Selected projects across legacy modernization, architecture, team recovery, and technical
strategy.
DevEx6 months
From 20% Pipeline Completion to 30-Second Feedback
A major professional services firm's internal engineering team
Market: Professional Services
Problem
A critical internal project had a dysfunctional team and a broken CI pipeline with an at-best 20% completion rate and 15-30 minute run times. PR review dwell time was killing developer experience and velocity.
Approach
Rapidly assessed team deficits and created a cross-functional plan using a document → discovery → act flow. Replaced the broken pipeline with efficient GitHub Actions. Then led broader architectural decisions, resetting the team into established microservice design patterns.
Outcomes
•CI feedback in 30 seconds (down from 15-30 minutes)
•Pipeline completion rate from 20% to consistent passes
•MonoDatabase decomposed into per-service micro databases
•Sustainable delivery cadence established
Tech stack
GitHub ActionsMicroservicesNode.js
Team RecoveryFeatured4 weeks initial, extended engagement
20-Person Team Turnaround in 4 Weeks
A healthcare technology company
Market: Healthcare
Problem
Joined to augment development but quickly identified a lack of technical leadership and a team in crisis. A critical client relationship was at risk due to missed deliverables and low morale.
Approach
Stepped up into a leadership role. Addressed team dynamics, concerns, and fears directly. Simultaneously worked with stakeholders to identify the highest-value bugs and features, then prioritized and managed delivery.
Outcomes
•20-person team reset and shipping in 4 weeks
•Critical client relationship repaired
•High-value items delivered on time as promised
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQL
ArchitectureFeatured8 weeks
40% Data Storage Reduction in 8 Weeks
A leading e-commerce design-to-consumer platform (Rails monolith)
Market: E-commerce
Problem
A lopsided database where most tables had mid-8-figure row counts, but two tables were in the billions. This created challenges in appropriately sizing and resourcing the data store, driving up costs and degrading performance.
Approach
Developed a series of queries to convert vertical semi-relational data into a de-normalized form on the parent record. Executed the migration while the platform continued to serve production traffic.
Outcomes
•40% storage reduction (50GB reclaimed)
•Significantly smaller database memory footprint
•Improved query performance on affected tables
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQL
Architecture4 weeks assessment, ongoing advisory
Existential Risk Assessment for a $100M ARR Business
A large direct-to-consumer e-commerce company ($100M ARR)
Market: E-commerce
Problem
The company identified an existential risk to their business and had started to address it, but needed an outside perspective to properly scope the problem and plan the response.
Approach
Performed an outside-in analysis of the situation. Compiled a detailed report and board deck identifying the exact shape of the problem. Then worked with the VPE to build action plans for resourcing, budget, and development cycles.
Outcomes
•Clear problem definition presented to leadership and board
•Replacement architecture plan with resourcing and budget
•Development cycle roadmap to eradicate the risk
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsAWS
Legacy Modernization6+ months
Rails 5 → 6 Migration Without Stopping the Train
A unicorn-sized startup with dozens of engineering teams
Market: Technology
Problem
A large Rails 5 application with significant home-grown functionality that needed careful migration to Rails 6 APIs — while dozens of teams continued to build and ship features without interruption.
Approach
Systematically identified and disconnected home-grown functionality, migrating it to Rails 6 native APIs. Designed the migration path to avoid blocking any team's feature work.
Outcomes
•50% of custom functionality migrated in first 6 weeks
•Zero interruption to feature teams throughout migration
Tech stack
Ruby on Rails
Tech Debt3 weeks assessment + implementation
20% Infrastructure Cost Reduction
An established consumer-focused publishing company
Market: Publishing / Media
Problem
A Node/React application that couldn't scale quickly and had high infrastructure costs, limiting the company's ability to grow.
Approach
Spent three weeks investigating the product and infrastructure, identifying areas of focus. Worked with in-house engineering teams to create and execute an action plan.
Outcomes
•20% reduction in ongoing infrastructure costs
•Pathway to faster build and deployment times
•Improved scaling capability
Tech stack
Node.jsReactAWS
ArchitectureFeatured16 months
250% Performance Improvement Before Black Friday
A two-sided marketplace connecting product creators with boutique sellers
Market: E-commerce / Marketplace
Problem
A Rails/React marketplace needed to scale for seasonal traffic spikes (Black Friday/Cyber Monday) while simultaneously building out engineering practices, observability, and data strategy from scratch.
Approach
Led platform architecture and core platform team. Established SRE practices (monitoring, alerting, observability) within 3 months. Ran multiple rounds of performance optimization. Deployed FiveTran and Snowflake as the foundation of a data strategy.
Outcomes
•250% system performance improvement
•Infrastructure costs reduced to handle seasonal spikes sustainably
•SRE practice established and team trained within 3 months
•Data strategy operational (FiveTran + Snowflake)
•Hiring flow improved 30% through revamped process
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsReactPostgreSQLSnowflakeFiveTranDatadogAWS
Data StrategyFeatured3 weeks initial, 18 months total engagement
Event Pipeline and Audit Dashboard in 3 Weeks
A leading retail communications SaaS platform
Market: Retail Technology
Problem
Millions of events stored in the production database, impacting performance and making it difficult to gain operational insight into platform usage across major retail and grocery brands.
Approach
Led development and deployment of a Kinesis → Parquet → DynamoDB event pipeline, migrating millions of events off production. Established data management practices across the engineering team.
Outcomes
•Complete event pipeline operational in 3 weeks
•Audit dashboard delivered for customer visibility
•25% reduction in new customer onboarding time
•Production database load significantly reduced
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsAWS KinesisApache ParquetDynamoDBPostgreSQL
Legacy Modernization13 months
250K Lines of PHP → 16K Lines of Rails
A media technology company (TV network metadata services)
Market: Media / Entertainment
Problem
A bloated 250,000 KLOC PHP application serving as the media metadata API, running against a legacy database schema. The codebase was unmaintainable and couldn't support evolving business needs.
Approach
Led a tactical team to rebuild the API as a fully tested Rails application on the same legacy database and schema. Simultaneously delivered a robust SAML authentication scheme supporting federated auth across dozens of TV networks.
Outcomes
•250,000 KLOC reduced to 16,000 KLOC — fully tested
•Federated SAML authentication across dozens of networks
•Same legacy database, new maintainable codebase
Tech stack
Ruby on RailsPHPSAMLPostgreSQL
Architecture12 months
Rapid Prototyping for Agency Clients
A digital agency startup
Market: Agency / Professional Services
Problem
Agency needed future-looking prototype applications and proof-of-concepts to demonstrate strategic ideas for their clients, plus a production performance metric tool for a UK accounting firm.
Approach
Built multiple proof-of-concept applications. Authored SSO integration for the performance metric tool, enabling several thousand employees to use the system without prior account data.
Outcomes
•Multiple client-ready prototypes delivered
•SSO integration supporting thousands of employees
Tech stack
Node.jsReactSSO/SAML
Architecture3 months
From Prototype to Seed Funding
An early-stage sports trading card marketplace
Market: E-commerce / Startup
Problem
An unlaunched startup needed to rebuild their prototype product to secure funding and validate their market.
Approach
Selected Node.js/React/MongoDB stack for rapid iteration. Built a demonstrable product from scratch enabling initial sales and investor demos.