About Me

Building Solutions That Matter

I'm Jim Buck, an Architect at RDA where I've spent over twelve years helping organizations transform their ideas into robust, scalable enterprise solutions. What started as a junior developer role six days after graduating from Towson University has evolved into a career defined by technical leadership, mentorship, and an unwavering commitment to developer experience.

Enterprise Consulting at Scale

Throughout my career as a consultant, I've had the privilege of partnering with organizations across healthcare, finance, legal, and technology sectors. Each engagement has reinforced a fundamental truth: the best solutions emerge when you deeply understand the problem space and empower the teams building them. I've architected systems that process millions of transactions, modernized legacy platforms into cloud-native applications, and led teams through complex digital transformations. But the work I'm most proud of isn't measured in lines of code—it's measured in the developers who've grown alongside these projects.

Crafting Developer Experiences

I believe that exceptional software starts with exceptional developer experiences. When developers have intuitive tools, clear patterns, and streamlined workflows, they build better products faster. This philosophy drives everything I do—from designing monorepo architectures with Turborepo and NX to building custom component libraries with shadcn/ui to implementing CI/CD pipelines that make deployment a non-event. I'm constantly exploring ways to reduce friction, eliminate toil, and let developers focus on what they do best: solving interesting problems.

TypeScript and the modern React ecosystem (particularly Next.js) have become my tools of choice, but I'm equally comfortable across the stack. Whether it's Azure infrastructure, .NET services, or Node.js APIs, I approach each technology as a means to an end—delivering value to users and joy to developers.

Mentorship and Growth

Some of my most rewarding work happens away from the keyboard. I'm deeply passionate about coaching and mentoring developers at all stages of their careers. There's something genuinely fulfilling about helping someone navigate a challenging architectural decision, watching them grasp a concept that once seemed opaque, or seeing them grow into technical leaders themselves. I believe in creating environments where questions are welcomed, experimentation is encouraged, and failure is treated as a learning opportunity.

Making a Positive Impact

Technology has immense power to improve lives, and I'm drawn to projects that make a positive impact on the world. Whether it's healthcare systems that help patients receive better care, platforms that democratize access to information, or tools that make other developers more effective—I want my work to matter beyond the bottom line. This extends to my contributions to open source software, where I build tools with TypeScript and Node.js that anyone can use. Open source represents something I deeply believe in: that sharing knowledge and collaborating openly makes us all better.

Beyond the Code

When I'm not architecting systems or mentoring teams, you'll find me on the golf course (or more likely in my garage with the simulator I built), tinkering with my 3D printer, or coaching my sons' baseball teams. I live in Mechanicsburg, PA with my wonderful wife and two boys, and I'm grateful every day for the balance they bring to my life.

I wouldn't be where I am today without my family and the countless colleagues who've taught me something along the way.