James L.

Founders went out and built whatever they could dream up. And here we are again helping them deploy, maintain, and refactor their vibe-coded apps with real engineering experience. The actual coding was always one percent of the work. When you want to ship and scale anything serious: payments, auth, data integrity, infrastructure that won't fall over at 2 a.m. you need someone with experience beyond coding to handle your tech. That's me. 14,000+ hours on Upwork, $1M+ earned, Expert-Vetted, 100% Job Success across 143 contracts. Background: - 10+ years shipping production SaaS - Next.js, React, Python/FastAPI, Node, PostgreSQL, Supabase - Cloud architecture and DevOps - AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, CloudFront, Lambda, RDS), Terraform, Docker, GitHub Actions - Reverse-engineering legacy systems and getting them running cleanly on modern infrastructure (most recent: $21K, 186 hrs, 5.0 rating) - Performance optimization, security hardening, IAM and backup strategy, compliance work - Full-stack means actually full-stack - components, API routes, database, deployment, the whole system handed over without a babysitter I also work AI-native - not as a separate practice, but as how I build day to day. I run my own business on a custom AI agent system (Claude API, Python orchestration, multi-agent pipelines, MCP). I've shipped autonomous SEO auditors, content publishing pipelines, Telegram-driven operational bots, and proposal-drafting systems. I'm at my best when the project needs both the application code and the infrastructure under it. I'm not the right hire for filling a seat on a sprint team, or for pure code-monkey gigs that bypass architectural conversation. I am the right hire for: - Architecture audits and code reviews - tell me what's broken and I'll tell you why - MVP → production sprints - bringing prototypes up to a deployable, observable, maintainable standard - Cloud architecture, AWS migrations, IaC builds I'm at my best when the project needs both the application code and the infrastructure under it. I'm not the right hire for filling a seat on a sprint team, or for pure code-monkey gigs that bypass architectural conversation. I am the right hire for: - Architecture audits and code reviews - tell me what's broken and I'll tell you why - MVP → production sprints - bringing prototypes up to a deployable, observable, maintainable standard - Cloud architecture, AWS migrations, IaC builds - AI agent integration where the question is "should we" not just "can we" - Performance work - recently took a client's Lighthouse from 64 to 86 in one sprint - Long-term technical partnership for founders who need an engineer they can think out loud with Also building in spatial computing - Three.js, WebXR, location-based experience infrastructure. Personal R&D for now, but happy to pull it forward if your project lives there. If you've got a SaaS that needs scaling, infra that needs un-effed, or a build where the stakes are real — let's talk.