👋 Hi, I'm Hilmi

Remember how I said a new job was on the horizon in my last post? Well, the time has come – today marks my last day contributing to the world of Amazon’s Tax Engine. Come Monday, I’ll be diving into a new set of challenges in the customer journey: Access & Authentication at Block, specifically within CashApp! The rest of this post is about reflecting on my time at Amazon with hype for what’s next at Block.

Leaving a job has never been simple for me, and saying goodbye to the Tax Engine team is no different. It’s been a significant chapter in my career (and yeah, I know how cliche that sounds, but it’s true!). I joined Amazon a few years ago, thinking I had a decent handle on building software at scale from my previous roles. Let’s just say I got humbled quick! Before joining Amazon, I had read the posts by folks talking about the scale but seeing services routinely handle thousands of transactions per second, day in and day out, was genuinely eye-opening. And translating the incredibly web of global tax regulations into a reliable set of systems? It was honestly, insane – in the most impressive way possible. The sheer scale and complexity pushed me and taught me a ton.

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Looking back, a few things really stand out:

I thought I understood scale, but Amazon operates on another level entirely. I learned firsthand what it really takes to design, build, and operate services under that kind of load. It meant diving deep into asynchronous processing and distributed systems – concepts I once thought were relics of ancient times, but are very much alive and kicking. There’s an implicit, foundational assumption: whatever you build must scale horizontally from day one.

At that scale, operational excellence isn’t just a “nice-to-have” (especially if you value sleep!); it’s another fundamental. I gained a profound appreciation for monitoring, and well-written runbooks. (Side note: I could probably write a whole post on the industry’s move to SDE on-call, but I’ll just say this: it’s the ultimate form of dog-fooding. When you’re the one getting paged at 3 AM, the importance of service health, performance, and writing high-quality, clean code becomes incredibly personal, incredibly fast.)

Ownership is deeply ingrained in Amazon’s culture, and I believe it’s a huge part of what makes it such a potent place to grow as an engineer. I vividly remember early on when my manager presented an idea and basically said, “Make it happen.” It wasn’t the largest or most technically complex project, but that initial flicker of “How?! Where do I start? What’s important?” quickly turned into the rewarding process of technical design, implementation, and seeing something real launch into customers’ hands. Collaborating closely with incredible Product Managers to shape that idea into something valuable was key. Seeing a project through from concept to completion is genuinely thrilling, and that excitement never really faded, even as the stakes got higher and the problems evolved – looking at you, GenAI! That sense of responsibility – “this is mine to build, to run, to make successful” – is incredibly motivating and a massive confidence builder.

Beyond the tech, the people were fantastic. My engineering peers were brilliant and supportive collaborators. And while the distance (iykyk) limited my day-to-day interaction with many on the business side, the glimpses I got during project work or visits were consistently impressive. They had this fantastic, positive culture – a real community vibe that I deeply admired and found myself drawn to. It really drove home how important that human element is, even when we’re deep in code. We spend a third of our lives doing this, and seeing their dynamic reinforced my desire to be part of a team where positive influence and community are central to how we grow together.

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So, why the move? Every journey has its forks in the road. While my time at Amazon was incredibly valuable, the opportunity at Block presented a holistic combination I couldn’t resist. It simply felt like the right next adventure for me. And speaking of Block – ever since Square started popping up everywhere, I’ve been impressed. Using their products often feels seamless, and delightful. While I haven’t used CashApp personally, its mission to make money more accessible is clear. Plus, throughout the interview process, every single person I spoke with (around 10 folks across different roles) sounded like someone I’d genuinely enjoy working with and learning from.

Just like figuring out how to run that magic-less D&D campaign or pushing through the crux of a climbing route, I know there will be new challenges and a learning curve at Block. I’m excited to bring my experiences from Amazon, dive into this new domain, and contribute to the team.

Anyway, these are some of my reflections as I close one chapter and open another. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!

To my former Amazon colleagues: Thank you for everything! I’d love to stay in touch – feel free to connect with any of the links at the top of the page.

To my new colleagues at Block: I’m incredibly excited to meet you all and start learning together!

Here’s to new beginnings.

Where does one start? So many words to say and this isn’t a medium I’m used to. Let me do my best, but bear with me as I figure this out.

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Hi, Hilmi here. I’ve been writing code for several years now, and for the first time ever, I feel like I’ve found something I won’t stop enjoying (famous last words).

Growing up, I often found myself bouncing from hobby to hobby, never really sticking with any long enough to get good. During the pandemic (yay COVID), I started playing Dungeons & Dragons after my girlfriend found herself roped into a campaign with some friends. It was wild because I wanted to play so badly, and out of nowhere she’s playing without me! Anyway, shortly after her, I found myself playing with her friends, and I developed a burning desire to start building a world of my own.

It took some years before I had the confidence to build an entire world. By that time, I had run four successful campaigns, and the friends I was playing with seemed to be yearning for more than another module. Enter the “Aetherfall” – a campaign set in the Aurorium Isle, an island of black and whites, technology and nature, where two clashing nations found themselves without the very magic that powered them.

It has been a really challenging and rewarding campaign to run; 5th edition D&D isn’t balanced around a lack of magic, and keeping a consistent voice (and story) requires careful thinking. Partway into this campaign, maybe Spring of last year, I decided that I wanted to start writing more substantially, but I told myself that before I did that, I wanted to write a campaign management application. Well, a year later that’s still in progress, and it’s been a lot more effort than I initially thought (lol). I figured a blog shouldn’t be that much effort, and a break from the D&D app might be good for me. So here we are – it just so happens that I’m also about to start a new job (which I’ll talk about in depth in my next post).

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That was a bit of a word dump, so let me try to take us back to some more info about me. When I’m not being a nerd, you can find me on the figurative (or literal) mountain skiing or rock climbing. If that isn’t the quintessential software-engineer stereotype, I don’t know what is. I don’t take myself too seriously though, and I’m really fortunate to be able to do both of these so easily out here in Vancouver.

The skiing out here (looking at you, Whistler) is, I’m told, world-class, and part of me wishes I was writing after my first time there. I remember my friends dragging me to some run between trees, the snow falling but visibility still decent, and looking up to find myself surrounded by trees and mountains. It was surreal, like a magical winter wonderland – the stuff of movies. That was three years ago, and that magic hasn’t faded. The lift lines and poor visibility definitely ruin the occasional day-trip, but I can’t really complain.

In the summer, an hour away is Squamish, where incredible sport routes (and trad, if you’re into that) litter the roadsides. I think painting a word picture will be a little harder here, so here’s an actual picture:

I’m not sure where I’m going to take this blog, but I really do want to write. I want to talk about my D&D world, my work experiences—what’s made my time at work something really special—and maybe eventually some coffee-related chats. Let’s see where this goes.