Charles Southerland
About Charles Southerland
Charles Southerland is a Senior Staff Software Engineer, DevOps at WP Engine in Austin, Texas, with extensive experience in software development and engineering roles.
Current Role at WP Engine
Charles Southerland is currently serving as a Senior Staff Software Engineer, DevOps at WP Engine in Austin, Texas. In this role, Charles plays a vital part in overseeing and optimizing the development operations infrastructure. His responsibilities include improving build processes, designing effective continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and maintaining development and production environments with a focus on reliability and efficiency.
Career at Who Is On My WiFi
From 2013 to 2015, Charles Southerland worked as a Software Developer at Who Is On My WiFi in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area. During his two-year tenure, Charles was instrumental in developing and maintaining software solutions aimed at detecting and managing network environments. His contributions helped the company to enhance its product offerings and improve user experience.
Founder of Mufact
Charles Southerland founded Mufact and worked as a Developer from 2012 to 2013 in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area. In this role, Charles was responsible for conceiving and developing the company's core software solutions. His entrepreneurial efforts focused on creating innovative technologies and bringing them to market, setting the foundation for the company's growth.
Educational Background
Charles Southerland holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from East Central University, where he studied from 2007 to 2010. Prior to that, he attended Oklahoma City Community College, studying Mathematics from 2005 to 2007. He completed his high school education at ASTEC Charter School, earning his diploma in 2006 after five years of study. This strong educational foundation in both computer science and mathematics has been pivotal in his professional career.
Key Technical Contributions
Charles Southerland has made several significant technical contributions throughout his career. He proposed a major architectural redesign to improve GlusterFS issue detection and resolution, which was later implemented. He diagnosed a complex AppArmor compiler bug after weeks of in-depth kernel analysis. Additionally, Charles designed and built an end-to-end local tester that identified numerous bugs across the platform. Furthermore, he achieved a substantial 95% reduction in total build time by transitioning job queue system workers to containers and played a leading role in teaching and implementing Golang-based systems in multi-cloud environments.