Software Engineer · California · Remote · Available for projects

I build the software that off‑the‑shelf can't.

Fifteen years shipping custom WooCommerce systems, business integrations, and AI automation for live businesses. Fast, clear, and built to last.

Start a project See selected work

15 yrs

shipping production systems

2011

writing custom PHP since

40+

custom plugins & integrations

AI products of my own

Selected work

A few builds that show the range: from-scratch systems, deep integrations, and AI in production.

Green Rush Packaging

Packaging e-commerce

A WooCommerce search engine built from scratch

Problem. Product search was slow and missed obvious results, and the paid search plugin cost money per query while still failing on SKUs and typos.

Built. A from-scratch engine with a custom inverted index, hand-written Damerau-Levenshtein typo tolerance, weighted fields, synonyms, and unit normalization, wired to an accessible autosuggest.

Result. Faster, more accurate search than the plugin it replaced, with SKU and typo handling the old system could not do, and no per-query cost.

PHPWooCommerceMySQLVanilla JSSearch / IR

BiltRight Turf

Home improvement

Lead routing across Home Depot, Lowe's, and two CRMs

Problem. Installer leads arrived from two big-box retailers and had to be re-keyed by hand into two CRMs, with status updates pushed back manually.

Built. A suite of REST-API bridge plugins routing leads bidirectionally with OAuth handling, contact dedupe across email, phone, and vendor id, and automatic status write-back.

Result. Manual entry between four systems eliminated, and hours of repetitive work returned to the sales team.

PHPWP RESTZohoHubSpotOAuth

"Custom web-hooks to connect our CRM with other CRMs which have greatly improved the effectiveness of our sales team and saved us many hours of repetitive data entry."
Kyle Georgian · President, BiltRight Turf

Layn USA

Botanical ingredients (B2B)

The ingredient library another developer couldn't build

Problem. Layn wanted an interactive, filterable botanical ingredient library. A previous developer had struggled to program it, and it had to be client-administrable.

Built. A faceted catalog filtering across actives, applications, and ingredient types, with per-item PDF and contact links, on a structure their team can maintain.

Result. Delivered on time and on budget, and easy to administer, after another developer could not finish it.

PHPWordPressVanilla JSFaceted search

"Another developer was having considerable difficulty programming. Ralph and his team immediately understood our needs and completed the project on time and within budget."
Collette Kakuk · VP Global Marketing, Layn USA

Quickly SEO

My product · SaaS

An SEO workflow automated into a live SaaS

Problem. On-page SEO across many pages is slow, manual, and repetitive, done tool by tool.

Built. A platform that automates roughly 80% of the workflow, orchestrating about a dozen LLM call modules and search-data APIs through background job queues, metered by a token credit ledger and billed with Stripe.

Result. A live product with paying beta users, roughly 616 commits of development.

Node.jsMongoDBRedisOpenAIStripe

FairlyQuoted

My product · Marketplace

An AI-powered marketplace, shipped solo

Problem. Homeowners can't easily tell what a repair should cost, and the usual model sells their contact info to many companies at once.

Built. A two-sided marketplace end to end: an Anthropic-powered estimator using live web search and structured output, blind contractor quotes, a Postgres data layer with a privacy firewall, and a CI-gating eval suite, all on AWS.

Result. A launched product built and deployed by one person, with real AI guardrails, evals, and cost controls.

TypeScriptPostgreSQLNuxt / VueAnthropicAWS

How I can help

Fixed-scope engagements with a delivery date. You buy the outcome, not the hour.

Integrations & API connectors

Connect WooCommerce or WordPress to your CRM, ERP, shipping, tax, or marketing platform, with auth, field mapping, and error handling that holds up.

Typically 3–7 days

Custom plugin builds

Bespoke functionality no off-the-shelf plugin provides, built to your exact process with clean, maintainable code.

Typically 3–10 days

Broken checkout & plugin rescue

A paid diagnostic that finds the real root cause of a broken store or plugin conflict, then a fixed quote to repair it.

Diagnosis in 1–2 days

AI workflow automation

Automate a repetitive, high-volume task end to end, with an LLM in the loop, connected to your tools, with cost tracking and guardrails.

Typically 1–2 weeks

Custom internal tools & dashboards

A focused web app or dashboard for a specific need, instead of another bloated SaaS subscription.

Typically 1–2 weeks

Search & performance upgrades

Better product search relevance and speed, or a measured performance pass on a slow store.

Typically 3–7 days

About

I'm a software engineer with a degree in Computer Software Engineering and 15 years building production systems, writing custom PHP since 2011 and Node.js for the last five. Through my studio, TopOpti, I build custom WooCommerce systems and the integrations that connect them to CRMs, ERPs, shipping, tax, and marketing platforms, and increasingly I build business automation with AI wired into the tools clients already use.

My work ranges from a from-scratch search engine that replaced a paid plugin, to bidirectional lead routing across Home Depot, Lowe's, and two CRMs, to two AI-driven products of my own. I care about doing the hard parts well and shipping them fast.

Away from the keyboard, I'm a U.S. Army veteran and a dad, and the kind of person who will happily talk your ear off about the Maillard reaction and lacto-fermentation.

BasedCalifornia · Remote

CorePHP · Node · TypeScript

PlatformsWooCommerce · WordPress

CloudAWS · Cloudflare

AIOpenAI · Anthropic

AvailableProjects & part-time

What clients say

"They are easy to work with, communicate clearly, and move quickly to get things done. A reliable partner for any web development needs."

Anthony Puterman

Co-Founder, Nowadays

"Their ability to build custom solutions tailored to the unique needs of our business has streamlined our operations and helped us stand out."

Araceli Salinas

Marketing Director, EnviroPackaging

"They are keen to deliver the best possible service, offering simple solutions to seemingly complex problems."

Ariel O'Mara

Owner, O'Mara Sprung Floors

Let's build something

Have a project that doesn't fit in a box?

Tell me what you're trying to do. I'll tell you straight whether I'm the right fit and how I'd approach it.

Start a project Connect on LinkedIn

Direct: ralph.cockburn@gmail.com · (951) 236-4980