We are thrilled to announce that our first-ever search for a dedicated PyPI Support Specialist has concluded with the hire of Maria Ashna, the newest member of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) staff. Reporting to Ee Durbin, Director of Infrastructure, Maria joins us from a background in academic research, technical consulting, and theatre.
Maria will help the PSF to support one of our most critical services, the Python Package Index (PyPI). Over the past 23 years, PyPI has seen essentially exponential growth in traffic and users, relying for the most part on volunteers to support it. With the addition of requirements to keep all Python maintainers and users safe, our support load has outstretched our support resources for some time now. The Python Software Foundation committed to hiring to increase this capacity in April and we’re excited to have Maria on board to begin providing crucially needed support.
From Maria, “I am a firm believer in democratizing tech. The Open Source community is the lifeblood of such democratization, which is why I am excited to be part of PSF and to serve this community.”
As you see Maria around the PyPI support inbox, issue tracker, and discuss.python.org in the future we hope that you’ll extend a warm welcome! We’re eager to get her up and running to reduce the stress that users have been experiencing around PyPI support and further our work to improve and extend PyPI sustainably.
