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How I engineer resilient systems at scale
My Story
I’ve long been fascinated by tech, and I love to play at the “bleeding” edge—testing new AI models, pushing the limits of new frameworks, and running in-progress software.
I’m a full-stack software engineer who has used countless frontend frameworks and CMS platforms, launched products, and run open-source teams. But this practice isn’t about chasing trends; it’s about a deep, almost obsessive focus on stability, security, and scale. And running platforms that serve millions means responsible stewardship.
Much of my career has been anchored around enterprise WordPress. I sometimes say you have to treat it like both a ballerina and Fort Knox. Give it the right training, and it’ll perform with the grace of a prima ballerina in The Nutcracker. But the paradox of being the world’s most popular open-source platform means it’s a massive target, and it must be hardened like a vault.
The same is true for modern JavaScript frameworks; the convenience of APIs can create security and privacy vulnerabilities, and a poorly optimized React app can cripple performance—an issue I’ve spoken about on the global stage at both WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US.
I believe we must battle-test theories before they ever touch a client’s production server. As a child, I took apart random items anytime my parents left screwdrivers out, just to understand how things work.
Today, I often reverse-engineer systems to gain a better understanding of where they stand, what opportunities remain, and where their failure points exist. The result is trust in place of fear, documented clarity in place of “move fast and break things,” and profound reliability for the work we’ve done.
Case Studies
Good software engineering
isn’t just about writing reliable code;
it’s about building trust at a massive scale.
1. The Cultural Migration: Preserving Rolling Stone’s 50-Year Archive
The Narrative: When Penske Media acquired Rolling Stone, they faced a monumental task: migrating 50 years of iconic journalism from a legacy system to WordPress VIP without losing a single article. My role was to lead the strategic discovery, acting as the translator between the editorial staff, who revered the archive, and the engineering team, who had to build its new home.
As head of product and partnerships for the team in charge, we orchestrated the taxonomy mapping and content modeling, ensuring the cultural DNA of the magazine was preserved while building a faster, more secure, and more usable platform for the future.
Keywords: Legacy Modernization, WordPress VIP, Data Migration, Editorial Workflow, Stakeholder Management.
2. The Ecosystem Scale: Product Strategy for Google’s First WP Plugin
The Narrative: Google’s “AMP for WordPress” plugin wasn’t just a piece of software; it was a global ecosystem serving over 600,000 websites. As the product lead, my job was to steward its growth responsibly. I managed the public roadmap, triaged community feedback on GitHub, and communicated between Google’s internal engineering teams and the vast open-source world. It was a masterclass in balancing corporate goals with community trust, scaling a product that reached millions of users daily.
I spoke at countless conferences, boardrooms, meetups and the like—From Australia to Chicago, from London to Poland—on building websites and content for a user’s delight and with performance in mind.
Keywords: Product Management, Open Source, Ecosystem Strategy, Cross-Functional Leadership.
3. The FinTech Overhaul: Moving OFX from Sitecore to WordPress
The Narrative: Moving a financial services platform is the ultimate high-stakes migration. OFX needed to move from a proprietary .NET system (Sitecore) to a more flexible open-source platform without compromising its Fort Knox-level security. I led the technical discovery, architecting a hardened, enterprise-grade WordPress solution and creating a meticulous migration plan that de-risked the entire process. We proved that with the right architecture and a paranoid attention to detail, open-source is more than ready for the demands of FinTech.
Keywords: FinTech, CMS Migration, Enterprise Security, Sitecore, Solution Architecture.
4. The Performance Mindset: A C-Level Conversation
The Narrative: Website performance isn’t a feature; it’s a foundational business metric. In my talk at WordCamp Europe and in my work with platforms like Pantheon, I’ve focused on translating technical jargon like “Core Web Vitals” into C-level language: revenue, retention, and risk. I’ve helped clients like Heavy.com and EatThis.com understand the direct link between milliseconds of load time and millions in ad revenue, shifting the conversation from a developer concern to an executive priority.
Keywords: Performance Engineering, SEO, DevOps, Core Web Vitals, Public Speaking.
5. The Global Publisher: Strategy for News Corp & Dow Jones
The Narrative: How do you create a cohesive technical strategy for a media empire? Working with News Corp and its properties like The Wall Street Journal required a deep understanding of multi-brand architectures.
My role was to provide strategic guidance to the Global team, I helped the many News teams navigate the complexities of shared CMS platforms, distinct editorial needs, and massive-scale traffic. It was about creating repeatable patterns and systems that allowed their world-class journalists to do their best work without fighting the technology.
Keywords: Enterprise Strategy, Multi-site Architecture, Stakeholder Management, Digital Publishing.
LET’S BEGIN THE WORK.
My approach is designed to apply the right lens to your specific challenge. Whether your world is measured in NPS, market share, visual impact, or cultural heritage, the process begins with a clear, strategic conversation.