I’m pleased to announce that, next month, I’ll be joining the fine team at LivingSocial as their first Front End Architect. This will be a challenging new role for me; very different from my previous work as a full-time writer of code.

The role—which is also new to LivingSocial—isn’t rigidly defined. From the outset, I’ll be responsible for representing the concerns of the Front End Development team in high-level conversations, improving collaboration with other disciplines (e.g. User Experience Design), and identifying opportunities to reduce duplicative front-end development efforts across projects. I’ve got a handful of other objectives I’ve been thinking about—accessibility, performance, progressive enhancement (natch)—and I’m excited to talk those over with the team next month.

I’d be remiss in not thanking my good friend Tony Pitale for his support and advocacy on my behalf. If it weren’t for him, this opportunity wouldn’t have happened. Thanks, buddy!

I’m anxious to get started, to dive in, to learn, to teach, to succeed, to fail, to plan, to implement, to iterate… Ultimately, to work to make a better product for LivingSocial’s diverse customer base and to learn as much as I can along the way.

It’s going to be a great—and welcome—challenge.