JOHN WELAND
John Weland / Minnesota

Build useful things.
Be useful to people.

I’m John Weland. I live in rural Minnesota and work in cloud architecture and software engineering. Outside work, I spend time with my family, serve on the Jackson City Council, and lead our local animal rescue.

Explore my workAbout me
Cloud architecture. Local service.
John Weland

About

Hi, I’m John.

I’m originally from Texas and now live in rural Minnesota with my family. I’m a husband and a father. At home, conversations about programming practices, new technology, or games sometimes earn a patient smile and nod.

I’m a co-founder of Damned Cat Studio, bringing a software engineer’s perspective to independent game development.

I enjoy making complex things understandable, finding opportunities to automate, and helping teams grow. Meeting a client’s needs and making room for a healthy life both matter to me.

My community involvement

Professional work

Cloud architecture & engineering.

I work with AWS architecture, cloud migrations, infrastructure as code, and software engineering. My focus is on systems that teams can understand, operate, and maintain.

How I approach the work

Security, compliance, cost, and operational needs are part of the architecture from the start. I aim to leave teams with systems they can own and maintain.

I’ve worked with organizations ranging from defense contractors to startups. Listening to the team and understanding the problem come first.

Experience

  1. Protagona

    Solutions Architect

    Since 2023

  2. Sparq

    Sr. Cloud Engineer

    2021–2023

  3. FluentStream

    Developer II

    2021

  4. ICSolutions

    Software Engineer

    2015–2021

  5. Decypher Technologies

    DOD Consultant

    2013–2015

Community

Serving the place I call home.

My work in Jackson includes elected service, public infrastructure, and animal welfare. My background in emergency preparedness began in Texas.

Elected service

Jackson City Council

City Council Member

Current

I serve as an elected member of the Jackson City Council. Alongside the regular work of the council, I bring my technical background to decisions about the city’s infrastructure and services.

I’ve worked with city staff to overhaul our IT footprint and strengthen security. The city processes utility payments and owns the ambulance service, so protecting those systems and meeting insurance requirements are practical responsibilities.

Public infrastructure

Broadband & Energy

Board service

Current

My IT background also informs my board service with our broadband provider and MRES, our energy provider.

Animal welfare

Jackson County Animal Protection Society

President · Since its founding in 2020

Current

I was elected president of JCAPS when it was founded in 2020 and have served in that role since. We started the organization as residents responding to a gap in local animal control and rescue services.

I also serve on the animal control committee. We hope to work with neighboring towns and counties to establish a joint rescue facility.

Visit JCAPS

Emergency preparedness

CERT / Search & Rescue

Volunteer, instructor & founding member

Past service · Texas

In Texas, I volunteered with New Braunfels CERT and served as an instructor. I was also a founding member of Texas Hill Country Search and Rescue.

I no longer live in that community, but I carry the training, knowledge, and desire to help into my life in Minnesota.