Matt Layman is a Senior Staff Software Engineer with 14 years of experience building web-scale systems, specializing in Python and Django while remaining a pragmatic polyglot across JavaScript, C++, and other languages. He combines hands-on backend and DevOps work—contributing to notable open-source projects like pre-commit and Django REST ecosystem libraries—with product-facing full-stack delivery at companies like Included Health and Storybird. Comfortable in both startup and enterprise settings, he has a track record of automating CI/CD pipelines, modernizing legacy systems, and shipping performant services on AWS and container platforms. An organizer of the Frederick, MD Python user group, he pairs community leadership with practical engineering: he’s implemented language support and repo-tagging fixes in pre-commit and driven compatibility and refactoring efforts in widely used Django libraries.
14 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Johns Hopkins University
BS, Computer Engineering, with distinction, BS, Computer Engineering, with distinction at University of Virginia
Contributions:15 commits, 60 PRs, 47 pushes in 1 year 2 months
Contributions summary:Matt contributed to the Django REST Framework JSON API project by enhancing compatibility, fixing bugs, and improving the codebase's maintainability. Their work included updating the compatibility matrix, addressing issues related to DRF versions, and refactoring code for better clarity. The user also added features like an isort CI process, which improves code formatting, and dropped support for older versions of Django. Furthermore, they updated dependencies and configured the project for Django 2.0 and DRF 3.7 support.
JSON Web Token Authentication support for Django REST Framework
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Contributions:17 commits, 3 PRs, 15 comments in 6 months
Contributions summary:Matt primarily contributed to the maintenance and evolution of the Django REST Framework JWT authentication library. Their work focused on updating dependencies, removing deprecated code, and improving compatibility with newer versions of Django and DRF. The user also refactored code, removing legacy support and consolidating configurations. Furthermore, they updated the documentation to reflect supported versions.
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