My sabbatical is soon coming to an end, and I am looking for a new job.
In particular, I am looking for a job at a company that would like to sponsor a working visa for me in Japan, where I’d like to relocate within the next year.
If you can sponsor a software engineering visa in Japan and think I might be a good fit, please email [email protected]. Below I’ll recap some of my past work, with more details re: what I’m looking for near the end of this page.
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Hi! My name is Dan Abramov.
I started programming about 20 years ago and then I couldn’t stop—so I’ve been doing software for over 15 years professionally. I’ve dabbled in different languages, but the vast majority of my recent work has been in JavaScript and TypeScript.
Here’s a few things I have worked on over the years.
This year, I’ve been doing consulting, so there isn’t much I can say publicly.
Mostly, I’ve been consulting teams using React on how to approach engineering challenges related to performance and state management in complex apps.
On the side, I’ve been contributing to Terence Tao’s Analysis textbook in Lean.
From 2023 to 2025, I worked on the official Bluesky client app (in React Native). Most of my engineering work focused on improving the app quality, for example:
Some of this work required multi-week deep dives and sprawling refactors.
The Bluesky app is open source; here’s a link to my other merged pull requests.
We’ve used a lot of open source software at Bluesky, and sometimes it could be difficult to trace down where a bug is coming from. Occasionally, I’ve had to do deep dive investigations into the underlying projects to file bugs or fixes there.
In addition to my individual engineering work, I’ve done some engineering management and mentoring on the application team. This included:
I’ve also helped the team explain the AT protocol to a broader community—first in a talk last year, which then crystallized into my recent article called Open Social.
Before Bluesky, I used to work on the React team at Meta (formerly Facebook). Some of the more visible projects I was involved with include:
I’ve also done some other technical work on React over the years, which mostly consisted of fixing bugs and occasionally revamping the build infrastructure.
Outside of my job, I co-created Just JavaScript, which is a half-book half-course introduction to thinking in JavaScript, aiming to be both whimsical and rigorous.
I haven’t done many publicly notable things before getting hired at Facebook, other than accidentally co-creating Redux as a demo for my conference talk.
I’ve previously worked at a small product company that didn’t succeed doing some JavaScript and C#, and before that at an outsourcing firm where I mostly did C#.
I also created React Hot Loader (a very early precursor to Fast Refresh, now built into React), React DnD, and normalizr (which was used by Twitter for some time).
As you can tell from the above, most of my engineering expertise lies in the field of UI engineering, web development in particular, and of course in using React. I’d love an opportunity to share my expertise and to help you create better apps.
I enjoy sharing what I learned, which is why I blog and do talks. Although I prefer when I can work on open source software, this will not be a requirement for me.
Currently I feel most comfortable with JavaScript/TypeScript. I’ve recently picked up some Lean, and working with it professionally seems alluring (if unlikely). I’ve been using LLMs quite a bit recently too and am open to working with them more. In general, I’m open to learning new things on the job (for example, I’ve learned React Native while at Bluesky!) but a new stack may require some ramp-up time.
I care about the quality of what I’m working on, whether it’s an app, a developer tool, or a course. I hope to find a job where caring about quality is appreciated. I know fixing things “the right way” isn’t always possible, but I feel most useful when I’m able to dig into the root causes, and work with others on solving them.
To sum up, I’m looking for a software engineering job… in Japan.
Why indeed!
The honest answer is that the feeling of home has moved, and so now I must try to move along with it. I don’t know how it happened exactly. My wife and I first visited Japan a year ago, staying for a few months in Kyoto. After coming home to London, we realized that something was off, so this spring we came back to Kyoto for a few more months. And now we’re back in Kyoto for a few more months again. (Big thanks to the Vue Fes Japan 2025 organizers for covering our recent flights!)
Paying rent in both cities is expensive, flights are disruptive, and we want to adopt a cat, so we have to choose. We’ve loved spending a whole decade in London, but this decade, Kyoto feels right. The question isn’t whether to move but—can it be?
I haven’t learned Japanese yet, which significantly limits my options. I’ve learned hiragana and katakana during the last trip, so now I’m focused on N5 grammar and vocab. I pick up my speed a bit slowly so I expect Japanese to take me a while.
Since I don’t speak Japanese yet and I’m hoping to relocate to Kyoto, I suspect that the most promising option to obtain a work visa will either be an international company with a Japanese presence, or a Japanese company that permits remote work (I assume there aren’t many tech opportunities in Kyoto itself!) and that does most of the work-related communication in English. (I do hope to get to a fluent level of Japanese eventually, but that will likely take me at least a few more years.)
I know there aren’t many options like this, but fingers crossed. I’m talking to a few companies but I would like to get a better sense of the options—hence this post. My hope is to find a real job that lets me come back with a working visa (rather than as a tourist, like now) and to settle down in Japan for the foreseeable future.
If you would like to explore working with me and can sponsor my work visa in Japan, please reach out via [email protected] and let me know!
And if you know someone who might, any leads and intros are very appreciated.
Thank you.
Dan
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