I've done full stack work for 10 years, most of it on the parts that never make the demo. It's mainly Laravel and PHP, usually with Vue and MySQL, and WordPress when a client wants to manage their own content. I tend to own the whole build, schema and deploy included. I've worked that way at agencies and on in-house teams, and a claims operation still runs on my code every day.
I started out in PHP and WordPress, writing themes and plugins for small businesses that wanted to run their own sites. That's where I learned to build for whoever edits the page as much as for whoever visits it, and I still work that way.
These days I mostly work in Laravel and Vue. I write a lot of REST endpoints, and I try to design SQL schemas that stay easy to live with as the data grows. In the browser I want JavaScript that holds its frame rate on mid-range hardware. 10 years in, I still put most of my attention on the edges, like the states nobody specced or a query that quietly goes quadratic.
I'm not a designer, and I don't pretend to be one. Give me a Figma file, a Zeplin project or a PSD and I'll build it to match, including the spacing and the breakpoints that fall between artboards. I'll also work out the interactions the comp only hints at. If you need design direction, that should come from a designer.
A fair amount of my work has been about conversion. I've built sales funnels on a custom PHP MVC framework instead of a page builder. On landing pages, the validation and the CRM handoff behind the form matter more to me than the hero image. Underneath both I set up Google Analytics to track the events and goals the business cares about, so a closed lead can be traced back to the spend that brought it in.
All open source
All work
I write server-side PHP. New projects get Laravel, and if you already have a custom framework I'll work inside it. I start with the data model and keep business logic out of the controllers. Third-party integrations get planned into the architecture from the beginning instead of being added late.
I build interfaces in Vue, React and JavaScript, and I match both the technical spec and the design. My components manage their own state and fit together without fuss. Forms and data tables stay fast with production data in them. I also do careful GSAP scroll and transition work, which makes the finished product feel deliberate.
I write my themes from scratch instead of adapting a commercial template. Every editable region runs on Advanced Custom Fields, which lets a marketing team update pages without touching template code. If you sell online I'll bring in WooCommerce. Anything that doesn't belong in the theme goes into a custom plugin.
Launch is only part of the job. I provision LAMP environments and set them up with the right DNS. I profile queries and tune them before they slow the pages down. Existing applications get patches, updates and new features, and I review code with your team so the standards still hold after I hand it over.
These pages exist to bring in leads, so I build them for that instead of starting from a template. The form is the point of the page and the design supports it. I validate in the browser and again on the server, and submissions go straight into whatever CRM you already use. I care about the whole path to a lead you can count. With enough traffic to trust the numbers, I'd rather split-test a change than argue about it.
All services
Sep 2023 — Oct 2026 · Remote
I built and maintained the core software behind the claims operation. It was PHP on a custom in-house MVC framework, with JavaScript and SQL. I connected third-party APIs and services to add what the system needed, and kept the existing applications current with updates, patches and new features. I also reviewed code with the rest of the team to keep the quality up.
May 2023 — Jul 2023 · Remote
Full stack work at a studio. I wrote PHP and MySQL on the server and built WordPress sites for clients who wanted to manage their own content, plus the front-end work that went with them. I took client briefs through scoping and launch, and supported the sites after release.
Dec 2022 — Jan 2023 · Remote
Custom WordPress development. I built the theme from scratch instead of adapting a commercial template, and used Advanced Custom Fields for every editable region so the marketing team could update pages without touching template code. Features that didn't belong in the theme went into custom plugins I wrote, including the integrations that pulled content and data in from external APIs.
May 2022 — Nov 2022 · Remote
I was a front-end engineer on the Lilly Regulatory Requirements Application. I built its complex user interface to spec in React, TypeScript and Material UI, with components that managed their own state and fit together cleanly. The team ran Agile Scrum, and each sprint produced a working increment. I handled troubleshooting and debugging along the way, managed code releases in Git, and wrote code the rest of the team could maintain and extend.
Sep 2021 — Dec 2021 · Hybrid
I built new features in object-oriented PHP and JavaScript, and took sites through planning, development, debugging and launch while working directly with the design and marketing teams. On the WordPress side I handled the whole job for customers. That meant installing it, configuring plugins and widgets, and fitting existing modules together with custom themes, modules, views, functions and hooks. I also built a custom theme on Advanced Custom Fields, Yoast SEO and WooCommerce to meet the business goals behind the brief.
Jul 2018 — Sep 2021 · Remote
I led development on the agency's campaign platforms and the reporting behind them. That meant Laravel APIs and Vue front ends, plus custom WordPress sites the marketing team could run without engineering help, and I kept the SQL fast as the advertising data grew. I worked ACF (Advanced Custom Fields), WooCommerce and a number of other plugins into WordPress themes, and maintained a Shopify site with custom features on top. I set up the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment on DigitalOcean, DNS records included, and tuned sites for usability, SEO, speed and accessibility. Tracking and attribution analysis were mine too, and I set the development standards the team worked to.
Dec 2016 — Feb 2019 · On-site
I built and maintained client sites and the internal tools behind them. Most of it was PHP and MySQL, with WordPress wherever the team managed the content themselves. I owned each delivery myself, client scoping and deployment included.
I'm available now for full-time roles and contract work, remote or hybrid around Lakeland, Tampa and Orlando.
Kenny Baustert · Lakeland, Florida
kenny@kennyb.dev
linkedin.com/in/kennybjr
github.com/kdbaustert
Resume (PDF)
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