Phillip Stephens
Software Engineer at Stanford University
Palo Alto, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolPhillip Stephens is a software engineer with 9 years of experience building resilient, full-stack systems and tooling, currently contributing to Stanford’s Empirical Security Research Group on the widely used ZMap Internet-scanning suite. He has designed production-grade services—such as a Golang gRPC load balancer and failover mechanism—and worked across databases, APIs, and event-driven systems at companies including Xage, Viasat, and FedEx. Phillip’s open-source contributions to ZMap include performance-driven refactors (packet batching, sender-thread defaults), improved IPv6 handling, and clearer documentation of probe/retry semantics, reflecting a focus on efficient, reliable network software. A Georgia Tech MS graduate and former instructor, he blends hands-on engineering with clear technical communication and a knack for translating complex distributed behaviors into robust, test-covered implementations.
9 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science - MS, Computer Science, Master of Science - MS, Computer Science at Georgia Institute of TechnologyHigh School, 4.41 Weighted Core GPA, High School, 4.41 Weighted Core GPA at Landmark Christian School
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
0answers
0questions
Github Skills (10)
c1710
ip10
network-scan10
c1110
tcp10
documentation9
performance-optimization9
command-line-interface8
cli8
command-line8
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
zmap/zmap
Nov 2023 - Feb 2025
ZMap is a fast single packet network scanner designed for Internet-wide network surveys.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:10 releases, 53 reviews, 109 PRs in 1 year 2 months
Contributions summary:Phillip primarily worked on improving the documentation and functionality of the ZMap network scanner. Their contributions focused on updating manual pages to provide clearer explanations of command-line options, specifically relating to probe and retry mechanisms. Furthermore, the user refactored the code, including setting the default number of sender threads and implementing packet batching, to optimize the scanning process and improve the program's overall efficiency. The user also contributed to the handling of IPv6 addresses within the configuration files and resolved issues related to the display of status information, ensuring accurate scanning progress.
network-scannerscanneripv4networkingsurveys
AlexAQ972/zgrab2
Jan 2025 - Jan 2025
Fast Go Application Scanner
Contributions:13 pushes in 4 days
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