I build interactive products for the modern web.

Leading the web engineering

BF Island was my favorite project at BuzzFeed. It was a nearly two-year effort involving several teams, and I led the web engineering: building reusable components, builders, and renderers, working with the iOS team, and discussing feature scope with design and product.

From Generator Generator to Island

The project grew out of Generator Generator, which my team and I had built earlier. My work connected JSON configuration and AI output to editor state, live previews, and canvas rendering. Shared components and configuration let us support different builders without copying an entire implementation for each one.

A product decision

For one meme format, product wanted the image model to generate text inside the image. The results weren’t reliable enough at the time, so I proposed letting people write their own message and checking it for profanity. The team agreed, and I implemented that approach.

Losing our ad manager

After BuzzFeed sold Complex, we lost access to tools.complex.com, the ad manager I had co-architected. We still had our ad templates, but no way for engineers to use them or hand off finished campaigns to AdOps.

A simpler replacement

I proposed and built a React/Next.js tool that configured starter ad templates for engineers. Once they committed finished code to the repository, AdOps could find it on a custom dashboard, add tags, and export code ready for Google Ad Manager (GAM).

Delivered in two weeks

I delivered the essential workflow in two weeks, rather than the 4–6 months expected for a more sophisticated replacement. It’s still used at BuzzFeed for custom campaigns outside BAM.

Giving AdOps a builder

I was new to BuzzFeed and had to learn its infrastructure quickly. Working with RevTech and AdOps, I proposed a builder inside BAM (BuzzFeed Ad Manager) so AdOps could create Jumbotrons themselves instead of having each one built manually.

Skipping the separate BFP form

The usual process for adding an ad format to BAM started with engineers creating a separate form in BFP (BuzzFeed Format Platform). That took 4–8 weeks, followed by another 3–4 weeks of BAM integration. I proposed building Jumbotron Builder directly in BAM, removing the need for the BFP step.

What I built

I implemented the builder in BAM, saving 4–8 weeks by skipping BFP development. I also designed it to be cloned and adapted for other ad formats, giving us a starting point for future builders. Jumbotron Builder remains in use at BuzzFeed.

Shared software across a publisher network

Catalyst Creator was the JavaScript platform used across more than 100 partner sites for advertising, video, analytics, and configuration. I modernized and optimized the platform and its integrations.

Improving ad loading

I streamlined ad delivery, improving initial ad load speed by roughly 15–20% on desktop and 35–50% on mobile.

From display ads to custom interactions

Over nearly ten years at Complex, I built an estimated 250+ branded campaigns. Some ran for a day; others ran for months. The work ranged from takeovers and run-of-site ads to animated banners, skins, overlays, expandable units, and audio experiences.

A few examples

For Samsung’s “X-ray” ad, moving a phone image revealed a hidden object. Horror campaigns added effects over article images. Hot Ones ads played audio clips from the show, and a Mountain Dew Baja Blast banner sent a motorbike jumping across the screen.

The “Superhero” format paired one 640×360 image with one 640×360 video, side by side on desktop and stacked on mobile. I also built toolbar ads with a 300×50 trigger that could expand to full width.

Making repeated work easier

When I joined Complex, we were rebuilding many of the same ad components for each campaign. I collected those components into templates and made them available to other engineers through GitHub.