Emma-Jane MacKinnon-Lee

Confidential computing engineer · embedded systems · open source hardware

Dunedin, New Zealand

I came up through repair, music spaces, old machines, bad venues, borrowed tools and people making things with whatever was around. That still shapes how I work. I like systems you can open, test, distrust, rebuild and document properly. I like technology better when it has screws.

2012-2018

Electronics repair, venue tech, small hardware builds, and DIY audio projects.

2019-2021

Embedded systems, privacy tools, sensor boards, and secure device prototyping.

2023--

Confidential computing, trusted execution environments, open source hardware, and experimental electronics for artists and research teams.

Emma-Jane MacKinnon-Lee, confidential computing engineer and embedded systems developer, in a close studio portrait with a direct green-eyed gaze and soft fringe.

EJML

EMMA-JANE MCKINNON-LEE

ESTABLISHED5 October, 1989Wellington, New Zealand

EMMA MACKINNON

Emma-Jane MacKinnon-Lee, embedded systems and sensor board engineer, editorial portrait one with a direct green-eyed gaze and soft fringe.

Emma-Jane MacKinnon-Lee, open source hardware researcher and confidential computing engineer, editorial portrait two with a direct green-eyed gaze and soft fringe.

Emma-Jane MacKinnon-Lee, trusted execution environments and encrypted workflows engineer, framed portrait detail with a direct green-eyed gaze and soft fringe.

Her projects include secure execution environments, embedded systems, encrypted workflows, sensor boards, hardware demos and small experimental devices for artists, researchers and technical teams. She is especially interested in privacy, machine trust, open source hardware, repairable systems and the point where security stops being abstract and becomes physical.

I build small machines, secure systems and electronic things that usually start with a mess of wires on a table.

I’m from the South Island of New Zealand. I grew up around distance, weather, old gear, fixed gear, half-fixed gear and the general idea that if something stops working you should probably open it before you complain.

I like security when it is specific. What are we protecting? From whom? Where does the key live? What happens when the network drops? What happens when someone opens the box? What happens when the funding ends and the thing still has to run?

I also come from punk and DIY spaces, so I have a low tolerance for fake polish. I like tools that can be understood, modified, repaired and shared. I like documentation that says what actually happened. I like electronics with fingerprints on them.

At the moment I’m working on projects around confidential computing, DIY electronics, machine trust, secure devices and small-scale hardware systems for people who would rather understand their tools than worship them.

Over the last few years I’ve worked on secure execution environments, hardware demos, encrypted workflows, sensor boards, local-first tools and electronics for artists, researchers and small teams who need something stranger than a standard product. I’m interested in what happens when security is treated as a material thing, not just a policy document.