Kurtis Mullins

I'm a freelance backend and infrastructure engineer based in Central Maine. Eighteen years across backend development, DevOps, and platform engineering — previously at Red Hat, Equinix Metal, Clockwork Labs, and the Water Institute. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, I moved to Maine in 2021 with my family, where we have a small homestead. When I'm not writing code or tinkering in the homelab, you'll usually find me training BJJ, working on the property, exploring Maine, or catching live music.

Portrait of Kurtis Mullins holding a cat and a cup.

Summer Special — Available Now

I'm running a summer special: $75/hour for 10–20 hours/week, about half my usual rate. In exchange, I want projects I'd work on for fun — backend systems, cloud infrastructure, internal tools, or anything interesting. Especially good fit for non-profits, research groups, universities, indie game devs, and early-stage startups.

Writing

Notes

Short notes from work and life. Full stream: /notes/

Photos

Recent photos: /photos/

Interests

More hobbies, projects, and interests than I have time for. Updated as things change.

Grappling
BJJ since 2014. Currently focused on No Gi. Would love to own a gym one day!
Homesteading
Rebuilding my house while living in it. Sustenance farming, rainwater, solar, firewood, woodworking, plus low-power sensors and IoT projects around the property. Self-sufficiency over aesthetics.
Photography
Sony A7 IV, iPhone. Maine landscapes, family, whatever catches my eye. Working on shadows, lighting, composition, and posing.
Homelab
Proxmox, NixOS, Kubernetes, low-power servers, networking gear, fiber between the house and barn. I run household apps here and use it to try whatever seems useful or interesting.
Programming
Programming in general. Systems, tools, automation, backend work, interpreters, game experiments, weird corners of computing. Rust is in the mix, but it is not the whole story.
Game Development
Mostly Roblox and Scratch with my kid, plus side experiments in Unity, Unreal, SDL, and Bevy. More interested in mechanics and underlying systems than graphics or physics.
Retro Tech
Old computers, retro game systems, odd operating systems, any machine with a story. Linux since Red Hat 6 and early Slackware. Soft spot for OpenBSD, AmigaOS, and big iron.
Live Music
Local bands, small venues, and camping at music festivals whenever I can make the time.
Exploring
Mountains, swimming holes, coffee shops, book stores, hiking, good food, little towns, Common Ground Fair, the occasional ren faire.