Nathan Blackham

RESF Internal Comms — Slack Post Not AMA

Decided to announce RESF engineering support via a Slack post (not company-wide AMA) to control narrative without signaling alarm. Nathan follows up with team Q&A for project impacts.

Mar 13

RESF Monday Cutover — Finalized 3 PM PT Execution Plan

Finalized the RESF infrastructure cutover plan for Monday March 16 at 3 PM PT, including DNS NS record flip, AWS VPC firewalling, account disabling (Lewis, Neal), and security audit — accepting up to 24 hours of DNS-related downtime.

Mar 13

Coordinated Google Post-Mortem Alignment Between Nathan and Bjorn

Ensured Nathan's Google post-mortem document was reviewed by Bjorn before sending to Google, because Bjorn has a Thursday call about contract changes and the doc could undermine his asks.

Mar 11

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

RESF Operational Security — Compartmentalize Until Board Action

Directed that Brian must not be told anything until after the RESF board notification. Emphasized extreme caution about leaks to Lewis. Approved Joseph being read into the initiative but warned about leak risk. Sequenced information flow: board action first, then notifications, then credential recovery.

Mar 10

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Custom Engineering Scoping Process — Nathan as Gate

Established formal process for unplanned custom engineering requests from sales: Nathan provides quick effort estimate (days/weeks/months), enabling formal prioritization. Nathan can say no, escalation goes to Peter.

Mar 6

Team Building Mandate — 6-Month Priority Over Features

Directed all engineering managers to prioritize team building over feature delivery for the next six months. Includes permission to swap out low performers, with Peter providing air cover for the risks involved.

Mar 4

Set maximum urgency on LTS 9.6 i686 package crisis

Nathan escalated that i686 multilib packages were never built for LTS 9.6 — the S3 bucket and Peridot config were never created. Every LTS 9.6 package with i686 variants is missing them. Brady flagged Siemens as a customer that specifically cares about i686. Peter acknowledged the escalation and set maximum urgency expectation.

Mar 3

Committed to RESF day-of execution planning meeting next week

Committed in #internal-resf-escalation to organizing a meeting next week to build an execution plan for the RESF day-of lockdown. Directed Sarah to invite Nathan, Max, Justin, and Dieter. Bjorn is finishing messaging drafts this weekend, so technical execution planning must be ready to match the communication track.

Feb 27

Committed to aggressive NVIDIA GPU Operator self-certification timeline for GTC

Led GPU Operator Self Certification meeting with NVIDIA. Committed CIQ to building pre-compiled GPU driver containers for Rocky Linux (mirroring Ubuntu model) and pursuing self-certification targeting preliminary completion by end of next week to support a GTC announcement.

Feb 27

Rocky project contingency war room - infrastructure security planning

Committed to scheduling a war room meeting to create a detailed, step-by-step contingency plan for securing Rocky infrastructure (AWS, FreeIPA) against potential hostile action by former members. Plan assumes an outage will be necessary to revoke access. Technical cutover to be planned before legal letters are sent.

Risk tolerance recalibration - push and be wrong for low-risk releases

Established new release philosophy: 'push and be wrong' for low-risk changes, prioritizing speed over perfection. Directed Nathan to ship two approved CVE fixes for unused packages immediately as a precedent-setting test case, bypassing the usual review process.

Release artifact ownership assignment - Nathan RPMs, Justin images

Assigned clear ownership of release artifacts: Nathan is the final approver for RPMs, Justin for images. Each owner defines their own validation process and has autonomy to improve it without seeking permission. Creates a 'throat to choke' accountability model for release quality.

Personnel action plan from effort/impact matrix review

Conducted comprehensive effort vs. impact performance review of ~20 engineers across kernel and platform teams, resulting in specific personnel actions: underperformers on short improvement timelines or face replacement, one engineer to be replaced with a high-impact hire, one engineer requires direct performance conversation about ownership and visibility, one to be reassigned to simple packaging tasks.

Mandated Engineering double delivery pace in 6 months

Directed Justin Haynes and Nathan Blackham to double their teams' delivery pace within 6 months. Method: hire new talent to build a team capable of that pace; some current members may not be a fit. In-person planning session in San Jose on Feb 25 with Justin, Nathan, Max, Peter.

Feb 25

Assign Max as RLC-AI benchmarking plan owner with RHEL comparisons

Assigned Max Spevack as owner of the RLC-AI benchmarking plan in response to Greg's question about ownership. Directed that RHEL comparisons be added to exit criteria. Bjorn owns product definition (what to benchmark), Max owns technical execution (how to benchmark accurately). Max will create a one-page methodology document for the Humane pitch.

Feb 20

Approve Jason Rodriguez performance exit path

Approved Nathan's plan to tell Jason Rodriguez he's 'not meeting expectations' and create an exit path. A 1-month exit plan is acceptable if Jason agrees. Performance gaps include missed deadlines (shim review for Rocky 9 late, Rocky 7 review pending) and unshippable code (large PR unlikely to pass review).

Feb 20

Override hiring freeze to hire Ben and Jamin for Linux engineering

Decided to bypass the company hiring freeze to bring on two key candidates: Ben (priority hire, competing with Anthropic offer) and Jamin (from Oracle, expensive but high-performing with strong ownership). Committed to sync with Mariah to clear headcount for both.

Feb 20

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

Set Google GDC meeting strategy: build direct relationship and manage attendee roles

Peter decided to attend the Google GDC executive meeting himself (without Greg), bringing Max, Brady, and Nathan. Will personally manage Nathan's participation to protect Brady's roadmap presentation. Kelly directed to tell Google 'Peter has this covered.'

Feb 17

Directed Nathan to surface eng-product communication gaps

After Department Heads meeting, spent 30 minutes coaching Nathan 1:1. Praised his handling of the meeting despite frustration. Directed Nathan and Justin to be proactively transparent with product, and specifically to surface instances where engineering communicates clearly but product claims ignorance.

Feb 12

Mandated accelerated cadence with coordination accountability

In Department Heads meeting, mandated announcements every 2-4 weeks as non-negotiable. Drew accountability line: engineering protected for speed mistakes but NOT for coordination failures (status updates, product priorities, public channel decisions). Framed as make-or-break period driven by $30B revenue goal and Middle East partnership success.

Feb 12

Mobilized team for Saudi meeting prep and escalated NVIDIA DOCA blocker

Peter personally intervened to prepare team for critical Saudi Arabia partner meeting on RLC-AI. Posted in #product-rlc-ai asking about CUDA/DOCA availability, discovered NVIDIA written approval for DOCA OFED still pending. Emailed Scott Hara (NVIDIA) directly to advance the approval. Tagged Nathan, Justin, Jeff Uphoff, and Damen Knight demanding they answer Max's detailed technical questions within 24 hours. Set hard deadline: '24 hours from now.' Bjorn committed to calling Scott to reaffirm DOCA modification rights.

Feb 11

Sensitive Decision

Sensitive

AMD RLC Plus Strategy: Speed-to-Market with Minimal Scope

Decided to prioritize speed-to-market for the RLC Plus AMD co-marketing launch. The initial build will use upstream AMD packages (pre-built ROCm), the kernel driver (not upstream DKMS), and enable EPEL. Deferring the more robust in-house rebuild until market traction is proven. Justin Haynes to draft proposal and decision matrix.

Feb 4

Rocky Security Updates Urgency - Competitive Gap

Flagged to Max, Justin, and Nathan that Rocky security update tagging is a critical competitive gap needing urgent attention. Shared community post recommending Alma over Rocky because Alma correctly tags security updates and has timelier updates.

Feb 3

New Engineering Mandate - 2x Velocity in 6 Months

Set new mandate for Justin and Nathan: top priority is building a team that can deliver twice as fast in six months. This is a shift from the previous coaching model to a performance-driven one - setting ambitious targets, holding people accountable, and replacing underperformers.

Feb 3

Created #hey-pete-look channel for engineering visibility and recognition

Created a Slack channel #hey-pete-look for engineering managers to share wins and significant accomplishments. Two purposes: (1) provide Peter visibility to enable recognition when things go well, (2) create cross-team visibility of accomplishments. Committed to look at everything shared, but not necessarily comment on everything.

Jan 31

Time-based releases concept - trains leave on schedule

Consider moving to time-based releases where engineering ships whats ready on a fixed cadence (e.g., monthly or bi-weekly). Product must scope features to fit the timeline rather than engineering stretching to fit scope. The train leaves whether youre ready or not.

RESF crisis comms - single source of truth

In a RESF crisis, publish one official blog post as the central source of truth. All responses on social media (Hacker News, LWN, HPC forums) link back to that post. Do not engage in real-time debates. Own the traditional news cycle, not social media.

Project Shackleton - RESF contingency infrastructure

Build a parallel mirror of all RESF infrastructure in AWS (Git repos, Koji, vault/pub, Mattermost history) with goal of restoring Rocky Linux builds within two weeks if Lewis triggers his kill switch. Everything built with CDK and Ansible for repeatable deployment.

Servant leadership requires clear targets

Servant leadership and mentoring are fine, but must be paired with clear targets. Without clear targets, you cannot train the system. The AND between servant leadership and clear targets is mandatory - you cannot have one without the other.

Quality investment must serve velocity

Quality and automation investments are acceptable if the thesis is this will massively increase velocity in 3 months. Quality for its own sake is not the priority. Every quality investment should have a velocity payoff hypothesis attached.

Find the ceiling approach to velocity

Rather than incrementally improving 5% at a time safely, push until something breaks, then figure out if the breakage is fixable or a real ceiling. Air cover provided for aggressive experiments. Nobody gets fired for trying to go fast and breaking things.

Trustless processes over building trust

Focus on building contracts and processes that work without trust, not on building relationships. Good fences make good neighbors. Trust becomes a bonus, not a requirement. Contracts are what matter - relationships are nice to have.

PR standards in AI era - own the test suite, not the code

In an AI-enabled world, engineers should own the test suite and exit criteria, not necessarily every line of code. Quality comes from tests passing, not from reading every line. Engineer accountability shifts from I wrote this code to I own that this code passes these tests.

PRD contract process - stop teaching product

Stop trying to teach product how to write PRDs. Define acceptance criteria for PRDs, respond within 24-48 hours, rearrange and cut scope ourselves, and hand back a contract. They can accept or negotiate, but no endless back-and-forth. Engineering restructures the work and presents how we will deliver.

Team building over individual protection - Machiavellian approach

Stop protecting individuals at the expense of team success. The body being taken care of is the team, not individual engineers. Every day spent betting on someone who wont make it hurts the team. You already know who youre going to fire - just convince yourself youve done due diligence.

Trinity backfill for RLCAI/RLCH work, not maintenance

Use Trinitys backfill headcount to hire for RLCAI and RLCH work, not maintenance. Look for someone who can hold their own technically with Maple but will push AI adoption aggressively. Jamin identified as strong candidate - automation-first thinker, delivers and iterates, QA mindset.

Jason Rodriguez evaluation - clear deliverables, no guardrails

Rather than building guardrails around Jasons working style (works alone, doesnt communicate, delivers code that doesnt integrate), set clear deliverables with acceptance criteria and evaluate on results. If he cant deliver, move on. Do not coach around his limitations.

Aggressive goal-setting philosophy - undercut estimates, force innovation

Set targets that seem impossible (e.g., 2 months instead of historical 6 months) and let the team figure out how. Success is not just hitting the target - its learning and attempting new approaches. The managers job used to be to pad estimates; now its to undercut them.

AI ownership standard - own everything you submit

Engineers must fully own everything in documents and code they submit, regardless of whether AI generated it. Using AI is expected and assumed. Submitting AI output you dont understand or endorse is not acceptable. Quality and accountability matter, not authorship.

Nathan job redefined - build a team, not deliver outputs

Nathan deliverable is a team that can adapt and learn, not technical outputs. Focus shifts from figure out how to deliver X with current team to build a team that can deliver what CIQ needs. This is fundamentally different from traditional engineering management.

WBR restructuring to outcome-based commitments

Restructure the Weekly Business Review (WBR) to be outcome-based. At the end of the meeting, everyone has publicly committed to what they will deliver by Friday. The meeting should create social accountability through public commitment.

Focus CVE automation on top 5 priority packages first

Stack-rank the CVE priority package list and start automation with just the top 5 packages. Drive open CVE count for those 5 as close to zero as possible before expanding scope. Report closed-by-automation separately from will-not-do.

LTS roll-forward policy - small stable core, roll everything else

Define a small core set of packages (~5) that stay stable in LTS releases (kernel, glibc, gcc, and a few others). Everything else can be rolled forward aggressively. Customer-specific additions can be negotiated as needed.

CVE automation architecture - simple state machine, 1 CVE per commit

CVE automation should be built as a simple state machine with clear exit criteria at each step. Each commit addresses exactly one CVE. The orchestrator should be stupid-simple - just moving between states. Steps: Research -> Rebase -> Build -> Test -> MR -> Final Build -> Integration Test -> Promote to Beta -> Integration Test -> Production.

Redefine wins to only celebrate step-function improvements

Reset the definition of wins across engineering teams to only celebrate step-function improvements and exceptional contributions, not completing expected work. Use recognition strategically as a management lever to train teams toward higher performance.

Leadership meeting cadence - need-based, not scheduled

Leadership meetings will happen every 4-6 weeks based on need, not a fixed schedule. Buy refundable tickets ahead of time and cancel if there is not a full agenda worth discussing.

Everfox partnership requires ARR-target-level contract to proceed

Participated in technical scoping meeting with Everfox to understand feasibility of supporting their RHEL 8 to RHEL 10 migration for 100k+ hardened thin client units. Meeting was exploratory - no commitment made.

Jan 29

Addressed Nathan tendency to shield his people from criticism

Identified and communicated to Max that Nathan pattern of shielding his people from criticism is counterproductive and puts them at risk rather than protecting them. Aligned with Max to give same message to Nathan that we dont have time for this.

Jan 26

Committed to ensuring Greg technical direction reaches Justin

Committed to redirecting Justin to follow Greg architectural guidance on object storage/depot, and to be the conduit ensuring Greg technical direction reaches engineering clearly. Greg flagged that depot work was not in line with past directives.

Jan 26

Established escalation protocol for Product blockers

When Product (specifically Dawson) does not respond to meeting requests blocking engineering work, Nathan should explicitly request the meeting, then escalate to Peter and Bjorn via Slack if no response within 1-2 days. This creates a documented pattern of Product blocking Engineering.

Jan 23

Engineering dates commitment by Friday - reprioritize for revenue impact

Committed to publishing updated engineering dates/milestones by Friday for Monday group review. Acknowledged January deliverables are unrealistic - many items were newly added and cannot complete in remaining ~10 days. Will reprioritize toward revenue-impacting items first. Tomorrow all-day session with Chris Baek to rework H1 plan into aggressive but achievable targets.

Jan 21

Mandate big leaps risk approach for H1

Directed Justin to take big leaps and calculated risks to meet H1 goals, especially with AI. Speed and learning prioritized over avoiding potential issues. Example: a vibe-coded Portal in one day is preferable to a 1.5-month architected build - worst case is a day lost, best case is massive time-to-market advantage.

Jan 17

Strategic Map Framework - Value Drivers vs Internal Efficiency Separation

Established new H1 strategic planning framework that separates customer-facing Value Drivers from Internal Efficiency Drivers. Framework uses three lanes: middle lane for Value Drivers (the WHY), top lane for GTM activities, bottom lane for engineering deliverables. Also established phased estimation process: low-confidence ballpark dates first, then engineering-only session to raise confidence.

Jan 15

Accelerate Koji build system as RESF contingency

Emphasized urgency of having CIQ own build system mirroring RESF capabilities. Currently half of Nathan and Dieters time, targeting end of month. Requested visibility into milestones for board meeting prep.

Jan 14

Commit to increased visibility with engineering org

In response to employee feedback about low visibility creating a trust gap and fear-based culture perception, committed to: bi-weekly positive Slack updates, more 1-on-1s with key individuals, frequent positive feedback in public channels, weekly summary of focus areas, and an SF meeting with Nathan/Justin/Max.

Jan 14

Work intake must flow through managers, not directly to engineers

Established new process where small customer requests go to Engineering Managers (Justin, Chris W.) for approval. EMs will attend bi-weekly CECA board review to ensure they are in the loop on incoming work.

Jan 14

Koji Build System Priority - RESF Risk Mitigation

Directed Nathan to prioritize Koji cluster standup with Dieter. Goal is to have independent build infrastructure in place so CIQ is not dependent on RESF. Asked for timeline if this became top priority, and indicated Dieter should reprioritize accordingly.

Jan 13

Termination Messaging Strategy - Organizational Signal

Discussed with Max the organizational messaging around Trinity termination. The termination is not about introducing fear but correcting a losing posture that existed before. Nathan was coached to communicate clearly that Trinity was not meeting the bar, and that leadership alignment is expected.

Max Spevack Role Expansion - Formalized Authority

Announced to engineering that Max takes a dedicated leadership role spanning Linux Engineering and RAT, reporting directly to Peter. Max acts with Peters authority in meetings, serves as quality gate for major decisions, shapes engineering culture, and is an escalation point outside the management chain.

ICP Consolidation - RLCH and RLCAI into Fuzzball

Consolidated RLCH (Rocky Linux Confidential Hardened) and RLCAI ICPs with Fuzzball ICPs to simplify GTM. RLCH targets regulated industries, government, power distribution. RLCAI targets AI-inferencing and compute-heavy industries. Rocky Pro kept separate for mid-market RHEL/SUSE/Oracle replacement motion.

H1 Planning Framework - 3-Lane Model

Introduced a new 3-lane planning model to address GTM and Engineering misalignment. Top Lane (GTM): marketing campaigns, messaging. Middle Lane (Value Drivers): the why - market state change, ICP, business significance. Bottom Lane (Engineering): deliverables driven by Value Drivers.

Ownership Definition Clarification Commitment

Committed to working with direct reports to create a clear, shared definition of Ownership and distribute it to all of engineering within a couple of days.

Jan 11

Trinity Quirk & Chris Short Terminations Executed

Terminated Trinity Quirk for failing to progress NARF/CVE automation integration despite clear expectations. Terminated Chris Short for failing to deliver on critical RESF-related goals. Sent transparent communication to all of engineering explaining the WHY behind these decisions.

Jan 11

CVE Automation Prioritized Over EUS Daily Numbers

Decision to push the EUS catch-up deadline to prioritize automating CVE work. Automation is a higher priority than hitting daily EUS numbers manually.

Jan 6

Leadership 1:1s with Maple, Dieter, Andrew

Decision to begin regular 1-on-1s with Maple, Dieter, and Andrew (when onboarded) to build trust and ensure unified messaging.

Jan 6

NARF Performance Accountability - Public Termination

Decided to execute a public termination within Nathan's org on Monday if NARF deliverables are not met. This is specifically intended as organizational signaling to drive accountability and force motion across the team. A second termination (Chris) may be required for legal reasons.

Jan 2

Ali Contract Termination

Decided to end Ali's contract after he missed another check-in meeting and failed to demonstrate proactive delivery necessary for a remote contractor. Reached out to Mariah to understand the process steps.

Jan 2

Andrew Jorgensen Level Flexibility Confirmed

Clarified with Brianne that Andrew does not need to come in as Maxs peer. Happy to slot him into either the more senior or less senior position based on his comfort. Want him coming in feeling happy and excited about what hes signing up for.

H1 Planning Strategy - Aggressive Goals with Staggered Milestones

Articulated H1 strategy: shift from hope to concrete plan with aggressive audacious goals. Achieve goals differently not just faster. Staggered milestones every 4-6 weeks for course correction. Missed milestones trigger retrospectives for process or personnel changes. Clear prioritization at Reno eliminating everything is P0 problem.

Ali Contract Termination Warning

Alis contract will be terminated immediately if tomorrows progress review is unsatisfactory. This sets a clear performance standard and signals that when work is deemed important, there is no time to wait for progress - it must be executed efficiently and quickly.

CVE Remediation Mandate with Termination Consequence

Mandated CVE remediation as top priority and made clear that Trinity or Jeff will have their employment terminated due to lack of progress on adopting automation tools. This termination is intended to signal to the rest of the team the grave importance of improving how this work is done.

Build Environment Contingency Prioritized

Aligned with Nathan that his top priority is secretly building a full build environment (Koji, Pungie) to create a concrete recovery plan in response to potential RESF sabotage threat.

Andrew Jorgensen Hiring Approved

Approved hiring Andrew Jorgensen for an IC role reporting to Nathan Blackham. Offered flexibility on level - he can come in at senior or less senior position based on his comfort.

NARF Launch as Forcing Function

Decided to use NARF automation launch as a forcing function to drive adoption. Max will launch NARF for simple backports by Friday, generating MRs for human approval. Nathan team required to review all generated MRs by end of next week. Peter to meet with Nathan tomorrow to mandate CVE remediation as top priority.

Dec 29

CVE Strategy - Eventually Consistent Model

Aligned with Max on new approach to CVE patching: adopt an eventually consistent model that prioritizes rapid patching over perfect upfront testing. Accept a small error rate (e.g., 5%) as a necessary trade-off for speed, with fixes handled by COE.

Dec 29

AI Policy Governance Approach

Agreed to collaborative governance approach for AI policy: Peter, Nathan, and Max will present AI exploration findings to the AI committee weekly, ensuring engineering innovation feeds into policy development.

Dec 28

CVE Remediation - Direct Intervention Required

Identified unacceptable lack of urgency from Nathan team on NARF-created CVEs. Will take direct action to address performance issues next week.

Dec 24

Andrew Jorgensen Hiring - Deferred to Role Clarity

After CTO interview for Sr. Linux System Engineer, did not fill in final hire/dont recommendation. Deferred to Max/Nathan to clarify what they want him doing and culture fit concerns.

Dec 24

RESF Infrastructure Independence - Technical Execution

Directed Nathan to mirror all RESF repositories and initiated build environment duplication. Created #internal-resf-escalation channel with strict confidentiality rules. Keeping technical circle small (Nathan, Max, Justin, Dieter) while moving quickly.

Dec 24

RESF Crisis Response - Infrastructure Independence

After learning of hostile plans by RESF board members (Louis, Neil, Brian Clemens) to publicly attack CIQ, dismantle Rocky Linux infrastructure, and damage the project, initiated emergency response to replicate RESF infrastructure for Rocky 8, 9, 10 with minimal team awareness.

Dec 23

RLC 9.7 Launch Path Decision

Participated in RLC 9.7 Launch planning meeting to decide path forward on release and rework priorities.

Dec 19

Championing AI Butler Adoption Internally

Shared detailed Slack MCP setup instructions with team members. Hosted/recorded AI Dashboard session demonstrating Butler setup. Personally using and advocating for meeting prep automation.

Dec 19

Championing AI Butler Internal Adoption

Hosted and recorded the AI Dashboard/Butler setup session to drive internal adoption of Claude-based personal productivity tools across CIQ. Shared personal use case of creating meeting prep notes from Slack/email/docs.

Dec 19