I build &
modernize
complex webplatforms
A senior engineer with twenty years of experience ready to lead your next project, get a prototype over the finish line, or contribute to a team that needs a trusted technical partner.
WordPress, Next.js, Astro, TypeScript, React, Drupal, Sanity, PHP, Node.js, Platform migrations, Headless CMS
15+ yrs
Where I'm useful
Platform modernization & migrations
Auditing and upgrading aging CMSs, consolidating platforms, migrating content, rebuilding frontends, creating maintainable foundations with tooling and documentation.
Prototype to production
Lovable, Bolt, v0, or Cursor prototype review and product release. I'll take your concept to completion and ship it with proper auth, data, security, and deployment process, ensuring it can be managed into the future.
How it works →Senior engineering
Hands-on development for WordPress, React, Next.js, Astro, TypeScript, and headless architectures. Embedded with your team or developing your project.
Fractional technical & product lead
Discovery, requirements, architecture, UX direction, vendor coordination, and code review. For teams that need a senior engineer with product and design experience.
Selected work
Proposal builder →
A client's Lovable prototype, taken to production with auth, a database, and a review-and-confirm workflow.
React · TypeScript · Supabase · Vercel · Resend · Lovable
Drupal → WordPress →
Moving 25,000 posts off an end-of-life Drupal platform.
Drupal · WordPress · Migration · AI-assisted tooling · WP-CLI · MySQL
Vacation rental platform →
Discovery, design, and front-end build for a high-volume booking site
Next.js · TypeScript · Drupal · Salesforce · UX/UI
The lab
Side projects, prototypes, micro tools and notes.
Vinyl Scan
A local-first app for photographing, identifying, grading, and triaging a record collection, built around buying whole collections at estate sales.
Trimm
A focused desktop app for trimming audio loops into clean samples, built for Teenage Engineering's EP series.
Ways to work
Assessment
A concise review of a prototype, site, or project off the rails. You get a written report covering what's working, risks, and a recommended plan with rough cost. If we continue, the fee is credited toward the build.
Sprint
A focused block of work with one clear deliverable, such as getting a prototype ready for launch, building a feature, adding an integration, or fixing performance. Bigger projects, like a migration or a rebuild, run as a series of sprints, each scoped and priced before it starts.
Fractional
Ongoing senior capacity for teams and agencies. Reserved hours each month for engineering, technical leadership, or both.
See how I take AI-built prototypes to production, starting with an assessment.
High Fidelity means no static
I’m Colin O’Brien, a senior web engineer and technical lead based on the Western Slope of Colorado.
I grew up wanting to be an architect. Once I discovered the internet and digital publishing I learned that I could design and build homes for products and stories. Like architecture, my goal is to create things that are both useful and beautiful.
I'm happy whether leading projects or contributing a specific role. You can bring me in at the beginning or airdrop me in midstream, hand me requirements or just tell me the challenge and be assured that your work will be delivered with the highest of fidelity.
With over twenty years of experience designing, building and shipping with agencies, as a freelancer and on the product side, I am currently available for your next project.
Have a
complicated web problem?
I work with companies that need a fractional technical lead, agencies that need senior help, and founders with a prototype that almost works. Or if you're starting from scratch, reach out and let's brainstorm.