Once a Rōnin, Always a Rōnin. A Conversation with Software Developer Austin O’Byrne

Some people find their way to a career in tech through a perfectly mapped-out plan. Austin O’Byrne is not one of those people, and that’s exactly what makes his story worth telling. 

Austin is a software developer at Rōnin Consulting, currently embedded with a defense client and six years in with the company. He joined in March 2020, has worked across healthcare, distribution, and defense since, and shows no signs of going anywhere. As it turns out, when the culture fits, and the owners are as invested in your growth as you are, six years go by fast. 

From Thompson Station to the Air Force to UTC 

Austin grew up in Thompson Station, TN, and graduated from Independence High School in 2013. Right out of high school, he enlisted in the Air National Guard. Not because he had a grand military calling, but because he needed a practical way to pay for college. While most of his classmates were headed straight to a college campus, Austin spent 2014 in basic training, then shipped off to technical school at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS, where he trained as a server IT technician. 

He didn’t start college until January 2015, enrolling at UTC for a computer engineering degree, a hybrid program that split time between computer science and electrical engineering. That meant writing code and soldering circuits in a lab.  

“We’d put wires in the breadboard, test the circuit, and solder it all togetherr before turning it in,” he said. “I wish it were a lot cooler than it sounds. I was basically just building circuits that added binary digits.” 

Along the way, he also picked up an internship at TVA, mostly setting up desktops and watching the real IT guys work, but it gave him a foothold and made him realize what he wanted to do in his career, and what he didn’t.  

How he made his way to Rōnin 

After UTC, Austin landed a full-time role at Northrop Grumman in Huntsville, AL — a defense contractor gig that required a security clearance and meant showing up to a secure systems integration lab every day. It was not a remote gig, and he couldn’t have any outside connections.  

He worked there until early 2020, then interviewed at Rōnin in February and got the offer in March. He moved back to the Nashville area, bought a house in West Nashville, and has been there ever since. 

Since joining Rōnin, Austin has worked across several client engagements, and it’s the variety, he says, that keeps him engaged. 

“It’s nice when I get to jump around. Staying somewhere too long, I just get kind of tired of it.” He says. 

But the variety isn’t the only reason he’s stayed with Rōnin. “The people are great. The owners have been very good to me. It’s hard to want to leave.”