Phil Pastorek

Independent software consultant with more than 29 years of hands-on experience designing, building, and modernizing web applications for startups, SaaS companies, media organizations, and enterprise clients.

Expertise includes JavaScript, Node.js, React, microservices, REST APIs, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, test automation, AI-assisted development, and scalable application architecture. Known for rapidly understanding complex systems, delivering high-quality software, mentoring engineering teams, and driving projects from concept through production.

In addition to client consulting, actively developing SaaS products and leveraging modern AI tooling to accelerate development while maintaining engineering quality and long-term maintainability. Available for consulting, contract, fractional technical leadership, and senior software engineering engagements.

Led the development, modernization, and scaling of PageBuilder Editor and cross-product integrations, driving measurable impact on customer experience, platform reliability, and adoption. Key contributions include:

• Product & Feature Leadership: Delivered Audience Targeting v1.0, MicroExperiences (MX), content integration frameworks, granular website-based permissions, and AI-powered Resolvers Assistant, enhancing editor usability and supporting B2C and enterprise workflows.
• Cross-Team Collaboration & Ownership: Guided multi-team projects, mentoring peers, aligning solutions across Editor, Engine, and Web Delivery, and maintaining ISO compliance and disaster recovery readiness.
• Quality & Reliability: Championed automated testing with Playwright and Cypress, improved unit and E2E coverage by 10%+, refactored CSS and modal services, reduced publishing errors, and strengthened platform observability and performance.
• Customer Impact & Adoption: Reduced support friction, stabilized customer workflows, enabled self-service capabilities, and improved adoption of strategic platform features, directly contributing to retention and growth.
• Technical Growth & Leadership: Evolved as a subject-matter expert for integrations, modernized Editor architecture, expanded AWS and AI proficiency, and led initiatives end-to-end, balancing innovation with maintainable, high-quality code delivery.

Build out of custom features and layouts in the ARC Publishing platform with ReactJS.

Professional highlights at Washington Post included:

• Buildout of customer websites in ReactJS using Arc XP’s PageBuilder system.
• Aggregated learnings from each project to strengthen future builds and improve efficiency.
• Worked directly with clients to ensure satisfaction and align development with business goals.
• Embedded as a subject matter expert within client teams to assist in building and optimizing media sites.
• Mentored client developer teams and ensured a clean build process by following best practices in code development and Arc XP system implementation requirements.

Directed internal teams and external vendors while remaining hands-on in development across legacy and next-generation systems.

Professional highlights at KnifeCenter included:

• Led technology strategy, platform development, and infrastructure for a high-volume e-commerce business.
• Managed development teams, creative resources, and vendor partnerships.
• Migrated legacy WebDNA platform to Magento 2; developed Node.js utilities, React/Vue tools, and administrative dashboards.
• Strengthened security, improved operational reliability, and optimized technical services budget.
• Mentored developers, removed blockers, and improved team efficiency.

Hitcher was a social platform designed to foster personal connections and meaningful interactions through shared experiences.

Professional highlights at Hitcher included:

• Worked closely with marketing and iOS development to bring the project from concept to launch, achieving over 10,000 signups and several hundred active users.
• Architected and maintained backend infrastructure supporting the iOS app.
• Built RESTful APIs, designed MySQL and Sequelize databases, and integrated the front end using Node.js, Express, JSON, and jQuery.
• Implemented serverless image processing using AWS Lambda and managed deployments and scalability on AWS.
• Followed Agile development practices and used Git for version control; applied JS/ES2015, HTML5, CSS3, and SASS for supporting tasks.

UI/UX team lead in charge of developing the company's enterprise level mobile responsive front-end SaaS offering in AngularJS. Target application audience is tuned for the mid to low end non profit advocacy and donation space.

Professional highlights at Salsa Labs included:

• MV* development with AngularJS
• Architected the project's UI development structure and base framework
• Worked heavily with HTML5, SASS/SCSS utilizing CSS3 modernizations, Grunt and Bower.
• Converted many jQuery only Javascript utilities to AngularJS directives to be used natively in the app, as well constructing wrappers for some that could not be easily converted.
• Consumption and assisted in design of the platform's REST API.
• Constructed NodeJS mock API instances for in-development UI communication.
• Managed a team of four front end developers in a parallel development stratagem, which included developers located locally and abroad.
• Presented SCRUM sprint demonstrations for the larger development team at the end of each sprint cycle.
• Trained new developers in the project's standards, schemas and code base to get them productive fast.
• Worked closely with the senior management team and product manager for task assignment, scheduling, and prioritization.
• Managed the UI project's Git version controlled repository.

Developed UI/UX for e-commerce websites and integrated with custom back-end solutions.

Professional highlights at Virid included:

• Custom jQuery/javascript plugin creation
• HTML5/CSS3 utilization
• Front end team member recipient of a silver DC Addie award for Journey's BBQ 2012 website
• AJAX/JSON data communication to ASPX, C#, VB backend systems

Websites that I worked on at Virid:

A'GACI

agacistore.com

Bakers Shoes

bakersshoes.com

Journeys Shoes

journeys.com

Virid - Revere

revere.marketagility.com

Journey's BBQ 2012

journeysbbq.com
Silver DC Addy Award

Johnston & Murphy

johnstonmurphy.com

Lead technologist for a small, niche marketing firm. Worked with a team of professionals to create and maintain over 30 high-traffic websites that drew millions of visitors per month. Managed system operations, server infrastructure and application development based on business needs. Implemented SEO best practices to achieve ranking in search engine results.

Professional highlights at Charlie Company included:

• Designed, developed, and launched a custom CMS to handle over 20 data-intensive websites.
• Overseeing advertising and affiliate sales revenue of over $2 million per year.
• Developed a social marketing application that increased monthly traffic by 15% after launch.
• Managed contractors and small team of employees on internal software projects.
• Maintained the organization’s OpenX ad server and managed advertising campaigns. Designed advertising banners as needed.
• Fielded data mining requests, social network marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and maintaining Web content as part of daily responsibilities.

Worked independently for the business division of a large internet corporation. I developed software to help the sales and implementation teams efficiently process orders. I also managed a large commercial Microsoft Windows based web hosting platform for business customers.

Professional highlights at RCN included:

• Designed and developed intranet CRM systems, eliminating paper orders and increasing efficiency.
• Maintained High Availability (HA) clustered networks of application servers; maintained hardware and software of commercial MS Windows based web hosting platforms of over 30 web servers and SAN storage networks.
• Developed data migration tools that connected to Salesforce.com.
• Collaborated in deciding technological means and feasibility of future software/hardware requirements.