# Ryan Peterman

> Ryan Peterman went from new grad to Staff Engineer at Instagram in three years, then left one of tech's most coveted jobs to build what he wished existed. His newsletter 'The Developing Dev' has 106,000+ subscribers, his podcast 'The Peterman Pod' features career stories from top engineers, and his hardware company Compose is building an ultra-low-profile ergonomic keyboard. Based in San Francisco, he is the rare engineer who codes, writes, interviews Turing Award winners, and designs keyboards with equal intensity.

- **Role:** Founder at The Peterman Pod / Compose
- **Organizations:** The Peterman Pod, Compose, Meta (former), Instagram (former), Amazon (former)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Computer Science (likely), UCLA
- **Known for:** Promoted from IC3 (new grad) to IC6 (Staff Engineer) at Instagram in 3 years, Built 'The Developing Dev' newsletter to 106,000+ subscribers, Tripled newsletter page views from ~1M to ~3M in 2024

## Career timeline

- **2020** — Joined Amazon at a small satellite office post-graduation
- **2020** — Left Amazon after 8 months, joined Instagram as IC3 (new grad level)
- **2021** — Promoted to Senior Engineer (IC5) within 12 months by leading high-impact media message latency project
- **2022** — Promoted to Staff Engineer (IC6) at Instagram - new grad to staff in 3 years
- **2022** — Launched 'The Developing Dev' newsletter on Substack
- **2023** — Switched from IG Media Infra to AI/ML Training Infrastructure at Meta
- **2024** — Newsletter grew from 41,000 to 94,000 subscribers (129% growth); launched 'The Peterman Pod' podcast
- **2024** — Revealed 'Compose' keyboard hardware project publicly
- **2025** — Left Meta to build The Peterman Pod and Compose full-time; newsletter reached 106,000+ subscribers
- **2025** — Compose ergonomic split keyboard announced for Kickstarter crowdfunding

## Achievements

- Promoted from IC3 (new grad) to IC6 (Staff Engineer) at Instagram in 3 years
- Built 'The Developing Dev' newsletter to 106,000+ subscribers
- Tripled newsletter page views from ~1M to ~3M in 2024
- Published 51 newsletter posts in 2024 without missing a single week
- Launched 'The Peterman Pod' podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
- Led project to cut Instagram media message send latency in half
- Gave a career talk at UCLA UPE+ACM on promotions and visibility
- Interviewed Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport, former Amazon VP Ethan Evans, Boris Cherny (Claude Code creator), and OpenAI/Meta Distinguished Engineers
- 196,000+ followers on LinkedIn

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Running The Peterman Pod full-time after leaving Meta, with 106K+ newsletter subscribers
- **2025-03** — Compose ergonomic split keyboard prototype revealed; Kickstarter campaign planned
- **2025-01** — Peterman Pod podcast episodes featuring Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport and other top engineers
- **2024-12** — Newsletter reached 94,000 subscribers by end of 2024 with 3M+ annual page views
- **2024-09** — Revealed Compose hardware project publicly through developing.dev newsletter

## Links

- Website: https://www.ryanlpeterman.dev/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RyanLPeterman
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ryan-peterman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21