Erik Johannessen

Erik Johannessen has a diverse work experience spanning multiple industries. Erik started their career at Strategic Simulations, Inc. as a QA Tester for PC games. After completing an internship, they were hired full-time and worked primarily on People's General. Erik then moved on to The Learning Company, where they worked as a QA Tester for PC and console games, focusing on Chessmaster 7000 for the PC, Chessmaster II for the Playstation, and Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War for the PC.

In 2000, Erik joined Mattel Interactive as a QA Tester. Erik later transitioned to DPC Consulting Engineers, Inc., where they served as a Senior Programmer, developing software for plumbing and HVAC design. Erik also received training as a plumbing designer to aid in software development. Erik then worked as an Independent Contractor at Igloo Studios, Inc., taking on occasional projects and managing the development and release of software.

In 2009, Erik joined if(we) as a Software Engineer, working on back-end and front-end development for Tagged, a social network. Erik eventually took on roles as a Sr. Software Engineer, Engineering Manager, and Sr. Engineering Manager, overseeing multiple teams and managing projects and development processes.

From 2017 to 2023, Erik worked at The Meet Group, initially as a Sr. Engineering Manager, managing backend development teams and being involved in platform development. Erik later became the Director of Engineering, responsible for feature development, performance improvements, and stability across various apps. Finally, they served as the VP of Engineering, focusing on feature development, performance improvements, and stability for the Livebox SDK.

Since 2020, Erik has been the Co-Founder and CTO of Write for California, an independent Substack focused on writing about Athletics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Starting in 2023, Erik will be taking on the role of Head of Software Engineering at Starship.

Erik Johannessen obtained their Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Erik attended the university from 2000 to 2004. In addition to their degree, Erik holds a certification as a Certified Scrum Master, which they obtained from the Scrum Alliance in August 2012.