Product Engineer — Content Systems & AI-Era Growth
Andrew Hayter
Product-minded engineer with 9+ years building and operating web products, internal tools, and infrastructure-backed applications. Best at turning rough ideas, messy workflows, and ambiguous requirements into practical products and reliable systems — with a track record of designing systems that turn raw or public data into defensible product advantages at scale.
Experience
Independent Product Engineer / Founding Engineer
2021 — PresentSelf-Directed
- Designed and operated a multi-property content automation framework spanning scheduled publishing, cross-platform distribution, and AI-assisted generation, with unit economics tracked to sub-cent cost per generated page.
- Built data-pipeline-backed content differentiation by ingesting public structured datasets to power calculators and current, sourced content, establishing a defensible content moat over competitors relying on static copy.
- Tracked and responded to a structural shift in AI answer engines (Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT), using citation and traffic data to redesign content architecture and preserve visibility as direct-answer behavior increased.
- Ran systematic competitive teardowns (sitemap extraction, feature inventory, traffic sizing) across category-leading products, translating findings into cost-sequenced build backlogs and implementation-ready specs.
- Audited a 5,000+ URL content property end to end — structure, dead stubs, taxonomy mapping — as a repeatable diagnostic pass ahead of rebuild and migration work.
- Developed a fullstack application using Next.js, TypeScript, Payload CMS, PostgreSQL, Docker, and Nginx, with a normalized schema and taxonomy system supporting 3,000+ structured entries across multiple categories and relationships.
- Set up and maintained Linux infrastructure including DNS, SSL/TLS, backups, monitoring, and deployment automation.
Fullstack Developer, Cloud & Web
2018 — 2021POWERSHiFTER Digital
- Built web applications and cloud-connected systems across frontend, backend, CMS, and deployment layers.
- Developed serverless applications on Google Cloud Platform using Cloud Functions, Firestore, and Pub/Sub.
- Integrated frontend interfaces with Contentful CMS and contributed to CI/CD workflows across client projects.
Fullstack Web Developer (Contract)
2019Goat Social
- Built and launched CMS-driven websites for education-sector clients using Craft CMS and WordPress.
- Implemented custom templates, content workflows, and deployment requirements under short timelines.
Fullstack Developer / Linux Web Hosting
2015 — 2019Major Tom
- Built, deployed, and maintained 30+ websites across Linux hosting environments.
- Managed production hosting operations including SSH, backups, SSL/TLS, troubleshooting, and server maintenance.
- Improved uptime, security, and performance across WordPress and Linux-based web environments.
Skills
- Languages & Frameworks
- TypeScript · JavaScript · Rust · Node.js · React · Next.js · Astro · PHP · WordPress · Payload CMS
- Infrastructure & DevOps
- Linux · Docker · Docker Compose · Nginx · Apache · CI/CD · GitHub Actions · GitLab CI · DNS · SSL/TLS · Cloudflare Workers/D1/KV/R2
- Databases & Data
- PostgreSQL · MySQL · Firestore · Schema design · Structured content systems · Public-dataset ingestion pipelines
- Automation & Operations
- Bash · Playwright · Web scraping · Competitive intelligence teardowns · Deployment workflows · Performance tuning
- AI & LLM Workflows
- ChatGPT · Claude · OpenRouter · Prompt engineering · AI-assisted development · Research synthesis · Implementation planning · Debugging support
- Cloud & Platforms
- Google Cloud Platform · Cloudflare Workers · OpenShift · AWS · Contentful · GitHub · GitLab
Education
Fullstack Web Development Bootcamp — Lighthouse Labs, Vancouver, BC
Capstone People's Choice Award winner
Solana Developer Cohort — Solana Turbin3, Remote
Contact
Open to product engineering, growth engineering, and content systems work. The fastest way to reach me is email.