About
Chicago-based.
Full-stack curious.
Fifteen years closing the gap between understanding a problem and shipping the answer.
Born and raised in Chicago — Rate Field (Comiskey, forever), Soldier Field, the whole thing. That city shapes how I think: direct, practical, not interested in work that doesn't connect to something real.
Professionally I sit at the intersection of design and engineering, and I've been there long enough to see what goes wrong when the two are separated. The handoff problem is real. Someone understands the users, someone else designs the system, a third person writes the code, and by the time it ships the original insight is three translations removed from the product. I've built my career being all three of those people.
Right now I'm at AHEAD building Hatch, an enterprise IT lifecycle management platform, in Elixir, Phoenix LiveView, and React. I own features from the first conversation about requirements through to code running in production.
Before that I spent nine years at NFI Industries leading the design and engineering of a Transportation Management System now used company-wide. Built the design system, owned the architecture, mentored the team, presented to the C-suite. End-user workload dropped by more than 50%, which is the kind of outcome that makes the work feel worth it.
How I work
Research first
I don't start with a solution. I start with what people are actually trying to do — contextual inquiry, task analysis, stakeholder sessions before a line of code.
Own the full cycle
From the first conversation about requirements through production deployment. No handoffs means no translation loss.
AI-augmented daily
Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot — not as novelty but as a genuine shift in how I allocate thinking. More architecture, less rote implementation.
Write for the next person
Code, docs, design decisions. If it isn't captured, it only exists in someone's head — and that person might leave.
Critique as practice
The best teams I've worked on had honest design reviews. I bring that discipline to engineering work too.
Direct communication
Midwest-practical. I'll tell you what I think and I want you to do the same. The best outcomes come from that.
Outside the work
Street photography
Chicago's architecture, neighborhoods, and the moments between moments. I shoot mostly on streets, in stations, and from rooftops.
Drone & aerial
Sending the drone up to find the shots that aren't visible from the ground. A different lens on familiar places.
Chicago sports
Bears, White Sox, Bulls, Hawks. Rate Field will always be Comiskey. The Bears are going to be good soon. I believe this.
What I'm looking for
I'm open to the right opportunity. Here's what that actually looks like.
Forward-Deployed or Staff Engineer Roles
Positions where owning the full cycle matters. I want to be in the room where the problem gets defined and still be the person writing the code that solves it.
Complex Domains Worth Understanding
The most interesting engineering problems I've worked on came from industries with real operational complexity — logistics, enterprise IT, finance.
Teams That Take AI Seriously
Not teams chasing the trend, but teams genuinely rethinking how they work. I've been deep in AI-assisted development for over a year and I'm looking for environments where that mindset is shared, not sold.
Engineering and Design at the Same Table
Companies where the people who understand users and the people who write the systems are in the same conversation. The best products I've shipped came from that proximity.
Remote or Chicago-Based
I've worked distributed for years and I'm good at it. Clear communication, solid documentation, real outcomes. Also in Chicago and open to hybrid if the work is right.