Yonah Wolf
Software Engineering Manager
I lead teams that build great software
I lead teams that build great software
Hi, I'm Yonah.
I have been been building great software and great teams for the past 2 decades. I have written software for one of America's largest retail chains, a hedge fund with billions under management, one of the world's largest non-profits, and two of the largest 3PLs not named Amazon. I have also built and managed great teams at every step of the way.
Professionally, I have two guiding principles:
Don't be mean to your users - i.e. try to truly understand your users' pain, and the problem that your software solves for them. Projects always take longer, features shift and change, but at the end of the day, the value of your software is how it helps it's users' get their jobs done.
Take care of your people and they will take care of you - i.e. treat your team with respect, and give them the tools and support they need to do their jobs well. This means giving them the right tools, the right training, and the right environment to do their best work. It means going to bat with management to help them get rewarded when warranted. But it's all not wine and roses. Taking care of your people also means having those hard conversations in a constructive and direct manner. It means giving them the feedback they need to grow and improve. It means having their back when they need it, and being honest with them when they need to improve.
Personally, when I am not solving the world's next big software problem, there's plenty to do. I love being a dad to my kids and a husband to my amazing wife. I've coached Baseball and Hockey, and I practice and teach Judo. I'd much rather prefer an outdoor workout to time in the gym - my daily workout consists of Rucking 3 miles with a 50lb pack - including climbing 25+ flights of stairs. I am also involved in several community initiatives, and I love to read.
Many of my work projects remain the property of my respective employers. Here is a select list of projects from the last few years
We developed a way to parse Hazardous Materials information from unstructured Safety Data Sheets using OpenAI. In addition to helping us improve compliance and streamline product onboarding workflow, we saved our company thousand of $$ annually by not having to buy 3rd party software to do this.
We created regional demand forecast models for our customers to help them better distribute their products to lower costs and transit times, and improve customer experience.
We create an algorithm to determine how and when to "Zone Skip" packages by shipping them to a warehouse closer to the recipient, rather than directly from where they were housed, saving our customers time and money.
We developed a feature to notify warehouse admin staff when a pick-path exception was hit. It would alert the admin immediately via Slack, so that pickers would have minimal downtime.
We developed tools to allow Risk Managers to build simulations for upcoming world events, and use those to help better predict and mitigate financial risks. These were successfully used with both Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential Elections
Here is a list of some small personal projects and articles I've written, not necessarily tech-related
For the last few years, I've been really into rucking as my main form of cardio. I wrote an article about it for a local newspaper.
A few years back, I wrote this how to on making a hidden wireless charging side table with some parts from Ikea and Amazon.
I am an avid martial artists, and I sing its praises to adults and kids alike. I wrote this article for a Judo website to help parents understand the benefits of martial arts training for their children.
A lot of useful information and advice for Engineering Managers
This was a good book that help me better understand how to structure my day to get the time I needed to get the most important things done.
This is a great book with a lot of useful management advice. I quote lessons from here a lot
While this book is really geared for startups, it's has a lot of useful advice for business leaders in general.
I read this when I first came out, it changed my attitude towards how I think and react.
From the founder of the Khan Academy, Sal Khan. A great take on how the current education system evolved, and how we should re-think it.
News Flash, you're not sleeping enough. Read this, you will change your sleep habits for the better.
An exploration of how to breath better and use it to live a healthier life.
The NYT Best Seller on how to tune your body and keep it going well into your 70s and beyond.
A well-written and well-researched history of the 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks bombing.