Experience
Wylan Swets, Senior Backend Software Engineer
Table of Contents:
I’m a software engineer based in Greer, South Carolina. I’ve been writing code for over a decade, working my way through full-stack web development, payment systems, mobile apps, and large-scale SaaS.
My path wasn’t a straight line. While I was in college I got my start at Team Combat, a laser tag business, building Arduino props and helping run the games. I worked elsewhere for a while and eventually came back as CTO to build out the full tech stack in support of franchising the business: a Laravel website, online waiver collection, marketing tools, and a C# battlefield automation system that synchronized laser guns, lights, music, and sound effects across custom prop hardware. I built everything that ran the business and supported the franchise model. What I didn’t build I helped to self-host in house or on our own cloud infrastructure, saving the business money along the way.
That experience made it clear software was my passion. Early in my career I moved through a mix of software development and IT roles, but even in the ones that leaned toward systems administration I was writing code anyway: automating my own work, building tools for the people around me, and solving problems that weren’t in my job description. Every time I wasn’t writing software full time, I missed it and kept finding my way back to it. That pattern made it clear: I’m most fulfilled when software is my primary focus, not a part of it. I’ve been fully committed to that ever since. I work best on backend problems, integrations, and API work, but I’m comfortable across the stack. I work well on teams and put a lot of value on clear communication. I’ve found that the best engineering outcomes stem from a shared understanding, not just good code.
Areas of Expertise
Backend API Development Building clean, reliable APIs and the business logic behind them. PHP/Laravel is my primary stack, with additional experience in Node.js, C#, and Python.
Mobile (React Native) I’ve built, stabilized, and shipped features across several React Native apps in production, from publishing apps from scratch to taking over mid-flight and getting them to a maintainable state. Details across the work history and project work below.
Payment Systems Stripe, custom payment processors, PCI-compliant tokenization flows. I’ve built and maintained payment infrastructure processing millions of dollars per year and know where the sharp edges are.
Third-Party Integrations Connecting systems that weren’t designed to talk to each other. SaaS platforms with internal tools, Amazon and Walmart order feeds into internal systems, e-commerce with fulfillment vendors, WordPress with previously unintegrated SSO providers. If there’s an API, I can work with it.
Automation Pipelines I look for things that are repetitive and manual and find ways to automate them. I’ve built pipelines with n8n, Puppeteer, Python, and custom scripts. See my blog for examples.
Codebase Rescue I’ve stepped into more than a few projects mid-flight: previous developer gone, no documentation, critical bugs in production. I’m good at bringing order to chaos: implementing observability, triaging what matters, and getting things to a maintainable state.
Work History
Cloudbeds — Senior Backend Software Engineer (Dec 2021 – Present) Cloudbeds is a global hospitality SaaS platform. I’ve owned the payments platform end to end:
- Built and maintain Pay by Link, a PHP-based payment link system processing millions of dollars per year
- Rebuilt card tokenization to be gateway-agnostic, enabling PCI-compliant flexibility across payment processors
- Integrated new payment processors across multiple markets, including APAC expansion
- Implemented the backend APIs for Tap to Pay and wrote the initial working code on the React Native mobile app
- Built a PHP-VCR test suite that eliminated recurring CI pipeline failures caused by third-party sandbox outages
WordPartners — IT Specialist (Mar 2019 – Dec 2021) Systems administration and internal tooling. Built a Laravel application bridging Google Workspace and Jamf APIs to automate device and account management.
ArrowPOS — Software Developer (Jul 2018 – Mar 2019) Built a Laravel-based online ordering platform from scratch in three months, taking it from nothing to production, including a payment API integration for card processing.
Tactical Gaming Systems — CTO & Full Stack Engineer (Mar 2017 – Jan 2018) Tactical Gaming Systems was a franchise business built on top of Team Combat, aimed at bringing the same laser tag experience to other operators. As CTO I owned the full tech stack: C# battlefield automation software, custom Arduino prop hardware, and a Laravel website built to support the franchise model. Beyond the code, I focused on building business efficiencies into everything we shipped: self-hosting infrastructure to reduce costs, automating repetitive operations, and making sure the technology served the business rather than the other way around.
Indiana Botanic Gardens — System Administrator (Aug 2016 – Mar 2017) A role that was equal parts systems administration and software development. I built a C# command-line tool to ingest and transform order data from Walmart and Amazon APIs into their internal system, replacing a fully manual import process. I also built PHP KPI dashboards backed by MSSQL for the shipping and warehouse team, and wrote data pipelines that standardized order handling across channels.
Project Work
Beyond my full-time roles I’ve taken on a range of independent projects. The breadth here reflects the kind of problems I find interesting: real systems, real constraints, real clients.
Milio’s Sandwiches A customer-facing mobile app on iOS and Android with order management and loyalty point redemption. Stabilized the React Native app and AWS Lambda backend after the company’s only developer left: implemented Bugsnag for error tracking, triaged and resolved critical bugs across the stack.
NASW Press Integrated WooCommerce with two separate fulfillment vendors: Sheridan for eBook delivery and BrightKey for physical book fulfillment. When a customer checks out, the order is automatically inspected, split by type, and transmitted to the appropriate vendor with no manual processing.
Strack & Van Til Grocery Custom WordPress plugin integrating a third-party coupon platform’s SSO with WordPress, eliminating separate logins across their web presence.
Innsbrook Resort WordPress authentication plugin integrating with the resort’s existing resident portal. Users authenticate against the resort’s own system and are issued a token that builds a WordPress session transparently.
House Appeal Custom WordPress plugin for an Illinois tax preparation firm. Ingests and normalizes CSV data from county tax assessor records, then lets users enter an address to find comparable properties and estimate potential tax savings.
Charmac Trailers Restored a broken ASP.NET application: fixed authentication and email delivery by tracking down misconfigured SMTP credentials in Azure hosting settings. Maintaining the running application while the original build assets are unrecoverable.
Sunnybrooke Recurring-billing web application in Laravel.
Tactical Gaming Systems After leaving the CTO role, I continued on as a contractor: new game modes, custom C++ props (Arduino), and Laravel website maintenance.
Technology
Languages & Frameworks PHP · Laravel · C# · JavaScript / Node.js · Python · Java · React Native · Vue.js
Infrastructure & Data MySQL · PostgreSQL · MSSQL · AWS · Docker · Terraform · Datadog
Automation & Self-Hosted n8n · Home Assistant · Homebridge · Nextcloud · Local AI (LM Studio, Ollama, Open WebUI)
BS in Computer Information Technology, Purdue University Calumet, 2018