Building
I stay close to the work — system design, APIs, pipelines, frontends. Attention to detail shows up in edge cases, error handling, and the small decisions that keep production quiet long after launch day.
Hi! My name is Lex, and I build things, mentor engineers, and share what I've learned.
I'm an engineering leader who still loves being hands-on — designing systems, writing code, and helping others grow. I also coach early-stage startups and entrepreneurs on technical decisions, team building, and shipping without over-engineering. I care about secure, well-crafted software, and I get as much satisfaction from a great mentoring conversation as from a production launch.
What I care about
Build well. Grow people. Share generously.
Whether I'm architecting a platform, pairing with an engineer, or writing a handover doc — the through-line is the same: identify what matters, build the simplest thing that solves it properly, secure it for the compliance context it lives in, and leave the team smarter than you found it.
Mentoring & coaching
Growing engineers is part of the job — through code reviews, architecture discussions, and creating space for people to own complex problems. I also coach early startups and entrepreneurs on technical strategy, prioritization, and building the right thing first, without burning runway on the wrong architecture.
Knowledge sharing
Playbooks, audit methodologies, onboarding packages, and internal docs that outlive any single project. Good engineering culture is built on what gets written down and passed along — not what stays in one person's head.
Security by design
PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2 aren't checkboxes — they shape how you store data, draw API boundaries, handle identity, and design audit trails. I also run ongoing security audits for clients individually — each engagement scoped to their stack, threat model, and compliance context, not a generic checklist.
Value-first & cost optimization
Focus on business tasks that deliver the most value — not every problem needs a large initiative or heavy resource spend. Right-sized solutions, fewer moving parts, and smarter cloud choices are how cost optimization happens naturally.
In practice, those values run straight into the same constraint every software team faces — delivery pressure, finite budget, and the expectation that the result still has to be good.
The delivery tradeoff
Good, fast, cheap — the general problem of building software.
Stakeholders want all three: quality you can stand behind, speed to market, and cost that doesn't spiral. The classic model says pick two and sacrifice the third. Most teams do — sometimes explicitly, more often by accident when scope, timeline, or budget shifts mid-flight.
I don't think the answer is pretending you can have everything. It's being deliberate about the tradeoff — and knowing when there's a fourth option. Try the widget below.
Good, fast, or cheap
Pick any two — see what happens to the third.
The classic tradeoff — pick two strengths, and accept the third won't be the priority.
What if there's another option?
Selected work
Projects that compound over time.
Ongoing engagements I lead today, plus a showcase of platforms and products built across enterprise, media, medtech, consulting, and independent work.
Ongoing work
Active engagements and platform work I lead across clients and teams.
Client Security Audits
Consulting · Ongoing
Ongoing security audits scoped individually for each client — reviewing application architecture, data flows, access controls, infrastructure, and compliance posture against PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2 requirements. Every engagement starts from the client's specific stack and regulatory context, with prioritized findings and actionable remediation guidance.
- Outcomes
- Per-client audit reports tailored to stack, threat model, and compliance needs
- Risk-prioritized findings teams can address incrementally
- Repeatable audit cadence to track security posture improvement over time
Engineering Mentorship & Startup Coaching
Across roles
Ongoing mentorship of engineers and coaching for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs — pairing on architecture, helping founders prioritize technical bets, and building teams that ask 'why' before reaching for the complex solution.
- Outcomes
- Engineers promoted into senior and lead roles
- Startup founders gained clarity on build-vs-buy and MVP scope
- Teams confidently owning production systems independently
CI/CD Pipeline & Developer Tooling
Enterprise
Built CI/CD pipelines and application support tooling — replacing manual deployment runbooks with automated, observable workflows. Mentored engineers on pipeline design and operational best practices.
- Outcomes
- Faster, safer releases with repeatable deployment gates
- Purpose-built monitoring reduced mean time to detect
- Less engineer time spent on manual ops — more on building
REST API Platform & Integrations
Enterprise
Multiple REST API services and third-party integrations with explicit contract boundaries, error handling, and security review — decoupling systems that previously relied on brittle point-to-point connections.
- Outcomes
- Integration reuse lowered cost of adding new partner connections
- Clear API contracts improved cross-team delivery predictability
- PCI and HIPAA considerations baked into data handling patterns
Project showcase
Platforms, products, and programs delivered end to end.
Benefits & Enrollment Platform
Enterprise healthcare
Large-scale CRM/CRS platform for commercial and Medicare enrollment — mission-critical member-facing infrastructure. Technical leadership across delivery, architecture, and mentoring engineers through complex regulatory and product constraints.
- Outcomes
- Unified enrollment workflows across multiple product lines
- Clearer service boundaries reduced cross-team coordination overhead
- Sustainable release cadence on a high-stakes production platform
Accountless Enrollment Architecture
Enterprise healthcare
Architecture for compliant electronic enrollment without requiring a consumer account — HIPAA-aligned storage, verification guardrails, and pragmatic identity patterns instead of over-engineered proofing that would hurt conversion.
- Outcomes
- Security and compliance guardrails designed before workflow, not after launch
- Phased MVP approach for controlled rollout without big-bang risk
- Shared architecture doc became reference material for the broader team
Multi-Cloud Migration Program
Enterprise
Led migration of heterogeneous applications — different storage types, data structures, and stacks — onto AWS and GCP. Established standardized patterns and tooling that replaced one-off infrastructure sprawl across the organization.
- Outcomes
- Consolidated fragmented hosting into managed cloud services on AWS and GCP
- Repeatable migration playbook reused across subsequent application moves
- Right-sized compute and storage improved long-term operational efficiency
Identity Provider & SSO Integration
Enterprise
Enterprise identity provider integration and single sign-on across application boundaries — reducing credential sprawl, tightening authentication surfaces, and aligning with Zero Trust principles for internal and external-facing systems.
- Outcomes
- Centralized authentication eliminated duplicate login flows
- Stronger identity posture across the application portfolio
- Fewer credential-related support incidents
Vitality — Operational Intelligence
Independent
Deterministic analysis platform for identifying inefficiencies, waste, and profitability opportunities in normalized business data — built with repeatable outputs, CSV ingestion pipelines, and a publication gate before findings reach stakeholders.
- Outcomes
- Structured path from raw business data to verified impact metrics
- Deterministic engine avoids black-box recommendations
- Designed for cost-of-waste visibility, not dashboard theater
RYAH Smart Inhaler Platform
RYAH Group
Management platform for the RYAH Smart Inhaler — an IoT-connected dry herb vaporizer used in clinical trials and medical cannabis programs across the UK, US, EU, and beyond. Built and operated the full tooling stack: mobile app services, RYAH MD prescriber portal, data warehouse for device and usage analytics, user administration, and cloud infrastructure — all supporting HIPAA-compliant patient data and fleet-scale device management.
- Outcomes
- End-to-end platform linking IoT devices, mobile app, and prescriber-facing web portal
- Data warehouse aggregating inhalation events and dosage metrics for clinical insight
- User admin and infrastructure scaled for multi-country trials and device fleet operations
MIT Solve Challenge Platform
Atlantic Media / MIT Solve
Full-stack Laravel platform powering MIT's global innovation challenges — Elasticsearch search, S3 + CloudFront CDN, background workers for exports, and role-based access. Dockerized dev environment for consistent team onboarding.
- Outcomes
- Scalable CDN-backed content delivery
- Secure admin exports with automated S3 purge policies
- Multi-role auth supporting judges, leaders, and admins
Micro-Frontend Monorepo
Paramount Streaming
Domain-driven micro-frontend architecture for streaming experiences across web and Chromecast — Module Federation, Apollo GraphQL, and a shared design system, plus automated worktree setup, codegen pipelines, and a single-source-of-truth AI rules architecture for multi-tool development.
- Outcomes
- Independent deployable frontends for web and Chromecast without sacrificing UX cohesion
- Shared tooling and docs reduced duplicate setup across teams
- Worktree automation cut environment bootstrap time for parallel work
GTM Audit Methodology & Skills Package
Consulting
Consent-first Google Tag Manager audit pipeline packaged as Claude Code skills — container analysis, dataLayer diagnostics, pixel verification, and onboarding docs. Built to transfer methodology, not just deliver one-off audits.
- Outcomes
- Repeatable audit-to-verification workflow for contractor onboarding
- Knowledge transfer package operational in under an hour
- Audit-before-build principle avoids redundant tracking implementations