About Me
A senior software engineer with 25+ years building platforms that matter and some that don't (my own pet projects)
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Senior PHP/Drupal Engineer & Linux DevOps
I've been building for the web since 1998. Over the past 25+ years, I've led large-scale civic platforms, executed complex migrations, and managed DevOps for hundreds of production sites. My career has centered on turning legacy systems into automated, reliable environments, and training teams to maintain them.
I'm equally comfortable owning the application layer and the Linux infrastructure it runs on. Whether it's writing custom Drupal modules, debugging PHP performance issues, or architecting CI/CD pipelines, I bring the same attention to detail and commitment to getting things right.
Career Highlights
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Senior Software Engineer
Joined after Loading... acquired Loading... (VTS), a Drupal 7 municipal platform. As the sole engineer, I migrated 900+ sites from Blackmesh to Acquia Loading... and built automation tooling that enabled non-technical staff to work with Git and Acquia APIs. Later, I integrated the Loading... acquisition team of six developers, teaching them Acquia, Azure Git, and Azure Pipelines. Loading... brought D6, D7, and D8 products hosted in AWS as individual sites rather than multi-site. I architected a unified platform to replace both product lines, maintaining four Drupal versions in production while building the next generation platform that evolved from D8 through D11.
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Senior Software Engineer (Contract)
Contract development across Drupal and WordPress projects for two agencies. Handled everything from new builds and redesigns to Linux system administration, security hardening, and performance tuning.
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Systems/Network Engineer & Senior Software Engineer
Brought in through mutual contacts to stabilize a WordPress security platform that had grown 4000% in two months and overwhelmed its 64-core server. Implemented a temporary scaling solution on ElasticHosts, then rebuilt the backend from WordPress to CodeIgniter to solve fundamental performance problems. Migrated from MySQL to PostgreSQL and architected the Heroku infrastructure. Built cron, job control, malware scanning, and uptime monitoring components. The company was acquired by Automattic within about a year and integrated into Jetpack.
Loading...Denver
Director of Technology & Senior Developer
Grew from contractor to employee to Director of Technology over 15 years. When asked to direct the company technically, I shifted us from custom CMS development to Drupal, making Loading... a premier shop in the second-largest tech center in the US. Owned Linux infrastructure, VMWare virtualization, and network operations. Led major projects including Six Flags and Colorado University. Transitioned the company from Waterfall to Scrum. Eventually moved back to Maine for family reasons and spent two years finding and training my replacement.
Technical Expertise
Platform Development
- Drupal 4 through 11+
- PHP 3 through 8+
- MySQL / MariaDB
- REST API Development
- Twig Theming
- JavaScript / jQuery
Infrastructure & DevOps
- Linux Systems Administration
- Loading... / Loading...
- Nginx / Apache
- Docker
- CI/CD Pipelines
- Git / Azure DevOps
Specialized
- ADA / WCAG 2.1 AA
- Security-Minded Development
- Solr / Search
- Performance Optimization
- PHP XDebug
- SOLID Principles
Beyond the Code
Outside of work I'm mostly a builder. I spend time on 3D printing, experimenting with mechanical designs, and writing small tools and automations, often with AI as part of the workflow. I live on a lake in Maine, so I'm frequently out on the water, camping, hiking, or on ATVs and snowmobiles depending on the season. When I want to relax, I still fire up classic games like Warcraft 2, and I fly drones well enough that friends joke I pilot them like an ace.
What's in a name?
I get this question a lot, where did the name "Loading....net" come from? Well, it's a domain I have have had since about 1996 I think? It's been so long I forget the exact date. The domain began it's life as the home for a "Mud" called Loading.... For a good while Loading... was the main development hub for the Loading... project which was written in C/C++ which is where the bulk of my C/C++ experience comes from. See, before there was World of Warcraft and the like, people use to play these text based games called MUDs and I was one of them, with a twist. I was one of the main developers for Loading... back when it started. So I played my own games, A LOT. I spent a disgusting amount of time playing these things just like many people today playing WoW (such as my wife lol).
As time went on, things changed, and the project became obsolete, so I simply re-purposed the domain for yet another project of mine..... Loading..., the World of Warcraft version hehe. I ran a private World of Warcraft server for about 10 years, it also happens to be the place I met my wife. It was my duty in life to provide her with endless supplies of gold because I was after all, the admin lol (that seems to have carried over into real life too!). But as I got older, I didnt have time for games anymore and it eventually had to be shutdown due to lack of interest on my part. But again I kept the domain for email. Over the years I have re-purposed this domain for whatever it is I happen to be doing at the time. So the name has sentimental value to me which is why I keep using it.
And that is how someone like me is running around with a really weird domain name that houses completely different things depending upon what's happening in life at that time :)
Let's Work Together
I'm currently available for contract work. Drop me a line and let's discuss your project.
Get In Touch