Mentorship
Explain the rationale in reviews, share context freely, and help developers build judgment they can use on the next problem.
Lead Software Engineer
Daniel
Porter
I architect and ship production web platforms.
TypeScriptReactNext.jsNode.jsPostgreSQLSystem DesignApplied AI
Twenty years spanning web development, marketing, and software engineering. Hands-on leadership, thoughtful architecture, steady delivery, and practical AI experience that still ships.
20yrs
Engineering across web platforms, products, and teams
10yrs
Leading development and delivery in my current role
3areas
Delivery acceleration, product integration, and team enablement
[01]Profile
The short version
I design application architecture and lead delivery from early direction through launch and long-term ownership. I stay hands-on in the codebase, decide system boundaries, and help developers grow.
My background spans agency teams, ecommerce, digital marketing, enterprise content platforms, and independent products. That range helps me connect product goals, technical choices, and the people who will maintain the system next.
Based in Littleton, Colorado. Husband, father of three, Vermont native, outdoor enthusiast, gardener, and habitual builder of things both digital and physical.
[02]Approach
How I contribute
I stay close to both the strategy and the work, shaping technical direction, contributing production code, and improving how the team delivers.
How I lead
Close enough to the work to make better decisions.
I stay hands-on while leading the broader work, from architecture and developer mentorship to delivery planning and stakeholder decisions.
Technical direction
Design application architecture and standards that work under real constraints and leave systems ready for the next developer to inherit.
Scoping and delivery
Turn fuzzy requests into a practical sequence of decisions, milestones, and releases the team can support.
Stakeholder communication
Explain technical choices without hiding behind jargon, lead client conversations, and build trust around the work.
Cross-functional work
Keep engineering in the same conversation as design, marketing, sales, and leadership so priorities do not drift.
Design eye
Bring a creative background and decades of frontend work to layout, typography, hierarchy, interaction, and polish.
My job is to connect what the team needs with what gets built, then leave the team stronger and the system easier to own.
[03]AI in practice
Experience sets the direction
AI is part of how I work and what I build. Experience helps me recognize where it saves time and where it creates more risk than value.
My workflow
Use AI without lowering the bar
I use Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Grok Build, and Ollama every day. They help me research, plan, prototype, refactor, and debug faster.
Choose the right tool
Agentic tools for planning and multi-file work, autocomplete for flow, and local models when privacy or cost matters.
Controlled velocity
Clear tasks, focused changes, version control, and tests keep faster work understandable and reversible.
Nothing skips review and testing
Generated code earns its place only after I check the behavior, security, performance, and maintenance cost.
In the product
Build AI into useful products
The model is only one piece. Useful AI features also need clear prompts, schemas, validation, fallbacks, memory, cost controls, and an interface people can correct.
Model routing and streaming
OpenRouter provides swappable model access while the Vercel AI SDK supports responsive, token-by-token interfaces.
Structured output
Schema-validated responses turn messy human context into editable forms, workflow state, and reliable application data.
Grounded context
Tavily search, rolling summaries, and user-curated memory give models the right information at the right time.
Across the team
Help the team use it well
AI works better when the team agrees on how to use it, how to review it, and when to leave it alone.
Know when it helps
Use it for work that benefits from fast comparison or iteration, not decisions that need product or architectural ownership.
Review still matters
More output creates more chances to miss security, performance, or maintainability problems.
Keep developers thinking
Help developers use AI without skipping the hard thinking or losing ownership of the code.
AI supports execution, but direction, judgment, accountability, and quality remain driven by experience.
[04]Adaptability
Tools change. Judgment transfers.
I have worked from legacy PHP and ASP through modern TypeScript, containers, and AI systems. The tools change, but state, data flow, failure modes, and delivery still need to be understood.
How I learn a new stack
Map it to fundamentals
I start with familiar questions: where state lives, how data flows, what can fail, and how the system deploys. Then I learn the conventions that make the stack different.
Build an end-to-end slice
A small feature against the actual system teaches me more than an isolated tutorial. It exposes the data flow, failure cases, and deployment path together.
Accelerate with AI, verify and review
AI speeds up research, comparison, and implementation. I review the result and test the behavior so I understand what ships.
The stack on this page is what I ship with today. It is not a boundary.
Picked up, then shipped
PostGIS geospatial search
Learned for HayShare radius search, live in production
Supabase Realtime
Presence, read cursors, and live rooms in CoThinkAI
OpenRouter + Vercel AI SDK
Adopted while the tools were months old; shipped in two products
Docker multi-service fleets
ContainerQuest turns that experience into hands-on labs
Cloudflare Workers
Contact backend and edge delivery for production sites
Stripe
Payments integrated for marketplace workflows
[05]Technical skills
Skills snapshot
A broad full-stack foundation, with current depth in modern web applications, applied AI, content systems, performance, and production delivery.
AI product systems
- AI in products: multi-model routing, streaming UX, grounded search, and memory
- Schema-validated extraction into real workflows, forms, and application state
- Architecture around the model: prompts, schemas, validation, retries, and cost controls
- Human-in-the-loop by default: editable AI output, not black-box automation
- AI features as product modules: bounded inputs and outputs, not chat bolted on
- Daily AI coding tools with review discipline (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Grok Build)
- Team AI standards: when to use tools, how to review, what never ships unreviewed
Application platforms
- TypeScript full stack: React, Next.js, Node.js, end-to-end feature ownership
- APIs and data: REST design, PostgreSQL/SQL models, Supabase auth and realtime
- Application architecture: clear service boundaries, integrations, maintainable modules
- UI systems: reusable components, SSR/SSG/ISR, performance and accessibility
- Content platforms: headless/hybrid CMS, API-first content, large modular publishing
- Legacy modernization: migrate and stabilize older stacks without breaking what people still rely on
Containers, cloud, and delivery
- Working familiarity with AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud: compute, VPC/networking, IAM, storage
- Familiar with Kubernetes for multi-service orchestration
- Vercel, edge functions, and Cloudflare Workers for scalability, speed and security
- GitHub workflows, CI/CD, and production delivery
- Pick delivery by need: multi-service Docker, Kubernetes when orchestration is required, enterprise cloud when the environment demands it
- Docker multi-service fleets, images, service networking, and recovery
[06]Experience
Built for the long term
My longest roles reflect the ownership I bring to products, clients, and teams: a decade in my current role, and systems I still maintain years after launch.
Senior Lead Developer
Twelve Three Media
Jun 2016 to Present
Lead development across an agency client portfolio. Set technical direction, scope complex work, translate tradeoffs, mentor developers, and guide projects from unclear requirements to supported releases.
Technical directionFull-stack deliveryMentorshipDelivery ownershipStakeholder leadershipAnalytics and attribution
2013 to 2017
Web Developer
Boomerang Marketing
Delivered mission-driven web systems for nonprofit organizations in a small collaborative team, concurrent with independent practice.
2013 to 2017
Owner, Web Designer & Developer
Dan Porter Web Development
Independent practice alongside agency work: discovery and design through delivery and support.
2012 to 2015
Owner & Operator
Denver Washer Dryer
Built and ran a local appliance business with live inventory listings, SEO, and a polished digital presence.
2011 to 2012
Web Developer
Airiam
Modernized and maintained legacy PHP and ASP applications alongside CMS-driven sites.
2007 to 2011
Lead Web Developer
Shero Commerce
Joined as the founding developer and established the company's early commerce and CMS platform foundation.
Education: BFA, Computer Art, Savannah College of Art and Design
View full resume[07]Selected products
Ideas made tangible
These started with problems I wanted to solve. Building them also gives me a place to test architecture and new tools against actual product needs. Click any card for the full breakdown.
More in the workshop
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