Hi. I'm Jayson J. Phillips.

Well, before dive in on my story, let me start this off with a disclaimer:

The views expressed on this site are solely those of myself, and are not necessarily representative of nor endorsed by my employer, business partners or any other firm I may have a relationship with, professional or otherwise, unless explicitly stated.

Now that that's out of the way...

I've been in technology, namely building consumer and B2B software platforms, for well over 20 years. I've spent the last 7 years in management and people leadership, building empathetic team cultures of high performance and continuous learning.

How did I get started on this journey? Well, that's not quite a straight path. I've always had a love for art and music. I specialized in Fine Art (Photography) in high school, before eventually deciding to major in Math and Computer Science in college. After about 5 semesters, I dropped both majors and enrolled in a pilot hybrid degree program that was a BS in Computer Graphics and Imaging.

While I was enjoying this shift, I took a leave of absence when I got the opportunity to go on the road with Scratch DJ Academy as a tour liaison, stage/sound engineer, and backup DJ, soaking up and practicing DJing with some of the dopest DJs I knew who were at Scratch. It was there that I got my first paycheck for writing code, as an Assistant Webmaster.

Eventually, I would choose to further my software career and put school on hold, indefinitely. I would jokingly tell folks that I went to the University of Barnes & Noble. Throughout the formative years of my software career, I would go to Barnes & Noble and scoop up the latest technology books whose covers spoke to me, every pay period. You can listen

Ultimately, I'm just a kid from the Bronx, trying to make it, make my family proud, and leave things a little better than how I found them.

Short and Sweet Biography

Jayson J. Phillips is a long-time software engineer, manager, and technical leader, with over 20 years experience building software products. He's delivered product experiences and platform services at places such as Apple, Pandora, and Knewton, and has cut his teeth in people leadership at companies like Trilogy Education Services, 2U, and Coursera. Currently, Jayson serves as the Senior Director of Product Engineering at Honeycomb.io, and has done so since the Fall of 2022. He's passionate about the intersection of technology, talent development, wellness, and product development.

A More Detailed Biography

Jayson J. Phillips is engaged with the people aspect of management and business leadership. He's spent the last 20+ years building teams, and products, for millions of users. He's also got a passion for coaching and teaching, and it has reflected throughout his career as well.

Currently, Jayson serves as the Senior Director of Product Engineering at Honeycomb.io, leading teams that build best-in-class observability experiences so engineers everywhere can answer the question "what's happening in my system right now?" at a moment's notice. In the past, he's led teams in other industries, including streaming media, crypto/fintech, edtech, and advertising.

Jayson is also the founder of Breakpoint Wellness, where he serves as the lead wellness coach, putting his multiple certifications from Precision Nutrition to use in a client-centered, holistic habits-based practice. As a long-time remote working employee, I have a great a deal of empathy and understanding for this world we're in, and how work in the remote/hybrid setting intersects with personal life very differently than an in-the-office job.