Christian McCarthy, holding a laptop and pointing

Christian McCarthy


I design and build complete products: mobile, web and backend, using AI to work at team speed.

concept · design · development · engineering

Open to contract, fractional CTO and founding engineer work.

Work with me

Product engineering, without the full-time overhead.

Contract is often the quickest way to start: a scoped project, a defined outcome, and a working relationship before any larger commitment. I focus on small companies in compliance, industrial, fitness and e-learning work, where the software has to be simple and dependable.

  • 01

    Fractional CTO

    Technical direction for a team that needs it without a full-time executive: architecture, roadmap, vendor and hiring decisions, and hands-on delivery where it counts.

  • 02

    Contract product engineer

    One person who can take a feature or a whole product from concept and design through mobile, web and API, with AI built into how the work gets done.

  • 03

    Founding engineer

    Range and speed for an early-stage team: first versions shipped quickly, on foundations that hold up once the product finds its audience.

About

A technical artist devoted to the art of building software applications.

Senior-level understanding of the software ecosystem, used to guide and contain development through creative direction — from the first concept through elegant architecture.

Full-stack aptitude with an emphasis on single-page applications and native-shipped mobile apps built on JavaScript frameworks and RESTful APIs. Experience in building code concepts that explore potential solutions that can be explored and refined as part of the design process, and for building the architecture that keeps those solutions simple and elegant.

Appreciation for AI as a tool for exploring and creating software that extends beyond what we can build without it — with enough experience to scaffold and guide the direction: to build the guardrails, the documentation and the tracking, understanding the nuances of model strengths and setting limits that keep the architecture simple and elegant.

  • 01

    Concept & direction

    Prototypes and concepts that simulate the live experience, built to start the argument early — so design and functionality get refined before they get expensive.

  • 02

    Applications

    Single-page apps and native-shipped mobile: Vue 3, TypeScript, Quasar and Capacitor, with an eye on usability, accessibility and the browser realities underneath.

  • 03

    Services & data

    .NET 8 APIs, EF Core, PostgreSQL and SQL Server. Contracts designed so the client stays simple and the truth stays on the server.

  • 04

    AI with guardrails

    Using AI to move faster without losing the plot: scoped tasks, written specs, verification scripts and tracking docs that keep generated work inside a deliberate architecture.

Selected work

Sample projects

A cross-section of shipped applications — learning platforms, event systems, e-commerce and mobile. Open any panel for the detail on what was built and how.

  • CPE Today course catalog

    CPE Today

    Continuing-education platform for financial professionals — course catalog, e-commerce and an e-learning system for accruing CPE credits.

    Vue · SPA · ASP.NET · e-commerce
  • Western CPE learning portal

    Western CPE LMS

    Learning portal for taking finance courses and earning CPE credits, including live webcast delivery with attendance checks.

    Vue.js · .NET MVC/API · SASS · Webpack
  • Attendance tracker application

    Attendance Tracker

    Administrative tool for tracking attendance and issuing credit for live continuing-education events.

    Vue.js · .NET MVC/API · SASS · Webpack
  • Western CPE marketing website

    Western CPE Website

    Public marketing and commerce site with a course catalog integrated into an Umbraco CMS.

    JavaScript · .NET · SASS · Umbraco
  • GetEvent calendar

    GetEvent Calendar

    Endurance-sport event calendar and registration application with search, map views and custom event pages.

    JavaScript · REST API · Google Maps
  • SchoolBlocks sponsorship

    SchoolBlocks Sponsors

    Custom e-commerce and content management for school sponsorship, from Photoshop concepts through payment integration.

    Stripe · Subscriptions · Google APIs
  • ArticleOne prior art rank tool

    AOP Prior Art Rank

    A tag-comparison reading tool for evaluating existing patent submissions, designed in concept and built out.

    Photoshop · Prototyping · JavaScript
  • GetEvent registration management

    GetEvent Registration

    Dashboard and control panel for event directors to manage participants, reporting and subscriptions.

    Bootstrap · REST API · E-commerce
  • TrainingPeaks mobile application

    TrainingPeaks Mobile

    Mobile version of the training-log application, built as half of a two-person team against JSON/WCF services.

    HTML5 · CSS3 · JavaScript · .NET

Experience

Products shipped end to end, from concept to app store.

Roles ranging from technical lead to creative director — usually somewhere in between, translating business initiatives into technical approaches and then building them.

  • 2024 — present

    CTO / Designer / Engineer

    Ranes

    Enterprise risk and compliance platform: Vue 3 / TypeScript / Quasar front ends, Capacitor mobile apps for iOS and Android, and .NET 8 API and PostgreSQL work behind them. Front-end architecture, product direction and delivery.

  • 2019 — 2024

    Senior Software Engineer

    Devmatics · Contract

    A key member of a small team building custom software for clients — visual concepts, software architecture, feature roadmaps and design through to ASP.NET full-stack development and modern JavaScript client work, primarily Vue. Lead project: CPE Today, a continuing-education platform for financial professionals covering the course catalog, e-commerce and the e-learning system that issues CPE credit.

  • 2016 — 2019

    Senior Web Developer / Business Operations

    WesternCPE.com

    Defined technical initiatives and implemented operational systems. Co-built the marketing and commerce site (SASS, ASP.NET MVC, Umbraco, Entity Framework) and led continuous development of the Vue.js learning portal, including webcast delivery with live Q&A and CPE attendance checks.

  • 2015 — 2016

    Senior Software Engineer

    SchoolBlocks · Sopris Apps

    Full-stack development on a website platform serving K–12 schools nationwide — PHP, SASS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Node and Gulp.

  • 2014 — 2015

    Partner / Developer

    GetEvent.com · PreRace

    Full-stack build of a subscription event platform: e-commerce, director dashboards, robust event search and customizable event pages.

  • 2012 — 2015

    Consultant / Developer

    Eldo Interactive

    Interfaces for data-centric applications — interface design through HTML5 with PHP and .NET development against RESTful services.

  • 2007 — 2012

    Creative Director / Web Developer

    TrainingPeaks.com · Peaksware

    Direction of the main application through concepts and wireframes, then HTML5/CSS/JavaScript/C# development across the public site, e-commerce and the mobile application. Built the affiliate system for the managed e-commerce platform.

  • Earlier

    Web Developer · Owner

    People Productions · Dogtail Design

    Agency and independent work across ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails, SQL Server and MySQL — a wide range of client projects, in teams and one-on-one.

B.S. Geophysics, University of Colorado at Boulder. Certified in Sitecore XP 8 Website Development for .NET Developers.

Status

Open to contract, fractional and full-time work

Let's talk about what you're building.

Happy to start with a scoped project. Happiest where design direction and engineering meet — and where someone has to own both.