Ship Cloud Projects with a Senior Architect

Introduction

Join this Build & Brew group on Discord!

Build & Brew (B&B) is NextWork's community program where you build alongside a tight-knit group of 4-8 people that commit to meeting up every week.

This is your inside look at Roy's B&B group, called the AI Dojo 🥋 Here’s what the Dojo is building, who’s leading the charge, and how you can join…

Quick Facts:

• ⏰ When: every Friday, 10:00pm CT
• 📍 Where: in the NextWork Discord
• 🧠 What: solutions engineering projects inspired by Roy's real-world cloud experience
• ⭐️ Open for new members - complete this project to apply!

Explore the AI Dojo Format

What is this group learning?

AI Dojo runs on a day-in-the-life format and rotates through 12 solutions engineering domains. Each session picks one domain and Roy guides you over 45 minutes to build something real inside it.

The domains span five major areas of solutions engineering:

• Cloud engineering.
• Software engineering.
• SRE (Site Reliability Engineering).
• DevOps.
• Platform engineering.

What is solutions engineering?

Solutions engineering sits at the intersection of building and problem-solving. Instead of specializing in one narrow stack, a solutions engineer designs and delivers end-to-end systems that solve real business problems.

AI Dojo's rotating format mirrors that breadth. You practice cloud, reliability, delivery, and platform skills in separate sessions instead of staying in one track forever. Every session connects back to the bigger picture of what a solutions engineer actually does day to day.

See what the projects look like

Each AI Dojo session produces a concrete deliverable. Here are the first few projects in Roy's series:

• A secure Terraform network setup.
• A production-ready app.
• A reliability dashboard.
• A delivery dashboard.
• A self-service platform system.

Roy tracks every past session and project here.

Meet Your Build and Brew Master

Meet Roy Piring Jr, your Build Master

Three careers, twenty jobs, no degree

Roy's first job was picking up rocks and debris on a construction site, before moving into physical security and hospitality.

Then Roy moved into a support desk role he took on with no tech experience at all. Three careers and about twenty jobs later, Roy is now a Tech Architecture Manager with 16 years of tech experience behind him - all of it self-taught, on the job, by building.

Since joining NextWork, Roy's also built 200+ projects that's also changed how he works in his day job and in his businesses.

Off the clock ⏰

Roy is a father and a husband. He runs two small businesses on the side on real estate and advisory.

When he's away from his screen, you'll catch Roy competing in sport! Six years of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and recently, club shooting.

Nice Work!

Want to Join This Group?

Here's your checklist:

• Can you commit to Fridays 10-11pm CT every week?
• Are you excited to build in solutions engineering, rotating through 12 domains instead of sticking to one?

If you answered yes to all three, fill out the application form below ⬇️

We'll be in touch within a day - happy building!