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mk
About

Mark Khuzam

I build software and write about what I learn doing it. Day job: Senior Software Engineer on UI Platform at Netflix. Before Netflix: OpenTable, Laylo, and a handful of SaaS products I've launched (some still running, most not).

In a sentence

I've been building software on both sides of the platform/product line for almost a decade, and the work I keep coming back to is the part where they meet.

How I work

What I love is the platform side. Building something abstract enough that lots of different products can sit on top of it, consistent enough that engineers actually want to use it, and scalable enough that it doesn't fall apart when they do. The reason I build my own products on the side is that products are how you find out if the platform is any good. A platform that can't ship something fast isn't a platform, it's a museum. So I work both sides on purpose. Most of the interesting problems live where they meet.

I write about engineering craft. How to think about architecture when the requirements are still moving. How to use new tools without throwing out what already works. Which libraries are worth the switching cost and which ones aren't. The stuff I wish someone had written down before I had to figure it out myself. I'm starting a YouTube channel for the same kind of thing. None of it is on a schedule. I post when the thinking has finished cooking, which is usually later than I'd like.

What I care about

  • A side project you finish teaches you more than a job you stay at for two years.
  • Most engineers pick a side. Platform or product. The interesting work is in doing both.
  • Process over outcome, but only when the process is one you've actually examined.
  • Most codebases that are hard for AI agents to work in were already hard for humans to work in.

Where I've been

  1. 2025 — now
    Senior Software Engineer, UI Platform· Netflix
    Platform work for the engineers building the product. Agents, server-driven UI, and the middle layer that holds it all together.
  2. 2024 — 2025
    Staff Software Engineer, Web Platform· OpenTable
    Managed the web platform team. 5x build speedup via esbuild migration, cut microservice load 4x with GraphQL/Redis caching, and shipped an AI-powered GraphQL modernization with Langchain + OpenAI.
  3. 2021 — 2024
    Senior Full Stack Engineer· OpenTable
    Migrated 600K LOC of web code to TypeScript with end-to-end type safety via codegen. Consolidated libraries into a monorepo and upgraded server rendering from Dust.js to React 18 streams.
  4. 2019 — 2021
    Full Stack Engineer· Laylo
    Led the front-end transformation. Migrated the legacy codebase to Next.js and GraphQL, set up agile workflows and weekly code reviews, built Twitter bots and email marketing automation.
  5. 2018 — 2019
    Full Stack Software Engineer· Smartmatic
    Built a desktop application on Electron + React + Redux combining web tech with OOP and event-driven programming. Custom audio player with dynamic time stretching. ~90% test coverage via TDD.

Everything I write here is based on my own work, on my own time. Views are my own and don't represent my employer.