mere developer · mere.dev
A mere developer.
I build software that ships. Full-stack, product-minded, direct. A decade building AI chat and NLP tools at ServiceNow — before most people had heard of ChatGPT. Now independent — working with teams who value craft over ceremony.
About
"Mere" isn't modest. It's deliberate.
I'm not chasing the next framework or rewriting history in a LinkedIn post. I ship product, make people's lives better, and move on.
I've helped land Disney+ as a customer, dispatched 50,000 AT&T field agents, built production AI chat and NLP tools used by enterprises worldwide — and did most of it before ChatGPT made that kind of work fashionable. I mentored and led teams across three continents. None of that required my Principal Software Engineer title — it required grit, follow-through, and a dogged commitment to truthfulness.
I also make high-performance weapons parts, ballistics tools and software, consult on manufacturing process improvement, and sell grain mills — because self-reliance doesn't stop at the terminal, and education doesn't stop with a diploma.
Selected Work
Drag-and-drop chatbot builder with an AI engine and multi-platform UIs across web, mobile, Slack, and MS Teams. Renegotiated the development pipeline and shaved 12 months off the launch schedule — fast enough to land Disney+ and earn Bob Iger as a brand ambassador, opening an estimated $8B in new market cap for ServiceNow. The platform was later featured in a national TV campaign with Idris Elba.
Enterprise natural language processing for email and chat. Bridged global linguists, data scientists, and core engineering teams. Built a DSL for NLU validation that let language needs scale without slowing the broader team down. Also featured in ServiceNow's national Idris Elba ad campaign.
AI-powered routing and dispatch for field service teams. Onboarded an acquisition and aligned the team to company culture — then immediately secured AT&T, dispatching 50,000 agents across 200,000 locations.
No-code async workflow builder plus a cloud IDE, debugger, form designer, and DB tooling for building ServiceNow apps in JavaScript and XML.
Purpose-built ballistics math for 8.6 BLK, including spin energy modeling that doesn't exist anywhere else. Built in Rust.
ballistics.be-dangero.usHigh-performance parts for weapons. Made in the USA, on purpose.
boerneballistics.comGrain mills for sovereign food supply. Because fragile supply chains are a design flaw.
based.foodValues
These don't change sprint to sprint.
Human Dignity in Tech
Developers ship code that touches real lives. That comes with obligations we can't outsource to a product manager.
AI is a Tool, Not Your Master
I've built AI tools. I know how easy it is to build them badly — and how easy it is to let the hype do your thinking. AI is a digital parrot. Useful, not lord.
Privacy by Default
Not a feature. Not a compliance checkbox. A starting position. We don't sell you.
Self-Reliance
In food, in infrastructure, in the tools you depend on. Fragile dependencies are a design flaw. If you can't leave it alone and running for the next 30 years, you built it wrong.
Small Tech
Big tech takes. Big tech snoops. Big tech gouges. We're for tech you can actually own. End the subscriptions.
NOTASAP
Urgency is overrated and ASAP is poison. I'm a father of five. My children deserve a dad who's actually present. The trend to choose profits over family is a dead end — not for me.
Work Isn't War
Companies "conquer" markets, "target" customers, make a "killing." That's an awful paradigm. Work isn't war. We come in peace.
Truth Requires a Higher Authority
Honesty is hard — sometimes beyond our ability to hear. But without real truth we can never be our best. That's why we need a shared appeal to something above ourselves. Without Jesus, we can never get to Truth.
All of Christ for all of Tech.
Hire Me
I'm just a mere dev. Hungry and humble.
If you have a problem that needs solving — any size, any place, anywhere — let's talk.