Creative technologist.
Technical lead.
I’ve spent most of my working life making things that happen on screens.
At AKQA, that meant digital experiences for Nike, Verizon and Delta. At Mailgun, email analytics. At Vestwell, smooth and intuitive onboarding.
The job titles have changed. I still like finding out how things work, usually by having to make them work.
Ask about my work ↘This assistant answers from my professional profile. For anything beyond that, there’s email.
AI assistant, not Lawrence. It uses his professional profile and can make mistakes. Questions are processed by a third-party model through Vercel AI Gateway. Please don’t share confidential information.
A few projects from product teams, agencies, and consultancies.
I spent nearly four years at AKQA as a Creative Technologist, working with designers and project managers on web and mobile experiences for Nike, Verizon and Delta.
I architected compositional React and Next.js interfaces, connecting authentication, CMS platforms, SEO, and legacy APIs.
I also helped build a generative AI demo shown at Google’s AI event in Washington, DC, in 2023. It brought together Next.js, Google Cloud, LangChain, Pinecone, and several language models.
I lead Vestwell’s Onboarding engineering team. The work runs from React interfaces through Nest.js services to PostgreSQL, with Integration and Business Intelligence involved along the way.
Getting a business onto the platform means connecting several parts of the system. I work on those connections and support the engineers building them.
I build shared AI agent skills for Vestwell’s engineering teams and distribute them through a plugin marketplace. Claude Code and Cursor use the same skill files. Two tools, one set of instructions to maintain.
Current flavor
I led the design and development team through a redesign of Mailgun’s analytics and reporting application. The task was to make email data easier to read and use.
After launch, we kept working on signup through multivariate testing and analytics.
Increase in signups over six months, reported in my professional profile.
Post-launch testingI co-built a mobile app that let event staff check people in with a swipe. It was used at more than 500 locations. I also built an API with more than ten event-industry integrations and worked on a five-server stack with automated, zero-downtime deployments.
The check-in app earned the company’s collaboration award. During my time there, I hired and mentored four engineering interns.
Vestwell
Onboarding engineering · Nest.js, React, PostgreSQLKin + Carta
React / Next.js architecture · Generative AIMailgun Technologies
Front-end leadership · Analytics & reportingAKQA
Creative technology · Web & mobile experiences
10Pearls · Senior Developer
2013–2014 · Node.js, Rails, AWS, SMS systems
Social Tables · Senior Developer
2012–2013 · Product, APIs, infrastructure, mentorship
HugeFan · Senior Rails Developer &
Co-founder
2011–2012 · Real-time marketplace engineering
Environmental News Network · Publisher &
Business Development
2006–2011 · Publishing, advertising, and team
leadership
Hypermedia Teaching Facility · Programmer /
Designer
1998–2000 · Interactive and distance-learning programs at
MIT
B.A., Human Ecology · 2000–2003
Studies in Programming, Writing & Humanistic Studies · 1998–2000
For questions about my work, engineering, or technical leadership, email me.
lawrence@lawrencenorton.com