Systems Work
For businesses, founders, and investor-visible teams who need their software to outlast the next tool cycle, explain itself to the next engineer, and support real business decisions.
I started building software in high school with PLTW courses and C++. I began contributing production code to business software in 2013, built a PHP framework in 2015, founded Factshift in 2016, founded Student Body for Meaningful Education in 2017, explored factshift as a meditation on phenomena through code while developing the Spw parser in 2019, and was hired as a Senior Frontend Engineer in 2022. factshift remains a useful reference point: an experience people can describe, inspect, clone, and extend. I care about architecture that survives quarters without documentation — and I'm happy to scope out what you actually need rather than what sounds impressive.
As automation gets cheaper, the rare thing becomes systems that stay trustworthy in production. I'd like to model what that looks like for other engineers considering where to put their attention.
What's on Offer
Web Development
Local-first frontend systems built on three reliable layers: a reading layer that search engines and screen readers parse perfectly, a material layer of responsive physics, and a semantic contract layer that lets other engineers trust the work.
Ideal for independent business owners, editorial projects, and organizations that want a site to last five years without rebuilds. Also for illustrators who later want a site like this: readable with JS off, cloneable, priced as work this engine already did. Door: a $750 diagnostic; durable work from $8,000.
Custom Applications
Internal tools, customer-facing products, or specialised workflows. I work alongside your team on the part that needs attention, then leave the codebase clearer and easier to continue.
Scope typically covers one or two production features, including tests, handover, and the memory / time-management blocks that keep the flow legible after launch.
Protocols & Integration Pipelines
SOAP, REST, and the handoffs between them. I map what each side promises, what it actually sends, and where a record changes shape on the way through, then build or repair the pipeline so a failure says where it happened. I have worked closely with protocols since college, and before that in the PHP framework I worked on from 2013 to 2018. My team extends the capacity when a pipeline needs more hands.
The feel for it came from work with a person at every step: processing and filing petroleum research at the Illinois State Geological Survey, sorting electrical components for Electrical and Computer Engineering students, and running cognitive assessment batteries for the Adult Learning Lab. Each taught me to notice where a flow stops carrying what it was given. The dregg.net codebase, which implements protocols of its own, keeps shaping how I design.
QA & Production Support
Loosely-coupled agentic pools can run structured QA passes on your product when the right combination of initiative and capacity is available — functional, regression, accessibility, cross-device, and UX-flow testing when the main question is where a visitor loses the thread before the release ships.
Most useful for teams without dedicated QA, teams running a launch through the 13th/26th rhythm, or scaleups that need evidence about where a path becomes confusing before it becomes expensive.
Consulting & Systems Design
Honest scoping, clear trade-offs, and architectural decisions that will still make sense next quarter. I pay particular attention to what to exclude — most projects are sunk by the wrong inclusions, not the missing ones.
Hourly, retainer, or fixed-scope engagements.
Curricularize Your Codebase
The highest-value systems work is not only building features. It is turning a codebase into a teachable operating surface: contracts are named, events have a vocabulary, timing has a map, and every component can explain why it exists.
Architecture as onboarding
Services, routes, events, and data models should give a new engineer a sequence of concepts to learn instead of a pile of files to memorize. TypeScript is useful here when it turns invisible assumptions into readable contracts.
Business value as traceability
Founders and operators need to know which parts of the system create revenue, reduce risk, or preserve optionality. I make those seams visible so technical decisions can be discussed without pretending every refactor is equally valuable.
Education as maintenance
A durable codebase teaches its own habits. Naming, examples, route structure, and small typed modules should help future contributors understand the work before they have to change it under pressure.
Useful deliverables
A focused engagement can produce a typed event spine, route data map, architecture memo, component rationale register, or onboarding trail through the highest-leverage files.
This is the practical bridge between technical diligence and implementation: identify the parts of the codebase that should become more explainable, then refactor only the seams that pay rent.
Common Questions
What does it mean to curricularize a codebase?
It means refactoring the most important contracts, events, page data, component roles, and architecture notes so the codebase teaches future contributors how it works.
Is this a full TypeScript rewrite?
No. The budget-conscious approach is to type the load-bearing seams first: event payloads, route metadata, runtime boundaries, and shared data contracts.
Who is this useful for?
Founders, operators, technical leads, and small teams that need software to reduce onboarding cost, explain architecture clearly, and support business decisions.
Architecture Advisory
For teams that need senior engineering judgement for a bounded decision or difficult technical transition, without hiring a full-time CTO.
Technical Diligence
Review the codebase, the team, the decisions on the table. A written memo with what I'd do first, second, and not at all. Useful for founders, acquirers, investors, and anyone considering a rewrite.
Architecture & System Thinking
Full-scope design spanning multiple products or domains. I work well with existing engineers — the point is to leave your team stronger, not dependent.
Ongoing Advisory
A standing one-hour weekly check-in, written follow-ups, and access between calls for urgent decisions. Retainer-based, limited capacity.
Rate for this tier is $18,000+ for fixed scopes or $225/hr for advisory work, with retainers typically landing between $4,000 and $8,000 per month. The useful thing to secure is a clear decision surface: what to build, what to delay, and what to refuse.
Part of the long-term value is communication: supporting software engineers with clearer prose, more stable lore, and better memory practices can keep morale up and make a codebase easier to inherit. That same literacy discipline can travel outward to schools, parents, and future teams.
Custom & Hybrid Quotes
Most real systems work doesn't fit a pre-priced box. Hybrid projects — part creator, part systems — are welcome.
Send a paragraph. What you're trying to make, what you've tried, what constraints are load-bearing (budget, deadline, team size, tech stack). I'll return an honest scope and a range within a release cycle or two.
If the project is larger than I can hold by myself, I'll say so and bring in people from the ecosystem rather than either refusing the work or overpromising.
How I Work
Visibility without surveillance: you can see the project state at any time, and you don't have to. I won't route around other engineers or agencies — if you already have someone whose work is good, I'd rather complement it than replace it.
The best version of this business finds me work without putting anyone else out of business. When my pipeline exceeds my capacity, referrals flow back into the ecosystem.
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