Brian
Colinger

Senior Software Engineer

26 years building things that matter.

Get in Touch github.com/briancolinger

About

I've been writing software since 2000 — self-taught, starting in rural Arkansas, eventually working in Silicon Valley, and finding my way back home. Over 26 years I've worked across the stack, but my strengths live in backend architecture, API design, database engineering, and security. I care about systems that are correct, maintainable, and built to last.

These days I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Rebuy, building e-commerce personalization infrastructure in the Shopify ecosystem. Outside of work, I build AI-powered tools for wildlife conservation — applying computer vision and machine learning to problems that matter to me personally as a lifelong outdoorsman.

I've been an early practitioner of AI-assisted and agentic software development since mid-2024. I use these tools every day — not to write code for me, but to move faster on the things I already know how to build, and to reach further into the things I don't. The craft still matters. The judgment still matters. The tools just changed.

Experience

Apr 2023 – Present

Remote

Rebuy, Inc.

Senior Software Engineer

  • E-commerce personalization platform serving thousands of Shopify merchants
  • 623 tickets completed in under 3 years — features, platform hardening, performance
  • Architected and shipped 3 net-new products: Billing, Rebuy Monetize (ads platform), Smart Flows (automation engine)
  • Owned 10+ major platform systems: auth, security, search analytics, post-purchase flows
  • Remediated 20+ security findings: XSS, CSRF, access control gaps, brute-force vectors
  • Stack: PHP (CodeIgniter 4), MySQL, Redis, GCP, Cloudflare, Shopify APIs

Dec 2022 – Jan 2023

Rogers, AR

Shine Solar, LLC

Senior Software Engineer

  • Brought in to modernize legacy CRM from PHP/MySQL to TypeScript, Node.js, and PostgreSQL
  • Introduced team to PostgreSQL, Prisma, Docker, and modern tooling
  • Laid off with other recent hires due to industry-wide financial downturn

May 2009 – Jul 2022

Remote

Automattic, Inc.

Code Wrangler

  • 13 years at the company behind WordPress.com
  • Original VaultPress team — built the first security scanner, malware fixers, and site restore system
  • Led development of the WordPress Importer at scale
  • One of a handful of engineers on the Akismet spam detection backend
  • Rebuilt backup and restore infrastructure in Node.js + TypeScript
  • Designed and built RESTful APIs and internal dashboards serving millions of sites

Sep 2006 – May 2009

Sunnyvale, CA

AnchorFree, Inc.

Senior Web Developer

  • Led architecture of a distributed log processing system for advertising analytics
  • Built backend systems for HotspotShield VPN
  • MySQL administration and web property maintenance

2004 – 2006

CA / AR

Earlier Roles

Web Developer

  • Cognizant Technology Solutions (Santa Clara, CA) — On-site developer on a large osCommerce installation
  • Alltel / Western Wireless (Little Rock, AR) — Internal dashboards and metrics tools, LAMP stack

Projects

DeerPrint

deerprint.ai ↗

AI-powered deer detection and identification from trail camera imagery. Built to help hunters and wildlife managers understand the animals on their property — individually, automatically, across cameras and seasons.

GoPythonReactPostgreSQLpgvectorAWSComputer Vision

Persistor

persistor.ai ↗

Open source knowledge graph and vector memory for AI agents. PostgreSQL-native, AES-256-GCM encrypted, local-first. Designed for AI systems that need durable, structured memory.

GoPostgreSQLOpen SourceAI/AgentsAES-256-GCM

Runnel

open source soon

PostgreSQL-backed task queue with HTTP API. Lane-based concurrency, sequenced execution, and native support for agentic workflows. Built for systems where task ordering and durability matter.

GoPostgreSQLTask QueueAgentic

OpenClaw Backup

GitHub ↗

Backup and restore plugin for OpenClaw. Multi-provider encrypted snapshots using age encryption and rclone remote storage. Brings serious backup infrastructure to a new platform.

TypeScriptOpen Sourceage encryptionrclone

Skills

Expert · 26+ years

  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • SQL
  • REST API Design
  • Database Architecture
  • Linux

Proficient · AI-assisted

  • Go
  • Python
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Node.js
  • PostgreSQL

Cloud

  • AWS ECS / ECR
  • AWS RDS / S3 / ALB
  • GCP Cloud Tasks
  • GCP Cloud Logging
  • Cloudflare KV / CDN

AI / ML

  • Computer Vision
  • Vector Embeddings
  • pgvector
  • Model Training
  • Agentic Workflows

Security

  • XSS / CSRF Remediation
  • OAuth2
  • RBAC
  • Rate Limiting
  • Session Management

Tools

  • Git / GitHub
  • Docker
  • CI/CD
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • GitHub Copilot

AI-Assisted Engineering

I've been building with AI tools daily since mid-2024 — not as a shortcut, but as a genuine multiplier. My workflow is architecture-first: design the system, set the standards, then orchestrate agents and review what comes back.

Daily Workflow

  • Claude Code — primary agentic coding assistant
  • Cursor — in-editor AI pair programming
  • GitHub Copilot — autocomplete and context
  • ChatGPT & Grok — research and second opinions

Approach

  • Design the architecture first — AI fills in the scaffold
  • Autonomous task pipelines via Runnel for agent execution
  • Standards, guardrails, and thorough code review
  • Early practitioner of multi-agent orchestration patterns

Contact

Have a question, opportunity, or just want to connect? Send me a message and I'll get back to you.