Nick M

Lead Full Stack Software Engineer

Contracting

Feb 2022 - Present • 4 yrs 9 mos

Built core features of ForgeLab, an AI-powered virtual tabletop for tabletop RPG groups, working across the Next.js/TypeScript frontend and the FastAPI/PostgreSQL backend and deploying on Vercel and Heroku. Brought generative AI into the product with OpenAI, xAI Grok and Leonardo AI. Players and game masters can now generate character art, maps, items and encounters. I built the async job pipeline, rate limiting and credit metering that keep those features dependable and tied to each user's plan. Created the real-time multiplayer layer over WebSockets so a whole group shares one live table, with tokens, fog of war, dynamic lighting, walls, initiative tracking and combat pathing. Built the subscription business on Stripe, including plans, tier-gated features and free trials. Led a research spike on campaign and world-building systems and turned it into a 13-PR, 6-phase migration plan (about 9.5 dev-weeks), which leadership adopted as the build path. Kept the production PostgreSQL database safe across long-lived feature branches by designing Alembic migrations that keep a single migration head and avoid revision collisions. Set up agentic development workflows in Claude Code, with sub-agents, automated architecture and code-review gates, and deploy-verify-fix QA loops, so I ship faster while keeping review standards high.

Cyber Security Analyst

Natera • Vollzeit

Jul 2020 - Jun 2021 • 11 mos

Conducted upgrades to cybersecurity technologies using VAEC cloud services. Utilized Python for automation tasks via Azure Functions. Worked within a DevOps team to implement security best practices and applied compliance measures including Risk Management Framework (RMF) and vulnerability management.