- 📍 Location: Alameda, CA
- 🔗 Website: zacbowling.com
- 🐶 Dogs: Teddy and Pickle
- 🔗 Day Job: Staff AI Software Engineer @ Modular
- 🎥 TikTok: @YesInMyBackyard
- 🎥 YouTube: @YesInMyBackyard
Zac Bowling is an accomplished software engineer, housing advocate, and civic leader based in Alameda, California. With over two decades of experience in technology and public advocacy, Zac bridges the worlds of software engineering, open-source contributions, and grassroots political engagement.
Zac currently serves as a Staff AI Software Engineer at Modular, focusing on developing innovative AI software and high-performance machine learning infrastructure. Prior to Modular, Zac was an integral part of Google's pioneering Fuchsia OS project, where he played a key role in developing system libraries, drivers, toolchains, and a new Bluetooth stack. He was instrumental in enabling Apple's Swift programming language to run natively on Fuchsia (The Verge).
Zac is a former startup founder and previously held senior engineering positions at notable technology firms, including Apportable (acquired by Google), SeatMe (acquired by Yelp), doubleTwist, Texas Instruments, and Match.com.
- Operating systems and compiler development
- Cross platform development for desktop, embedded, and mobile platforms
- Rust, Swift, C/C++, Zig, and Python
- Packaging, distribution, and deployment
- Security and performance optimization
- Developer evangelism and community engagement
- Building startups
Beyond technology, Zac is deeply involved in civic engagement and housing advocacy. He is currently an elected Executive Board Member and delegate (ADEM) in the California Democratic Party, where he actively advocates for progressive housing policies. He serves on Alameda's Open Government Commission, promoting transparency and accountability in local government.
Zac is a prominent leader within East Bay YIMBY, advocating for sustainable urban development, affordable housing, and zoning reform. His campaign leadership was instrumental in Alameda's Measure A (2019) and Measure Z (2020), both high-profile initiatives aiming to revise restrictive housing laws and allow for more housing.
Zac's advocacy is deeply personal, informed by his own experience of homelessness in his early 20s, driving his relentless pursuit of equitable housing solutions. He has participated actively in legal and grassroots efforts enforcing housing laws across California and is highly recognized for his regional housing leadership, including suing and winning against the State of California's Department of Housing and Community Development for their application of the state's housing laws around the jobs and housing ratio, underestimating the housing needs of the state by hundreds of thousands of units.
In 2021, Zac was among the early founding members of the pioneering Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) at Google. Through AWU, Zac championed labor rights, focusing on unionizing both full-time employees and contract workers, holding tech companies accountable for ethical workplace practices. His leadership and advocacy contributed significantly to amplifying conversations around worker rights within Silicon Valley and beyond.
In 2024, Zac took on a leadership role in the YIMBYs for Harris campaign, organizing a virtual fundraiser that successfully raised over $125,000 to support Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential bid. This event underscored the growing influence of pro-housing advocates in national politics. Building on this momentum, Zac now serves in a leadership capacity with YIMBY Democrats for America, a national organization dedicated to promoting pro-housing policies within the Democratic Party.
His leadership and advocacy efforts have garnered past endorsements from influential leaders, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Assemblymember Mia Bonta, Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, and many other East Bay city councilmembers and unions.
- Executive Board Member of the California Democratic Party
- Open Government Commissioner for the City of Alameda
- Elected 3 times as an ADEM delegate to the CA Dem Party representing AD-18
- Vice President of the City of Alameda Democratic Club
- Northern Alameda County Sierra Club Housing Committee Member
- Lead and Cofounder of East Bay YIMBY
Zac's innovative work and outspoken advocacy have attracted extensive media coverage. He has been featured and quoted in prominent outlets including Wired, The Verge, 9to5Google, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has presented at major tech events, including Mobile World Congress, and appeared on international media such as the Dutch TV show DWDD University.
Zac is also a prolific content creator, with substantial followings on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, where he engages over 140,000 subscribers on issues of urbanism, housing, and policy education.
Zac's broad experience and deep commitment to technology innovation, social advocacy, and community building mark him as a multifaceted leader shaping both digital and physical landscapes.
- Modification of distracting sounds (U.S. Patent 10,133,542), developed during his tenure at Google to intelligently filter distracting noises from audio streams.
- Restaurant management and reservation systems and methods (U.S. Patent Application 20130024273), developed at SeatMe to streamline restaurant operations and customer interactions.
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2023 - present: Modular - Staff AI Software Engineer
- Building AI software and high-performance machine learning infrastructure.
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2021 - present: California Democratic Party - Executive Board Member & DCCC Delegate (ADEM)
- Serving as an elected Executive Board Member (since Mar 2025) and ADEM Delegate (since Jan 2021).
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2025 - present: City of Alameda - Open Government Commissioner
- Serving as an Open Government Commissioner for the City of Alameda.
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2015 - 2023: Google - Software Engineer
- Early member of Fuchsia OS team. Worked on core systems, drivers, toolchains, Bluetooth stack, developer tools/frameworks (Rust, C++, C, Swift, Dart, Go). Also worked on Chrome, Android, and other projects.
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2012 - 2015: Apportable (acquired by Google) - Principal Software Engineer & Developer Evangelist
- Lead developer on Apportable/Tengu SDKs (Objective-C/Swift to Android/other platforms). Ported/reimplemented Objective-C runtime, CoreFoundation, Foundation, etc. Forked LLVM/Clang. Also served as Developer Evangelist.
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2011 - 2012: SeatMe, Inc. (acquired by Yelp) - Lead iOS Developer
- First employee and lead iOS developer for a restaurant reservation system.
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2010 - 2011: View Inc - Founder
- Startup developing mobile apps for local information sharing.
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2009 - 2010: doubleTwist - Senior Software Engineer
- Developed a desktop Music Player.
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2009 - 2010: Seesmic - Software Engineer
- Mobile developer (iPhone and Android developer).
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2006 - 2008: Texas Instruments - Senior Software Engineer (TL)
- Working as part of the Education Technology division, focusing on the development of the latest generation of TI graphing calculators and educational software.
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2005 - 2006: Match.com - Applications Engineer
- Designed and deployed double blind email services with web based frontends. Also was in charge of Win32 and Unix service integration and development in our division.
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2003 - 2005: OnlineISP - Software Engineer
- Software and Systems Engineer for a mid-sized ISP.
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2000 - 2001: Microselect - Software Developer
- Mobile (Palm/PocketPC) and Web based software development for medical practice management software.