AI-first software engineering

Senior Software Engineer · AI, PHP & JavaScript

LuisVargas

I design and deliver AI-enabled products, software architectures, and technical execution plans using PHP/Laravel, JavaScript/TypeScript, APIs, and automation.

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8+
Years of experience
12
Documented projects
6
Core stacks
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AI in the loop

AI woven into the stack — not bolted on

I ship production AI: autonomous agents, prompt engineering, and generative-API automation — engineered for reliability and tuned for usage cost.

  • AI Agents
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Generative-API Automation
  • LLM Cost Optimization
  • OpenAI

Services

Senior engineering for consequential product work

Four focused ways I help teams move from ambiguity to reliable software, with AI at the center and strong PHP, JavaScript, architecture, and delivery foundations.

01

AI systems and automation

Generative-API workflows, AI agents, structured outputs, and automation designed around real product constraints.

Explore service 02

Software architecture and planning

Technical discovery, system boundaries, integration mapping, delivery sequencing, and pragmatic architecture for real teams.

Explore service 03

PHP, Laravel and JavaScript engineering

PHP/Laravel backends, JavaScript/TypeScript applications, APIs, integrations, asynchronous workflows, and maintainable delivery.

Explore service 04

WordPress and eCommerce engineering

Custom WordPress, Elementor, WooCommerce, Shopify B2B, migrations, integrations, performance, and editor-centered architecture.

Explore service

About

Engineering that feels effortless

I'm Luis Vargas, a Senior Software Engineer with more than seven years of experience building SaaS, CMS, and eCommerce products. My core stack combines PHP/Laravel and JavaScript/TypeScript with APIs, AI automation, and reliable backend architecture.

Lately my focus has been technical leadership on healthcare integrations, AI agent workflows, prompt engineering, and generative-API automation with a sharp eye on usage cost. I care about clean architecture, reliable integrations, and interfaces that feel calm to use.

Selected work

Projects I've shaped

A selection of platforms and products. Some are under NDA and presented in a generalized form.

SaaSAI
2025–2026

Multi-Tenant Telehealth Operations Platform

● Confidential — generalized

RoleLead Software Engineer · Backend lead

Led the entire backend of a multi-tenant telehealth SaaS in a two-person team: patient, order, prescription, payment, and automation workflows across six-plus integrations, plus AI agents and generative-API automation.

  • Laravel 11
  • Filament 3
  • Livewire 3
  • MySQL
  • Redis
  • Horizon
  • AWS S3/SQS
  • Docker
  • Stripe
  • Twilio
SaaS
2026

PIJA Quiniela

RoleCo-owner · Full Stack

A live sports-prediction app co-built with one colleague. Server-authoritative prediction flows, live standings, real-time updates, and HMAC-secured webhooks with scheduled external-data sync.

  • Next.js
  • React 19
  • TypeScript
  • Supabase
  • PostgreSQL
  • RLS
  • Realtime
  • Zod
  • Vitest
  • Playwright
  • Vercel
WordPress
2026

Motorcycle Travel Platform

RoleSole Developer

A multilingual WordPress travel platform built end-to-end: custom child theme, 13 bespoke Elementor widgets, Leaflet-based tour discovery, and AJAX auth, search, and profile flows. Configured server, domain, and production deployment.

  • WordPress
  • Elementor
  • PHP
  • Polylang
  • Leaflet
  • AJAX
  • WP Engine
WordPressAI
2025

News Intelligence & Social Publishing Platform

● Confidential — generalized

RoleDeveloper · Inherited & extended

Extended an existing platform with an AI article-analysis layer (structured metadata: categories, geography, political-bias scoring), a scheduled news-ingestion pipeline, Google Maps heatmaps with radial filtering, and a full custom social layer.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • OpenAI
  • WP-Cron
  • Google Maps
  • ACF
  • jQuery
eCommerce
2024

Posh Peanut B2B Storefront

RoleShopify Developer · B2B theme

Built the wholesale (B2B) storefront theme for the Posh Peanut brand: Liquid + Alpine.js UI, a product-explorer experience powered by Searchspring and the Storefront API, AJAX cart features, and merchandising sliders. Shipped to production.

  • Shopify OS 2.0
  • Liquid
  • Alpine.js
  • Storefront API
  • GraphQL
  • Searchspring
SaaS
2024

CRM Connection Workflow Prototype

● Confidential — generalized

RoleLead Developer · Prototype & handoff

A HubSpot UI-Extensions prototype with React CRM cards (sortable table and status board) plus a Node.js/Express OAuth 2.0 proof of concept. Installed and demonstrated in a real HubSpot environment, then handed off to a successor developer.

  • HubSpot UI Extensions
  • React
  • Node.js
  • Express
  • OAuth 2.0
  • Axios
SaaS
2024

Event Invitation Management API

● Confidential — generalized

RoleSole Full Stack Developer

A Laravel 11 REST API for event invitations: Sanctum auth, role/permission middleware, relational invitation/RSVP/companion modeling, Stripe subscriptions via Cashier, R2-compatible storage, and HMAC-backed expiring email verification.

  • Laravel 11
  • PHP 8.2
  • Sanctum
  • Spatie Permissions
  • Stripe Cashier
  • Cloudflare R2
  • GitLab CI/CD
SaaS
2019–2020

Maquillate.com E-Learning Platform

RoleFull Stack Lead · 2-person team

Led a beauty e-learning platform: Laravel API, Vue admin panel, JWT auth, asynchronous multi-resolution video processing with FFmpeg, Stripe card payments and real ACH via Plaid, Postmark email, and VPS deployment.

  • Laravel
  • Vue
  • JWT
  • FFmpeg
  • Stripe
  • Plaid
  • Postmark
  • VPS
WordPress
2019–2024

El Intransigente News Platform

RoleSole WordPress Full Stack Developer

Full-stack work for a high-traffic Argentine news publication: custom themes, a bespoke advertising plugin with Google Ad Manager/AdSense (rotation, segmentation, lazy loading), heavy performance optimization, and DigitalOcean operations.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • Google Ad Manager
  • AdSense
  • DigitalOcean
  • Chartbeat
  • Sass
WordPress
2019–2023

James B. McClatchy Foundation Website

RoleSole WordPress Developer

Translated Adobe XD designs into a custom Hello Elementor / Elementor Pro build for a nonprofit foundation: ACF-backed custom post types for grants, team, stories, and reports, plus editor-facing dynamic content controls.

  • WordPress
  • Elementor Pro
  • ACF
  • PHP
  • Adobe XD
eCommerceWordPress
2019–2023

Silenus Winery E-Commerce

RoleSole WordPress Developer

A winery storefront on Hello Elementor / Elementor Pro with custom WooCommerce wine widgets, product field mapping, and a JavaScript flow that transferred the full cart to an external checkout platform.

  • WordPress
  • WooCommerce
  • Elementor Pro
  • JavaScript
  • PHP
WordPress
2019–2024

Custom WordPress Platforms & Business Apps

● Confidential — generalized

RoleWordPress Developer

A grouped case study of WordPress used as an application platform: a corporate publishing theme plus an internal asset-operations app with custom MySQL tables, authenticated REST APIs, bulk operations, and CSV/PDF reporting.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • REST API
  • Knockout.js
  • ACF
  • Gravity Forms
  • Webpack

Experience

A track record across products

  1. Jan 2025—May 2026

    Lead Software Engineer — Multi-Tenant SaaS & Healthcare

    SCALATER · Austin, TX · Remote

    • Led Laravel/PHP backend development for a multi-tenant telehealth SaaS in a two-person team.
    • Coordinated patient, order, prescription, payment, webhook, and automation workflows.
    • Designed the multi-tenant data architecture with tenant-aware storage and encrypted application data.
    • Worked across six or more integrations including Stripe, Twilio, and WooCommerce.
    • Implemented AI agents, prompt engineering, and generative-API automation with usage-cost optimization.
    • Hardened reliability with Redis/Horizon queues, idempotent webhooks, PHPUnit and Playwright tests, and Sentry monitoring.
  2. Jan 2025—Present

    CMS Developer

    Lilhorse Lab · Canada · Remote

    • Built and maintained WordPress, Shopify, and Webflow websites.
    • Developed PHP/Laravel CMS solutions with forms, APIs, webhooks, and custom workflows.
    • Supported Mailchimp, HubSpot, email-template, tracking, and analytics integrations.
    • Delivered responsive, conversion-focused pages across multiple CMS platforms.
    • Built reusable templates and components to speed up future builds.
  3. Aug 2022—Aug 2024

    Full Stack Engineer

    Little Taller · Phoenix, AZ · Remote

    • Developed CRM and operational workflows with WordPress, Laravel, Python, and Vue.
    • Integrated at least three external platforms including Webflow, HubSpot, and Mailchimp.
    • Automated repetitive business processes with Python scripts and scheduled tasks.
    • Built Vue interfaces on top of Laravel APIs for internal tooling.
    • Collaborated with cross-functional teams on business-oriented deliverables.
  4. Feb 2019—Present

    Full Stack Engineer

    Crazy Imagine · San Cristóbal

    • Delivered 15+ custom WordPress themes and plugins, including WordPress VIP projects.
    • Led frontend development with Vue, Vuex, Pinia, Vue Router, and Tailwind CSS.
    • Followed WordPress VIP engineering standards for performance and security.
    • Built reusable component libraries to keep delivery fast and consistent.
    • Coordinated Laravel backend services and collaborated with cross-functional teams.
  5. Feb 2022—Aug 2022

    Software Developer

    Visa Franchise / Jaxis Crypto · Miami, FL · Remote

    • Developed custom WordPress sites, themes, and plugins.
    • Translated business requirements into custom WordPress functionality.
    • Maintained and extended existing themes and plugins.
    • Supported stability, maintainability, and delivery-speed improvements.
  6. Feb 2021—Aug 2021

    WordPress Developer

    Bright Vessel · Remote

    • Developed and optimized WooCommerce plugins for WordPress.org.
    • Debugged and resolved compatibility issues across WordPress and WooCommerce versions.
    • Followed WordPress.org plugin guidelines and release practices.
    • Contributed performance, stability, functional, and UX improvements.
  7. Dec 2018—Feb 2019

    Frontend Developer

    Attitude · Táchira, Venezuela

    • Built dynamic, responsive interfaces with Angular 6 and NgRx.
    • Translated UI designs into component-based Angular views.
    • Made extensive use of CSS and SCSS for functional, polished visuals.
    • Implemented reusable components in collaboration with the design team.
  8. Oct 2018—Mar 2019

    Shopify Developer

    Lyamb2c · Orlando, FL · Remote

    • Developed and optimized the Shopify online store with Liquid, CSS, and JavaScript.
    • Customized theme sections and product pages to match brand requirements.
    • Focused on a seamless, visually appealing shopping experience.

Several roles overlap across remote engagements — dates are exact, not strictly sequential.

Toolbox

Technologies I work with

Backend & APIs

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Node.js
  • Python
  • REST APIs
  • Webhooks
  • Filament
  • Livewire

Frontend

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Vue
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Angular
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Alpine.js

CMS & eCommerce

  • WordPress
  • WooCommerce
  • WordPress VIP
  • Shopify
  • Webflow
  • Elementor
  • ACF

Data & Infra

  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Supabase
  • Redis
  • AWS S3/SQS
  • DigitalOcean
  • Docker
  • Cloudflare R2
  • Vercel

AI & Automation

  • AI Agents
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Generative APIs
  • OpenAI
  • Workflow Automation
  • Cost Optimization

Integrations

  • Stripe
  • Twilio
  • HubSpot
  • Mailchimp
  • Plaid
  • Searchspring
  • Google Ad Manager

Contact

Let's build something

Available for AI, software architecture, PHP/Laravel, JavaScript/TypeScript, and technical planning projects. Start a contract through Upwork or contact me directly.

Upwork ↗Email meGitHub ↗LinkedIn ↗
luisf55horn@gmail.com