Los Angeles, CA

Zachary Buzalski

Engineer, writer, and perpetual student. I design and run infrastructure for enterprise environments, and write in the time between.

01 / About

I'm an engineer based in Los Angeles. Most of my work is designing and running infrastructure for enterprise environments: Mac fleets, cloud, networking, security, and the connective tissue that holds it all together.

I came to engineering through the U.S. Air Force. That experience shaped how I approach systems: build them carefully, test them honestly, and make sure the people relying on them never have to wonder whether they'll work.

Outside of work, I read philosophy and law, write essays, play chess, cook, and train. I tend to take the long way through most things, which is usually where the interesting parts are.

02 / Currently

What I'm working on

Engineering Senior Engineer at Cascade IT, building fleet management, AWS infrastructure, and security workflows for enterprise clients.
Studying Philosophy and law, alongside whatever else holds my attention. A standing list of books and a steady habit of notes.
Writing Essays on what I can't stop thinking about. Most recently, on learning Los Angeles from the inside of a car at 3 AM.
Reading A literary study of Gaddis's The Recognitions, with a few other books always in motion.
03 / Work

Selected experience

Download full resume
2024–now
Senior Engineer
Cascade IT
Architecting fleet-wide macOS management for 100+ enterprise devices, running production AWS infrastructure for ArchivesSpace, deploying Cisco Meraki networks, and leading SOC 2 security reviews end to end.
2022–2024
Principal IT Engineer
Visiting Media
Led organization-wide AI transformation, founded a quarterly AI hackathon program, managed a team of senior engineers with 100% retention over three years, and oversaw $45M+ in enterprise assets.
2021–2022
IT Engineer (Consulting)
Exodus, IO
Designed JAMF and Okta-based infrastructure, led security and compliance initiatives, and built training programs that cut onboarding time by 20%.
2019–2022
Systems Engineer (Contract)
Copado, Inc
Architected the foundational JAMF tenant, guided SOC 2 and ISO certification across a 400+ user environment, and led technology integration during a major enterprise merger.
2016–2019
Business Expert
Apple, Inc
Managed $10M+ in enterprise accounts, advised business clients on Apple ecosystem integration, and led the regional small business team in Chicago.
2013–2016
Operations
U.S. Air Force
Three years of active duty. Training included air traffic control and radio communications.
04 / Writing

Recent essays

Featured
May 2026 · Avoiding Highways
Everyone is a Moron, Except for Me
A satire on intellectual self-regard that slowly turns its aim on the reader, and then on the writer. It starts as a smug catalog of small credentials and ends somewhere more honest: the quiet certainty that we are each the exception is the one thing we all share.
Read on Substack →
Jun 2026 · Avoiding Highways
My Letter to GameScoop
A letter to a podcast he has listened to for thirteen years. On constancy, the comfort of a one-sided relationship, and admiration for people who manage to keep loving their work long after the novelty wears off.
Read on Substack →
Jun 2026 · Avoiding Highways
Damnatio Memoriae
Reading a single weekend of American news through the vocabulary of ancient Rome. Two of the weekend's events already had names the Romans coined, and the essay argues that what people chose to stay up and watch said more than the headlines did.
Read on Substack →
Jun 2026 · Avoiding Highways
I Forgot I Was a Kid
A personal essay on building a future without a past. It opens at an airport the night a marriage ends and works back through an unstable childhood and a memory that never quite holds, asking what a clean slate is worth when you can't remember what was on it.
Read on Substack →
May 2026 · Avoiding Highways
Gardenias
On learning Los Angeles from the inside of a car at 3 AM, and what a city's smell can tell you that its maps never will. A personal essay about starting over, driving surface streets, and the particular texture of a life still assembling itself.
Read on Substack →
May 2026 · Avoiding Highways
Fairytales
On ignorance, intelligence, and wisdom. A conversation overheard at a theater off Wilshire sets up a question worth sitting with: what's the difference between competence and comprehension, and what does it mean that so few people seem to notice the gap?
Read on Substack →
May 2026 · Avoiding Highways
The Matcha Moment
On what it really costs to plant a flag in a cultural moment. Matcha shops are opening across LA faster than any list can keep up with. Most of those flags won't still be there in 2030, and this essay is about why.
Read on Substack →
Dec 2025 · Avoiding Highways
The Accelerated Burden
How modern player development and game speed have transformed NBA injury patterns, and why Michael Jordan playing all 82 games at 40 says less about toughness than it does about a different version of the sport entirely.
Read on Substack →
05 / Reading

On the desk

Currently reading
The Recognitions literary study
William Gaddis
Angel Down
Daniel Kraus
Up next
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
Tunnel 29
Helena Merriman
Recently finished
11/22/63
Stephen King
This is Water
David Foster Wallace
Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
06 / Interests

Beyond the work

Chess

Working back toward a serious rating, one game at a time. Currently building toward 800 rapid as a foundation.

Pokémon TCG

Hunting for Japanese cards with my girlfriend, slowly filling the binder one page at a time.

Philosophy

Drawn to the analytic tradition, questions of ethics and political philosophy, and the overlap between law and moral reasoning.

Cooking

Mostly Mediterranean and Japanese, with weekly meal planning that's become its own small obsession.

Training

Four-day athletic split. Compound lifts, mobility work, and the slow rebuild of a sustainable routine.

Gaming

A long, slow Pokémon Emerald playthrough, learning the mechanics naturally before I min/max anything.

07 / Contact

Say hello