I am happy to announce that I have joined a new startup called VectorWare. The linked website is currently very bare-boned, but the company aims to use Rust to improve the state of GPU programming.

This job is not a “work full-time on the Rust compiler” position like my last one. But it will involve a lot of open source work, some Rust compiler work, and I will continue to be a Rust compiler team member and maintainer. I will also get to learn about GPU programming, a new area for me. Indeed, my main accomplishment in my first week was to write Rust code that uses the GPU to render the company logo.

Back in July I wrote that I was looking for a new job. There has been some public speculation about the lack of a follow-up post and what that meant. Was I having trouble finding a new job? If so, what does that mean for Rust? What does it suggest for tech hiring in general? And so on. Fortunately, this speculation was largely ill-informed, for two reasons.

First, I made the decision to join VectorWare a few weeks ago, but it took some time for the paperwork to be completed and things organised enough for a public announcement.

Second, I was lucky enough to be contacted by a lot of people who were interested in possibly hiring me. I won’t try to draw any conclusions from this about finding Rust jobs in general, because I am fortunate to have an atypical level of experience and prominence when it comes to Rust. However, it did demonstrate that Rust is being used in an impressive range of areas.

Specifically, Rust is being used for: operating systems, compilers/interpreters, wasm, GPU programming, quantum computing, databases, data analytics, networking/cloud/server, medical, space, defence, automotive, embedded, security software, malware detection, search, formal methods, CAD, devtools, collaborative software, device management, real-time systems, prediction markets, biotech, identity verification, document generation, hardware simulation, and software modernization. (And also generative AI, cryptocurrencies/blockchain, and algorithmic trading; I did receive a few messages relating to these despite saying I didn’t want to work on them.) Rust is being used by huge companies, tiny startups, and everything between.

This is a really encouraging sign! I knew Rust was doing well, but I didn’t know it was doing this well.

Searching for a new job is never a fun or easy exercise, but this time it was about as good as it gets. Many thanks to everyone who helped: those who contacted me with interest, those who passed news of my availability along, and those who pointed me at Rust opportunities they were aware of. I appreciate it. I can now get to work on the new stuff and go back to pretending that LinkedIn doesn’t exist.