Rust, of course, is a great, open source programming language. Did you know, however, that there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that it stays great? A dedicated group of maintainers, teams and community members work tirelessly to improve and grow the Rust Project every day. One area where this is especially true is the work that keeps the lights on for the Rust Project itself. The Infrastructure Team supports and manages the infrastructure that allows Rust to be released, the compiler to be built and tested, the documentation to be generated and made publicly available, and so much more. This small, all-volunteer team both reacts to acute issues as well as strategically works to make the Project faster and more efficient in its development.
Maintaining infrastructure for the Rust Project is a lot of work, and it is important to reiterate that this has been done by volunteers, on their own time. Some months ago, the Infrastructure Team approached the Foundation to ask whether it could provide support. After some thought about how best the Foundation could help, and understanding how much work and responsibility there is for the Infrastructure Team, it was decided that having a dedicated, full-time engineer was the best course of action.
The Foundation is excited to welcome Jan David as its first engineering hire, here to directly support Rust Project and other Rust related Infrastructure. Jan David is responsible for the operations of all currently supported and future infrastructure, including managing both existing tools and new development. Jan David will work directly with the Rust Infrastructure team in their daily activities and will help manage the relationship and efforts between that team and the Foundation. In Jan David's own words...
It’s been impressive to learn about the work that the infrastructure team has done, and the efforts they have put in on a voluntary basis. I am very excited about joining the Rust Foundation to support the team and the Rust community, and look forward to helping continue the tradition of providing awesome infrastructure for Rust and its projects.
Thank you to the Infrastructure Team for all of their efforts in ensuring that Rust is a world-class, open source project.