About — Annie Stevenson

The day job

Platform engineering, mostly.

I'm Lead Platform Engineer at Mantel — an Australian engineering consultancy where I run a team that builds and operates cloud infrastructure for other engineering teams. The actual work is the kind of thing that's hard to describe at parties: distributed systems, observability, internal developer platforms. The short version is that I make it easier for other people to ship software safely.

I'm 27. I learned to code at university and never quite shook the habit. I like systems thinking, calm in chaos, and the part of engineering that involves writing down what you'll do before you do it.

The other thing

How I ended up offshore.

I came to sailing late — first time on a yacht in my early 20s — and discovered, as a lot of engineers do, that the bits I liked about my job were the same bits I liked about a boat. Same problem of incomplete information, same need to make a good decision quickly, same satisfaction when the system you've prepared just works.

I started inshore. Then twilight series. Then ocean races as crew. Then more responsibility. And eventually the realisation that what I actually wanted was a smaller boat, fewer people, more decisions of my own.

That's what double-handed offshore is. Two people. One boat. Everything else is on you. I sail with co-skipper Peter Winter, who's been my sailing partner since 2023 — calmer in heavy weather, better at sail repairs, generally happier in the rain.

The mission

Why a campaign, why now.

There are two worlds I move in — technical leadership and elite offshore sport — and in both of them, the people doing the work still don't look quite like everyone they're working with. The campaign is partly about the racing. It's partly about going to start lines and meeting rooms where you weren't necessarily expected, and behaving as though you were.

Sailing is a wonderful, demanding sport that benefits from more people of more kinds doing it well. So is engineering. The campaign is my small contribution to that — and the website is the educational version, so the next person can have a slightly easier time finding the door.

Start with the learning library →

Speaking & press

Out there talking about it too.

When I'm not on a boat or behind a keyboard, I'm occasionally on a panel or in front of a camera — usually talking about engineering, leadership, or how those things translate to a sport that looks nothing like a tech conference.

If you'd like me to speak at your event or you're working on a story about the campaign, the easiest way in is an email.

Get in touch →

I'm Annie. Here's the rest of it.

Platform engineering, mostly.

How I ended up offshore.

Why a campaign, why now.

Out there talking about it too.

Say hello.