More than meets the eye.
I'm Henrik Strömblad, a Swedish developer passionate about building high-quality software solutions. I live in Västerås together with my wife and our three sons.
When I saw your job opening as a Staff Software Engineer it ticked all my boxes and it would be a dream come trough to be a part of the Tailwind team. During the past few years, I have been evangelizing and introducing Tailwind to all the places I worked on.
This website is not the most impressive creation online, but some cool stuff is happening under the surface because it uses my custom-built Rust web server, Plinth. I open-sourced Plinth and made it available when I saw your job opening as a Staff Software Engineer at Tailwind Labs. The website runs on a DigitalOcean droplet behind a Traefik reverse proxy.
Why you should pick me
Coding is more than just a profession for me. It's also a hobby and passion. I think I would be a good fit for Tailwind Labs as a Staff Software Engineer because of my curiosity and desire to continuously learn and grow as a developer.
By choosing me, you will gain a developer, but more importantly, a person dedicated to innovating and pushing the boundaries of what we would create together.
My journey
Throughout the years, I have created many different things, e.g.
I have created Humlix, an application that makes REST API testing easier. Think of it as Postman but with the possibility to automatically generate and execute tests using property-based testing.
Here's an article I wrote for NordicAPIs that describes Humlix and the technology behind it in more detail.
As mentioned above, I built Plinth (a Rust-based web server) to learn more about how web servers work and have a quick and easy base when creating web applications.
In the beginning
I started with C/C++ in the late 90s before studying computer science at Mälardalen University in Sweden. Parallel to my studies, I worked part-time on the ABB 800xA Industrial Automation system before going full-time after completing my Master's degree. At ABB, I mostly used C++ and C#, and I helped create desktop applications to assist in backing up/restoring data for customers of the ABB 800xA system.
Leading teams
In 2013, I got an opportunity to work as a manager for two teams at ABB, mostly doing in-house solutions for large end customers. For example the Swedish nuclear powerplant Forsmark is one example. Between 2017 and 2019, I was responsible for the 800xA core system development, managing the directions of teams in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and India. In late 2019, I decided to get back to coding, and I took a sabbatical to start my own company, which is when I created Humlix in 2020.
Transitioning into web technologies
Humlix is an application that automatically generates tests for REST APIs. It is developed using Clojure/ClojureScript and packed as an Electron desktop application. Humlix uses the Clojure library re-frame which lives on top of React, for its state handling/transitions.
The core part of Humlix is its property-based testing logic, which allows it to find the smallest payload that would cause issues in a REST API endpoint. Developing Humlix was fun, but I struggled to get attention for it, so in 2021, I decided to go back to ABB and help build an application management portal with a C# backend and TypeScript with React front-end.
From 2022 to 2023, I worked as a contractor at Youple AB, a Swedish mortgage loan startup, where I developed using Clojure/ClojureScript. The startup stopped operations when the Swedish housing market dropped and interest increased.
In May 2023, I returned to ABB and helped develop a new version of the application management portal. At first, we used Clojure, but by the end of 2023, we switched to Rust in the backend and vanilla Javascript in the Tailwind CSS-styled front end.
Today
I was thrilled when I saw your job opening. I have followed the progress of the Tailwind ecosystem for a long time and have been impressed with what you have achieved.
I'm looking forward to talking to you, getting the chance to tell you a bit more about myself, and hearing you talk about your team.