models like community land trusts and co-housing, and I try to make career choices that balance practical needs with long-term alignment.

Want to reach out? Head to the contact page.