Balian.dev
St. Paul, MN · remote Book a call
Senior web engineer · Minneapolis · Remote

Agency-level web engineering, without the agency.

I have spent more than twenty years building websites, stores and web apps, most of it inside agencies. Now Twin Cities businesses hire me directly and I do the work myself.

Book a 30-minute call See how a project runs

Skills by discipline

  • Languages and runtimes: TypeScript, JavaScript, Node, PHP, Python, SQL, Bash, HTML / CSS, SCSS, Swift
  • Front end and 3D: React, Next.js, Vue, Astro, Tailwind, Bootstrap, Foundation, SCSS, jQuery, Vite, Design systems, Responsive design, GSAP, Three.js, WebGL, globe.gl, glTF, Recharts, Figma
  • WordPress: WordPress, Gutenberg, Custom blocks, ACF, WP-CLI, Multisite, Starter framework, Underscores, Local WP
  • Commerce: WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, Avalara, TaxJar, PCI-compliant checkout, Fraud prevention, Abandoned-cart recovery, Metered billing, Catalog migration, POS sync
  • Integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pardot, ERP sync, Accounting sync, TrueCommerce, EDI, REST, GraphQL, Webhooks, Mailgun, Mandrill, SendGrid, Resend, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, MJML
  • Cloud and servers: Workers, D1, KV, R2, Queues, Pages, Browser Rendering, DNS, Linux, CloudLinux, AlmaLinux, Ubuntu, Nginx, Apache, LiteSpeed, PHP-FPM, OPcache, Redis, cPanel / WHM, Caddy, systemd, cron, SSH, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Drizzle, Zod, Git, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, PM2, Wrangler, pnpm, Turborepo, Multi-tenant SaaS
  • Security and compliance: WAF, Bot mitigation, Rate limiting, Cache rules, CSP, HSTS, TLS, SPF / DKIM / DMARC, Incident response, Site cleanup and re-hardening, Cyber-insurance audits, CVE monitoring, Security training, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA / CPRA, Global Privacy Control, Consent Mode v2, PCI DSS, CAN-SPAM, WCAG AA, ADA, Section 508
  • Analytics and performance: GA4, GTM, SEO, Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse, Playwright, Cross-browser testing, Health checks, Dashboards, Live traffic maps, GraphQL Analytics API, Rulesets API
  • AI: Claude API, Claude Code, AI-assisted development, Approval-gated AI actions, Prompt injection defence, Agents, Evals
  • Leadership: System design, Scoping and estimates, Technical leadership, Team standards, Code review, Code standards, Project management, Client communication
Skills by discipline
Who you are hiring

One senior engineer, start to finish.

For most of the last decade I led the technical side of a Minneapolis agency: the web team, the hosting, the security program and the stores that ran on it. Before that I co-owned a small design and build studio. The work I do for you is the same work, with the handoffs removed.

A typical agency
Strategist→Designer→Developer→Project manager→Account manager→QA

Each handoff adds hours, delay and a message to relay.

An agency of one
One senior engineer + directed AI

The same work, with fewer handoffs and direct attention to every decision.

More about me

Services

Whatever you came here with, this is where it goes.

You do not need to know what to ask for. Tell me the situation and I pick the tools.

Your website needs to be built, rebuilt or fixed.

Marketing sites, content platforms and migrations, with the content written for you. Fast, editable by your team, on whatever platform fits.

Explore

Your store needs to sell and run itself.

WooCommerce, Shopify and migrations from any platform. Checkout, payments, tax, shipping, and orders that reach your ERP or accounting.

Explore

You need software built.

Web apps, customer portals, SaaS products and internal tools, from the data model to the release.

Explore

You got a letter, an audit or a questionnaire.

ADA and WCAG remediation, cyber-insurance requirements, cookie consent, HIPAA tracking cleanup, hardening after a breach.

Explore

Your systems do not talk to each other.

CRM, ERP, accounting, EDI and email platforms connected, with AI doing the tedious data work in between.

Explore

You need a technical lead without hiring one.

Audits, platform and vendor decisions, code review, rescuing a stalled project, running your web operations.

Explore

Your site needs to be kept running.

Hosting, servers, DNS and Cloudflare. Monitoring, updates, incident response, and a named engineer on call.

Explore

Your marketing systems need to work.

Email deliverability, transactional and marketing email, GA4 and Tag Manager, Consent Mode, dashboards you can trust.

Explore

Everyone is selling you AI.

A straight answer on where it would help your business, where it would not, and what to ignore. From someone who builds with it and is not selling a tool.

Explore

You need to be found.

Technical SEO, Google Business Profile and local listings, and site moves that keep the rankings you already have. Measured in Search Console, with you watching.

Explore

You have data nobody can see, or a product nobody can turn around.

Dashboards fed by your real systems, 3D product viewers and configurators, live maps, and interactive explainers, built in WebGL and three.js.

Explore

Something not on this list.

If it runs on the web and it is broken, slow, risky or missing, ask. Twenty years covers a lot.

Explore
How I work

I direct the AI and read every line.

I do not sell a framework. Twenty years across PHP, JavaScript, Python and SQL taught me that languages differ less than people think, so I read any codebase and decide how the system should work. AI fills in the dialect: the exact API call, the framework idiom, the boilerplate. I check all of it.

AI fills in

Framework idiom, API signatures, boilerplate, first drafts, test scaffolding.

I own

Architecture, data model, security, trade-offs, and what ships.

How AI-assisted engineering works

ai     drafted approve-change.ts
review ✗ change is applied before the approval check
fix    approval gate added on the server
tests  ✓ passed
verify ✓ result checked against live state
  • TypeScript
  • Next.js
  • Node
  • PHP and WordPress
  • Python
  • SQL
  • Astro
  • Cloudflare Workers, D1, KV, R2
  • Playwright
  • Stripe
  • Claude API
Process for a new site

Thirteen stages, with your sign-off at every gate.

This is how a new website or store gets built. Design comes before build, and you see three directions before a line of production code is written. An audit, a compliance fix, an integration or a consulting retainer runs shorter, and the proposal spells out its own steps.

  1. Understand

    01Discovery

    Intake call, fact gathering, one named approver.

  2. 02Research

    Goals, competitors and SEO investigation.

  3. Strategy

    03StrategyYour approval

    Content strategy, keyword plan, site architecture.

  4. 04ProposalYour approval

    Scope, timeline, price, payment milestones.

  5. Design

    05Styleframes

    Three distinct directions for the same content.

  6. 06Direction approvalYour approval

    You choose one, or a mix, and say what to change.

  7. 07Design system and blocksYour approval

    The system and the blocks pages are built from.

  8. Build

    08Content and build plan

    I write the content. You never get a blank page.

  9. 09First draft

    The whole site on staging, with your content.

  10. 10Two revision roundsYour approval

    Two rounds of fixes. New ideas go on the Phase 2 list.

  11. Launch

    11Quality checks

    Accessibility, speed, security, SEO.

  12. 12LaunchYour approval

    Checklist, release, monitoring.

  13. 13Support and Phase 2

    Two weeks of fixes, then the Phase 2 list gets quoted.

The process in detail

Work

Two products of my own, built and run in production.

Two products I built on my own time and run in production. They are the clearest picture of how I design, build and operate software.

proposed rate-limit rule, /loginstatus:
RejectApprove
Private beta

ZoneSteward

A console for teams that run many Cloudflare zones. Ask questions in plain English, watch live traffic on a globe, get alerts from real traffic, and approve every change the AI proposes before it is applied.

Read the case study
Alpha

CookieSteward

Cookie consent that checks its own work. Opt-in or opt-out by the visitor's law, Google Consent Mode v2, a scanner that verifies blocking after every publish, and a HIPAA mode that keeps tracking pixels off healthcare sites.

Read the case study
Questions
What have you actually built?

Stores on WooCommerce with ERP, tax and payment integrations, custom WordPress platforms, accessibility and security remediation across a large client portfolio, and two SaaS products of my own on Cloudflare.

What if you are unavailable?

You own the code, the repositories and the accounts. Everything is documented and tested, so another engineer can pick it up without me.

Do you only work with WordPress?

No. WordPress is right for many sites. Others need Astro, Next.js, Cloudflare or a custom application. I will tell you which fits, even when it is the simpler option.

Do you work with agencies?

Yes. I take overflow work, plugins and hardening under your brand or mine, with clear communication and handoff.

Is the work AI-generated?

AI is part of how I build, the way a compiler or a framework is. Every line that ships is read, judged and tested by me.

Tell me what you're building.

Book a 30-minute call