Behind the Scenes with the Grain Team
The high-level programming language for WebAssembly
We are passionate about WebAssembly, programming languages, and developer experience. Each member of the Grain core team relies on full-time work outside of Grain.
Grain's growth is organic. (What? We appreciate a good pun.) Core team members initially met as classmates and colleagues or found each other through the project.
Grain is an open-source passion project. We do this because we love it, and feel strongly that WebAssembly deserves an easy-to-use high-level language
We each have unique skills that we bring to the table. Together, with our volunteer contributors, we have accomplished more than we ever expected.
Let's Hang Out
Oscar Spencer
Core Team Lead, Co-Creator
Language design, operations, chief strategist
Meet Grain's co-creator, Oscar. In 2017, Oscar, excited about WebAssembly's possibilities, co-created Grain, an easy-to-use, flexible but functional language that made adoption of WebAssembly simple for the world's developers.
Known for his problem solving and optimism, Oscar is a Principal Engineer at F5 NGINX.
Oscar specializes in compilers, language design, OCaml, and functional programming. When he's not working, find him on Discord or mulling over the next big challenge.
Who he admires: Guido van Rossum, creator of Python, a language that developers adore, with a welcoming community.
Meet Grain's co-creator, Oscar. In 2017, Oscar, excited about WebAssembly's possibilities, co-created Grain, an easy-to-use, flexible but functional language that made adoption of WebAssembly simple for the world's developers.
Known for his problem solving and optimism, Oscar is a Principal Engineer at F5 NGINX.
Oscar specializes in compilers, language design, OCaml, and functional programming. When he's not working, find him on Discord or mulling over the next big challenge.
Who he admires: Guido van Rossum, creator of Python, a language that developers adore, with a welcoming community.
Philip Blair
Core Team Member, Co-Creator
Programming language theory + research, compiler design
Philip is Grain's co-creator. Resourceful and analytical, he works to implement features which impact the end-user experience to enhance Grain's ease of use, familiarity, and accessibility.
Philip is the Senior Research Engineer at Basis Technology, where he investigates practical applications of deep learning technologies for use in text analytics.
Philip is an avid runner, and especially enjoys his route along the local river. Most afternoons, you can find Philip in his favorite neighborhood café, sipping a coffee and working away.
Drink of choice: double espresso, Ethiopian single-origin.
Philip is Grain's co-creator. Resourceful and analytical, he works to implement features which impact the end-user experience to enhance Grain's ease of use, familiarity, and accessibility.
Philip is the Senior Research Engineer at Basis Technology, where he investigates practical applications of deep learning technologies for use in text analytics.
Philip is an avid runner, and especially enjoys his route along the local river. Most afternoons, you can find Philip in his favorite neighborhood café, sipping a coffee and working away.
Drink of choice: double espresso, Ethiopian single-origin.
Blaine Bublitz
Core Team Member
Project management, toolchain
Blaine is a freelance open source developer and founder of Lead Gumshoe, an open source consulting company. Blaine specializes in helping organizations understand and use open source software.
Pragmatic with a strong work ethic, Blaine brings developer experience, tooling, language design and grant writing experience to Grain. He was responsible for providing a single installable binary for users to get up-and-running quickly. He also streamlined the release process so everything is released with 1-click. He also does the arduous work of making Grain work on Windows.
When Blaine's not working, he likes to build Legos and play trading card games. He was even the final world champion for the no-longer-produced MetaX trading card game.
Blaine is a freelance open source developer and founder of Lead Gumshoe, an open source consulting company. Blaine specializes in helping organizations understand and use open source software.
Pragmatic with a strong work ethic, Blaine brings developer experience, tooling, language design and grant writing experience to Grain. He was responsible for providing a single installable binary for users to get up-and-running quickly. He also streamlined the release process so everything is released with 1-click. He also does the arduous work of making Grain work on Windows.
When Blaine's not working, he likes to build Legos and play trading card games. He was even the final world champion for the no-longer-produced MetaX trading card game.
Marcus Roberts
Core Team Member
Developer tooling, developer experience
Supportive and bold, Marcus is a champion for building teams who develop self-sufficiently. His goal for Grain is simple: a language with easy step up, easy development, and a full set of tooling essential for today's developers.
Marcus was responsible for building Grain's language server that provides code analysis for code editors.
Currently, Marcus works as the Technical Director at Nittygritty, where he leads both the technical services part of the company and a software development team.
On any given Friday night, you can find Marcus drinking a craft beer and surfing the web. He hasn't found the end yet.
His biggest ask: That you stand to the right on the London Underground escalators. Seriously.
Supportive and bold, Marcus is a champion for building teams who develop self-sufficiently. His goal for Grain is simple: a language with easy step up, easy development, and a full set of tooling essential for today's developers.
Marcus was responsible for building Grain's language server that provides code analysis for code editors.
Currently, Marcus works as the Technical Director at Nittygritty, where he leads both the technical services part of the company and a software development team.
On any given Friday night, you can find Marcus drinking a craft beer and surfing the web. He hasn't found the end yet.
His biggest ask: That you stand to the right on the London Underground escalators. Seriously.
Spotandjake
Core Team Member
Tooling, standard library
Driven by a passion for programming languages and WebAssembly, Jake brings a fresh and dynamic perspective to the Grain core team. His contributions focus on enhancing the standard library, Jake has played a key role in building the JSON and Number libraries, refining documentation, and supporting language server development. On occasion, he also contributes to the compiler, further expanding his expertise.
Currently studying type checking and compiler development, Jake blends his curiosity for programming languages with hands-on contributions to Grain. Outside of tech, he enjoys exploring the outdoors and engineering.
Jake is constantly exploring ways to push the boundaries of what's possible with programming languages and is always eager to learn new things and contribute to the advancement of technology.
Driven by a passion for programming languages and WebAssembly, Jake brings a fresh and dynamic perspective to the Grain core team. His contributions focus on enhancing the standard library, Jake has played a key role in building the JSON and Number libraries, refining documentation, and supporting language server development. On occasion, he also contributes to the compiler, further expanding his expertise.
Currently studying type checking and compiler development, Jake blends his curiosity for programming languages with hands-on contributions to Grain. Outside of tech, he enjoys exploring the outdoors and engineering.
Jake is constantly exploring ways to push the boundaries of what's possible with programming languages and is always eager to learn new things and contribute to the advancement of technology.
Alex Snezhko
Core Team Member
Compiler, standard library
Alex understands how important having a great programming language is for building software and is motivated by the goal of making Grain an exceptional language that is easy and enjoyable to build with.
Alex is currently a software engineer at SpaceX and builds software for Starlink kit order fulfillment and other logistics verticals.
Outside of tech, Alex enjoys gaming, building mechanical keyboards, and heavy metal music.
Alex understands how important having a great programming language is for building software and is motivated by the goal of making Grain an exceptional language that is easy and enjoyable to build with.
Alex is currently a software engineer at SpaceX and builds software for Starlink kit order fulfillment and other logistics verticals.
Outside of tech, Alex enjoys gaming, building mechanical keyboards, and heavy metal music.
