Hey there,
I am Derek

Process-driven developer with an insatiable drive for learning and building efficient, idiomatic tools.

3completed internships

Derek Blaney

My Story

My passion for coding initially began with a naive interest for building websites combined with an endless desire of knowledge. This exploration led me to applying this newfound knowledge to other spheres of my life. Namely, I began to develop an interest for creating game servers in Java for the game that had captivated my childhood: Minecraft. These servers gained popularity, reaching peaks of 100 concurrent players which also generated a revenue, fuelling my motivation to delve deeper into programming.

Over the years, I've shifted away from video games and expanded my skill set to include various programming languages and frameworks. I approach the simple inefficiencies in products, procedures and repetitive tasks, and constantly seek opportunities to build tools that will solve them.

Even in everyday moments, the developer mindset kicks in. Whenever I land on a website, I instinctively wonder how it's built, what tech stack powers it, and how I might improve it. For me, coding isn't just a profession - it is a deep-rooted part of how I think, learn and create.

Work Experience

I have had the opportunity to work with amazing teams, where I have learned a lot and contributed to exciting projects. Here are some of the highlights of my recent work experience.

Incubation Intern

  • Develops proofs of concept to validate the value and feasibility of innovative solutions.
  • Builds reusable technical foundations and documents learnings to facilitate knowledge transfer to delivery teams.

Developer Experience (DevX) Intern

  • Integrated a centralized developer support portal (Backstage).
  • Built a data aggregator powering an AI-driven conversational assistant.
  • Improved the internal IT collaboration platform.
  • Gained hands-on experience with large-scale enterprise technologies.

Observability Intern

  • Configured an observability platform for proactive monitoring of servers and applications.
  • Dynamically managed server resources to maintain optimal performance and resource efficiency.
  • Maintained C# APIs to support evolving business requirements.

Honors & Awards

Recognition received for academic excellence, innovation, and competitive programming.

Bourse d'excellence Beenox

Scholarship

Fondation du Cégep de Sainte-Foy and Beenox · 2025–2026

Awarded for academic excellence, leadership, and sustained engagement in the IT program.

Bourse d'excellence Beenox certificate

iA Hackathon

1st Place

iA Groupe Financier · 2024

Won 1st place in iA's inaugural internal hackathon — a tech donation challenge benefiting a non-profit. Participated in all three consecutive editions (2023, 2024, 2025).

BP Hacks

2nd Place

Botpress · 2026

Ranked 2nd overall at Botpress's Quebec City hackathon.

Coveo Blitz

Quarter Finals

Coveo · 2026

Reached the quarter-finals at this regional competitive programming competition.

Canadian Computing Competition

Participant

University of Waterloo · 2025

Represented CÉGEP de Sainte-Foy at the national algorithmic programming competition.

Canadian Computing Competition certificate

Hackathon de l'Institut Quantique

1st Place

Institut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke · 2026

Completed the Introduction à l'informatique quantique workshop at SherHack Quantique.

Hackathon de l'Institut Quantique certificate

Education

Academic background and institutions that shaped my technical foundation.

Selected Work

A focused set of tools and systems that best represent how I build: small surfaces, clear constraints, and practical engineering depth.

Task runner

Pace

A minimal Go task runner for polyglot projects, designed around fast startup, low ceremony, and predictable automation.

Golang
Housing app

Sherba

A student housing app that combines roommate preferences, listing aggregation, AI structuring, and location-aware filtering.

React NativeTypeScriptNestJS
Server manager

Boxes

A local Minecraft server manager for creating and running multiple server instances across Windows and macOS.

Rust
Programming language

Handy

A small programming language sandbox with a custom lexer, parser, interpreter, and module system.

Golang
Path matching

Globber

A zero-dependency Go library for fast glob matching and filesystem traversal.

Golang
CLI framework

Gear

A type-safe Go CLI framework with nested commands, validation, and generated help text.

Golang

Other work: Dictionary, Todo, Mia, Maestro, MCCollector.

Skills

Throughout my journey, I have acquired a diverse set of skills that enable me to tackle a wide range of challenges. My expertise spans across various programming languages, frameworks, and tools, allowing me to express my creative liberties and build innovate solutions.

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • Rust
  • Java
  • Python
  • C++
  • GoLang
  • Kotlin

Web

  • React
  • Next.js
  • Vue.js
  • Node.js
  • Tailwind CSS

Infra

  • Docker
  • Kubernetes

AI

  • Gemini
  • Ollama
  • Claude
  • MCP
  • GitHub Copilot

Interests

  • Rock Climbing 🪨
    Rock Climbing 🪨
  • Hiking 🥾
    Hiking 🥾
  • Skiing ⛷️
    Skiing ⛷️