Web engineering with a pulse

I'm Teejay VanSlyke, a freelance web engineer living in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I help entrepreneurs and agencies turn ideas into reality on the web. I take a user- and design-centric approach to my engineering practice, interested in why more than what or how. Read more about my philosophy of engineering.

I am currently accepting new engineering clients. Contact me for a free fifteen minute consultation.

How I can help you

Augmenting your existing web development team

For the majority of my career, I've parachuted into existing engineering teams to help them build new features, implement best practices, refactor existing code, improve deployment processes, and more. I'm able to hit the ground running on any project and love learning about new project domains.

Building your minimum viable product

Are you an entrepreneur who wants to build a new web application, but don't know where to start? While it makes sense to hire a full-fledged agency if you have the startup capital to do so, it can be an expensive decision if you're bootstrapping a new idea. I can help you build an attractive minimum viable product (MVP) to use as a prototype so you're able to secure more funding. I started my career helping entrepreneurs build web applications from start to finish that wowed their investors and early-stage users, and I'm happy to walk you through the process.

Technical discovery

Need a technologist's opinion about your upcoming project? Want a trusted resource to analyze your requirements from a technical standpoint, draft user stories, and give you a different perspective on the challenges you might face? I have years of experience participating and leading technical discoveries and can help you craft a plan for your project, even if you already have other engineering talent lined up.

Proficiencies

Ruby on Rails · Ruby · RSpec · React · JavaScript · TypeScript · CSS · Python/Django PostgreSQL · Node · Docker · AWS

Selected testimonials

You're probably not going to find anyone better than Teejay that's available for hire. Don't pass up the opportunity to work with him!

— Dan Lucas, Emerge Interactive

There is nothing that would stop me from working with Teejay again. In fact, working with him has ruined me for working with other less capable developers.

— E.J. Coughlin, Hype Social. Read case study

Teejay did an amazing job of exceeding our expectations.

I was able to engage with him immediately. And he made a a big impact, fast.

— John Eberly, Chatlio. Read case study

Read more testimonials

Selected experience

DevelopmentNow — Portland, OR — 2018-2023

  • Built and maintained Django/React-based platform powering COVID-19 testing sites for the state of Massachusetts, processing over 1,700,000 patient tests.
  • Authored custom Jupyter notebooks to provide monthly insights into patient data for state reporting.
  • Oversaw successful sunset of the service, with careful consideration of sensitive HIPAA-compliant patient data.
  • Implemented SAML-based SSO solution to integrate authentication post-acquisition, consolidating identity management.

Emerge Interactive — Portland, OR — 2017-2019

  • Engineered frontend of internal sales pipeline platform for multinational IT services company in React and Redux.
  • Built frontend for political donor search platform with React and Redux featuring a generative user interface for building complex filter queries.

PS Dept. — New York, NY — 2012-2017

  • Developed marketplace ecommerce Rails API for an on-demand personal shopping and luxury concierge service processing millions of dollars in customer sales.
  • Built React-based client request and order fulfillment pipeline and internal backoffice tool for servicing styling customers and automating style team tasks.
  • Conducted peer reviews and provided constructive technical guidance.
  • Read case study

View exhaustive timeline of work

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science
Ithaca College — Ithaca, NY