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Richard North’s Blog

About Me #

Richard North

I’m a prinĀ­ciĀ­pal enĀ­giĀ­neer based in London, foĀ­cused on deĀ­velĀ­oper exĀ­peĀ­riĀ­ence, softĀ­ware testĀ­ing, and the platĀ­forms and tools enĀ­giĀ­neers use every day.

I creĀ­ated Testcontainers in 2015 — a Docker-based liĀ­brary for runĀ­ning real deĀ­penĀ­denĀ­cies inĀ­side auĀ­toĀ­mated tests. It’s grown into a de-facto apĀ­proach to inĀ­teĀ­graĀ­tion testĀ­ing across Java, .NET, Go, Node, Python and more, used at comĀ­paĀ­nies inĀ­cludĀ­ing Uber, Netflix, Spotify and Google. In 2021 I co-founded AtomicJar to build a comĀ­merĀ­cial comĀ­pleĀ­ment to it, Testcontainers Cloud; AtomicJar was acĀ­quired by Docker in 2023. I’m no longer inĀ­volved in the proĀ­ject, but I’m proud of what it beĀ­came.

Today I’m a prinĀ­ciĀ­pal enĀ­giĀ­neer at Skyscanner, workĀ­ing on deĀ­velĀ­oper enĀ­ableĀ­ment, inĀ­terĀ­nal toolĀ­ing and proĀ­ducĀ­tion platĀ­forms — inĀ­cludĀ­ing Turbolift, a tool for makĀ­ing code changes across a large miĀ­croserĀ­vice esĀ­tate (the story beĀ­hind it). Lately I’ve been foĀ­cused on makĀ­ing AI agents genĀ­uinely useĀ­ful inĀ­side large, real-world codeĀ­bases.

A thread runs through most of what I build: pragĀ­matic tools that pay atĀ­tenĀ­tion to what enĀ­giĀ­neers acĀ­tuĀ­ally need and get the job done.

Outside work I’m a faĀ­ther of two, a husĀ­band, and a genĀ­eral-purĀ­pose geek — inĀ­terĀ­ested in home auĀ­tomaĀ­tion, elecĀ­tronĀ­ics, and a long tail of other things. A few of those have esĀ­caped onto the inĀ­terĀ­net: euĀ­ston.wtf, for catchĀ­ing trains from Euston a litĀ­tle more easĀ­ily; weekĀ­ends, a printĀ­able calĀ­enĀ­dar genĀ­erĀ­aĀ­tor built around weekĀ­ends and pubĀ­lic holĀ­iĀ­days; and bikegears, a gear calĀ­cuĀ­laĀ­tor for youth bike racĀ­ing.

Contact #

The best way to reach me is LinkedIn or email. My code is on GitHub.

I write here from time to time — the archive goes back a fair way.

Latest Posts

Using Tailscale with Docker
Faster builds with highly parĀ­alĀ­lel GitHub Actions
More pracĀ­tiĀ­cal direnv

More posts can be found in the archive.