Software Architecture Consultancy — Taipei
Clinton van Blommestein
The senior architect your Taiwan team can use, and your HQ can understand.
Twenty-four years building production systems on three continents. Now embedded with engineering teams in Taipei — bridging local execution and global decision-making.
Taipei, Taiwan
About
I'm Clinton, a software architect based in Taipei since 2018. I lead architecture for a multi-region platform that serves customers across Asia and Europe, with engineering teams in Taiwan, Israel, and Australia — so the day job is, in practice, keeping architectural decisions consistent across time zones, languages, and engineering cultures. That's the same work I do as an independent consultant.
Three things shape how I work. IDesign methodology means decisions are derived from system volatilities, not pattern-matched. Production scars mean every recommendation has been paid for in incidents, on-calls, and cross-border launches — not whiteboard exercises. And plain English means I can explain why your queue is the wrong abstraction to a CFO, and why the CFO's deadline is the right one to a staff engineer.
I take on one or two new consulting engagements per quarter alongside my ongoing work.
Services
Architecture Review
Independent assessment of existing systems, identifying risks, scalability gaps, and improvement paths.
System Design
End-to-end architecture design for new platforms, cloud migrations, and distributed systems.
Technical Consultancy
Ongoing advisory for engineering teams on architecture decisions, technology selection, and best practices.
Interested in working together? Get in touch.
Core Expertise
C# / .NET
Expert-level proficiency in C# and the .NET ecosystem. Building robust backend services, APIs, and high-throughput applications.
Data & Messaging Architecture
SQL Server, DynamoDB, Couchbase, and NoSQL data modeling. Pub/sub messaging, event-driven architectures, and message queues for high-throughput distributed systems.
Distributed Systems
Designing scalable, fault-tolerant architectures using microservices, message queues, event sourcing, and event-driven patterns.
Cloud Architecture
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional. Designing cloud-native solutions for multi-region production workloads on AWS.
Track Record
35,000 / min
Real-time transactions per minute on platforms I architect — each one validated inline against regulatory and business rules at production throughput.
Asia + Europe
Lead architect from Taipei since 2018, working with engineering teams in Israel and Australia. Production deployments across multiple AWS regions in Asia and Europe.
14M / month
Image delivery service handling 14 million requests per month with zero recorded downtime — on-the-fly transformation serving marketing and brand assets to partner companies worldwide.
TSMC · Microsoft
Taiwanese engineers I've mentored now hold senior engineering roles at TSMC and Microsoft Taiwan — a direct contribution to Taiwan's strategic technology talent pipeline.
Credentials & Education
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Score: 911/1000 (passing: 750). Advanced competency in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure design.
BSc Computer Science – With Distinction
University of South Africa (UNISA). Major: Computer Science & Information Systems. 360 NQF credits.
IDesign Architecture Training – Juval Lowy
Architect's Master Class (2019) · Project Design Master Class (2019) · Architecture Clinic (2020)
Taiwan Permanent Residency (APRC)
Alien Permanent Resident Certificate, held since 2023. Prior recognition under the Taiwan Employment Gold Card (Economy field, 2021–2024).
Community & Speaking
Conference Speaker
Couchbase Connect, Silicon Valley · PASS Data Community Summit · Durban SQL User Group
Couchbase Champion
Recognized for contributions to the global Couchbase developer community.
Frequently Asked
How long does an architecture review take?
Typically two to four weeks of calendar time, depending on system complexity and the number of stakeholders. The deliverable is a written risk register, a prioritized remediation roadmap, and an executive readout.
Do you work remote, or only on-site in Taipei?
Both. Most engagements are hybrid — discovery and key workshops happen in person in Taipei where possible, with the rest of the work delivered remotely. Fully remote engagements are also available.
What size companies do you typically work with?
Companies with 30 to 500 engineers globally, often with regional offices or engineering hubs in Taiwan. Foreign-owned subsidiaries in Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered SaaS companies scaling internationally, and US or European companies operating engineering teams in Asia are the common patterns.
Do you write code, or only design architecture?
My focus is architectural decisions, system design, and engineering judgment — not implementation. Engagements produce designs, decision records, and roadmaps; your team writes the code. Where useful I will write reference implementations to validate a critical path, but I am not a contractor delivering production code.
Can you work with a Mandarin-speaking engineering team?
My working language is English. I don't speak or write Mandarin, so engagements with a Mandarin-only team need an English-speaking bridge — usually a bilingual team lead or engineer on the client side, or a paid interpreter for key sessions. Most foreign-owned subsidiaries in Taipei already operate in English internally, so for that typical engagement shape this isn't a blocker.
How are engagements priced?
Most engagements are quoted as fixed-scope projects against defined deliverables rather than hourly. Architecture reviews and system-design engagements have published starting ranges; retainer and advisory work is priced per month against agreed scope. Specific quotes are provided after a short discovery call.
Get in Touch
我是常駐台北的軟體架構師，目前僅提供英文諮詢服務，敬請見諒。