I spend more time understanding what to build than writing the code to build it. 25 years of shipping software across clean energy, education, and media.
I've been building things for the web since the late '90s — from auto racing classifieds to clean energy platforms to education technology. The tools have changed constantly, but the work has always been the same: figure out what the business needs and build software that delivers it.
I'm not interested in just shipping features. I want to sit down with the people who need the software, figure out what they actually need, and build something that works so well they forget it's there. That means caring about the architecture underneath as much as the interface on top.
Right now I'm a senior engineer at Guidewell Education, working remotely from the Berkshires. I've never been the kind of developer who stops at the API boundary.
I'd rather spend a day on schema design than a week on query optimization. The best systems I've built started with long conversations — not about technology, but about the problem. What does the user actually need? What does the business care about in six months? Only then do I start thinking about code.
My career arc — ISP sysadmin to DevOps to full-stack to lead engineer — means I'm comfortable at every layer of the stack. I've racked servers in co-location facilities, debugged production MySQL at 2 AM, designed REST APIs, and shipped Vue.js frontends. That range isn't about being a generalist for its own sake. It means when I'm building a backend service, I'm thinking about how it deploys, how it scales, and how the frontend will consume it.
I've worked remotely for over a decade, mostly on small teams where autonomy isn't optional — it's the job. I don't need a standup to stay on track. I communicate clearly, document decisions, and ship consistently.
Building education technology products as a senior engineer, working remotely from the Berkshires, Massachusetts.
Led engineering on multiple clean energy SaaS products from inception to launch, working across Laravel, Spring Boot, Vue.js, and AWS.
Lead developer for the auto classifieds division. Migrated externally hosted sites to internal servers and transitioned legacy platforms to the Laravel framework with zero downtime.
Lead developer and operations engineer on a small team responsible for a large auto racing classifieds site. Managed feature development and cloud/co-located server infrastructure.
Lead developer and operations engineer for a media and hosting company. Built new features and sites, configured and monitored co-located web and database servers.
Challenge: A large, established education services platform needed modernization and new features across multiple international business units — class scheduling, student enrollment, billing, CRM, e-commerce, HR, and recruiting — while maintaining per-tenant customization across distinct client configurations.
Approach: Joined as a senior developer on a large, established Laravel codebase and kept it moving forward. Built new features across domain modules while modernizing the platform — multi-tenant architecture with subdomain routing and isolated databases, background job processing, full-text search with tenant-scoped indexing, Stripe payment processing, and a hooks system for per-client behavior without forking the codebase.
Result: A production SaaS platform that powers daily operations across multiple business units — from enrollment and payroll to deal pipelines and order fulfillment.
Challenge: Energy brokers needed a way to analyze customer utility bills, model savings across renewable asset types (solar, storage, demand management, geothermal), and manage the full sales pipeline from lead intake through project approval.
Approach: Built a multi-tenant SaaS platform with Laravel and Vue.js. Designed a configurable savings calculation engine with scoped formula evaluation, a bill analysis pipeline that extracts usage, demand, cost, and carbon metrics across rate structures, and token-secured PDF generation for proposals and assessments. Added role-based access for brokers and agents, with event-driven email automation at pipeline milestones.
Result: A production SaaS product that brokers use to score renewable energy opportunities, generate proposals, and track commissions — deployed on AWS Elastic Beanstalk with S3-backed document storage.
Challenge: Energy retailers and utilities needed a backend to power customer acquisition, run targeted marketing campaigns driven by real meter data, and track engagement across product offers and rebate programs.
Approach: Built a B2B SaaS API with Spring Boot and GraphQL. Designed an automated meter data pipeline (SFTP ingestion, CSV parsing, scheduled jobs), a campaign delivery engine with scenario-based customer targeting, and a flexible offer system supporting rebates, contracts, and usage-based email outreach. Integrated with AWS S3/SES for file management and delivery, with open and click tracking on every send.
Result: A production platform used by energy service companies to run targeted engagement programs, track customer orders through their full lifecycle, and measure campaign conversions.
Challenge: A high-traffic auto classifieds division was running on legacy code hosted on external servers — difficult to maintain, expensive to operate, and risky to migrate.
Approach: Planned and executed a phased migration: moved hosting to internal infrastructure, then systematically transitioned the codebase from legacy PHP to Laravel — all without taking the site offline.
Result: Completed the full migration with zero downtime for end users. The modernized codebase was easier to maintain and extend.
Challenge: Build and grow the leading online classifieds platform for the performance racing industry — race cars, parts, trailers, engines — from the ground up on a small team.
Approach: Was part of the team from early development through the site's growth into a high-traffic platform. Built features across the full stack — listings, search, user accounts, ad management — while also managing the server infrastructure. Handled both the code and the ops as the site scaled.
Result: RacingJunk grew to over 2.6 million monthly visitors and 70 million page views, becoming the largest racing classifieds site in the industry. The site was eventually acquired by Internet Brands.
I'm always interested in challenging problems and great teams. Drop me a line.