[thrwawy20160421]

Could you elaborate more on what you actually do?

I am really trying to understand how someone is worth $230k+

I am a server-side guy with a CS degree, proficient with C, C++, Java, bash scripting, and some .NET, PHP, Node.js, and I have never gotten close to even $180k in salary, and I have been working for almost 20 years, and I am in the Bay Area.

[canterburry]

First time I made 230K+ was as a contractor at $120/hour. For several years my fees ranged $105-120/hour. My niche were rule engines (Drools, JRules, FICO Blaze) but I came out of the plain vanilla backend Java world and fortune 500s. In fact, that's where I discovered this need. These days I have moved into management and lead 3 dev teams in the Big Data space.

[jtfairbank]

I'm looking for a contractor who knows rules based linear integer programming systems like Gurobi or CPLEX (or open source variants). Can you shoot me an email with recommendations? It's in my profile.

[canterburry]

Sorry to say the only constraints based programmers I know are all PhDs in Operations Research and they run Target's logistics.

[jtfairbank]

We're working with the head of the University of Illinois operations research lab. Would they be interested in the contracting with academic research in mind?