Jonathan Travis

Engineering Leader & Platform Architect

20+ years building platforms, scaling teams, and shipping product. From Sony Ericsson to Director of Engineering to Principal Engineer — I lead through radical transparency, deep technical expertise, and a relentless focus on delivery.

Jonathan Travis
20+
Years Experience
6
Companies Served
2M+
Pages Processed Daily
99.9%
Uptime Achieved
About

A technical leader who still builds.

My career is a progression from hands-on builder to platform architect to technical leader. At every stop, I built the platform AND led the people. Not just an architect who draws diagrams — a leader who ships, mentors, and transforms organizations.

I've scaled e-commerce platforms that saved hundreds of thousands annually, modernized legacy infrastructure, built SaaS products on the side, and led teams through complex technical transformations. Currently leveraging AI-augmented development workflows to multiply team output.

I believe great engineering leadership means staying close to the code while empowering your team to do their best work. Radical transparency, cross-functional collaboration, and a culture of ownership are how I operate.

Legacy Modernization

Turning tech debt into competitive advantage — from Magento monoliths to React/Next.js microservices

AI-Augmented Workflows

Pioneering AI-assisted development to compress delivery cycles and enable parallel multi-project execution

Platform Architecture

Custom API gateways, payment infrastructure at scale, data pipeline optimization (2TB to <1GB)

Team Building

Hiring, mentoring, and growing engineers since 2006. Created "Developer Days" at iContact to foster innovation

Experience

Where I've built and led.

A career spanning startups to enterprise, from individual contributor to CTO.

Mar 2023 — Apr 2026
Principal Engineer & Team Lead
SamCart
Led a team of 5 engineers driving checkout platform strategy for CheckoutOS. Architected payment integrations across Stripe, PayPal, and Braintree. Directed Snowflake migration for real-time analytics. Reduced infrastructure costs by compressing 2TB of log data to under 1GB.
React/Next.js Laravel Snowflake Payments AI Workflows
May 2016 — Feb 2023
Web Dev Manager & Senior Architect
Charles & Colvard
Built custom API Gateway and microservices platform. Engineered data transformation engines that reduced product generation from weeks to seconds, saving $100K+/year. Merged three web properties onto unified architecture with zero downtime.
API Gateway Microservices Magento Shopify DynamoDB
Sept 2010 — May 2016
Director of Development
Angular (formerly Virante, Inc.)
Directed engineering department. Built automated systems processing 2M+ web pages daily. Created server monitoring tools for 200+ servers achieving 99.9% uptime. Mentored engineers and represented company at conferences. Concurrently built side SaaS projects (Clearstats.com, ContractHound.com, and others) through a personal venture.
Laravel SQS Redis RabbitMQ
2006 — 2010
Manager of Frontend Engineering
iContact
Managed a team of 6 engineers for large-scale SaaS email marketing platform. Led Scrum teams, hired and mentored engineers, created "Developer Days" innovation program. Partnered with Product and Human Factors on roadmap and UX.
Scrum Master Team Lead SaaS PHP
2000 — 2004
Software Developer
Sony Ericsson
Object lead for mobile product testing software. Managed remote servers bridging global manufacturing and lab environments. Streamlined manufacturing processes worldwide.
Manufacturing Global Ops
R&D / Labs

What I'm building now.

Side projects that keep me sharp and exploring new territory.

🧠

Fractal Lens

AI-powered adaptive learning platform designed for ADHD learners. Uses atomic knowledge fragments and explorable concept maps to support non-linear, curiosity-driven learning about current topics and supporting knowledge.

AI/ML Next.js Concept Maps Accessibility
📈

Sandbox Trader

AI-driven stock trading simulation platform for financial education. High-fidelity market simulation with complex state management and real-time data flow architecture.

Next.js Laravel Fintech Real-time
🎮

Neon Blitz: London

Mobile-first iOS looter-shooter built with Unreal Engine. Features the proprietary "Nano-Forge" progression system with real-time computational architecture and game loop design.

Unreal Engine C++ iOS Game Design
Skills

Technical toolkit.

Full-stack depth with leadership breadth.

Frontend

React Next.js TypeScript Tailwind HTML/CSS

Backend

PHP Laravel CodeIgniter REST APIs GraphQL Microservices

Data & Cloud

AWS MySQL Snowflake DynamoDB Redis RabbitMQ

Payments

Stripe PayPal Braintree Authorize.net

E-Commerce

Shopify Magento API Gateways Product Feeds

Leadership

Agile/Scrum Team Management Vendor Management Roadmap Planning Hiring TDD

Let's connect.

I'm currently exploring Engineering Manager, Technical Product Director, and Principal Architect roles. If you're building something meaningful and need a technical leader who still codes, I'd love to hear about it.