Devin Owen

Staff Software Engineer

Devin is a full stack software engineer with a strong product, design and user experience focus. Along with enterprise engineering experience, he has worked as founding and principal engineers at startups from fin-tech to health-tech. Most recently, he cofounded Savviest, an AI-augmented career platform for job seekers and students. He’s passionate about AI, thoughtful user experiences and the role technology has to play in making our world better.

Why PAIRIN? Simple: PAIRIN shares my values and dedication toward advancing economic equality. I started Savviest to democratize access to great careers and economic mobility, and there’s no better company in which to continue that journey than PAIRIN. I was immediately struck by the CEO's commitment to PAIRIN’s mission and his laser focus serving the job seekers who need it most. When I met the rest of the team and saw how everyone lives their values, the choice to join PAIRIN was obvious. This was a place that I could come to work authentically while continuing to build cutting-edge tech that will advance our collective mission.

Who/what has been your greatest teacher? The single most important mindset I’ve had in my professional career has been to “take the leap”. It’s never easy to change careers (I went from neuroscience research to software engineering) or to start a new business (Savviest), and I was consistently worried that I wasn’t ready before jumping into both. But lessons from my most impactful college professor — Bryan Detweiler-Bedell — kept coming back: If you want to do something, jump in. While at Lewis & Clark College, he had convinced me to found a brewery, to jumpstart the college’s first entrepreneurship program, and so much more that I wouldn’t have even considered without his encouragement to just do it. That experience left me with the indelible feeling that to accomplish anything special, you can’t wait until everything happens to line up perfectly — it never will. Instead, take the leap!

Things you love: Road trips around the U.S. and flights around the world. Hiking with my wife and dog in the Oakland hills. Brewing the very best coffee and sharing it with friends and family. Pushing the limits on technology, AI and web development.