Ryan Hellyer

Senior Software Developer (15+ years) specializing in mission-critical applications. Expert in OOP, PHP, TypeScript architecture, and sustainable code quality. Berlin-based with deep experience in unit-testing, CI/CD, and modern workflows.

Professional Experience💼

Independent Laravel Development, 2017 — present
- Application Architecture: Architected and maintain full-stack Laravel apps: Spam Destroyer (security) and CV platform.
- Code Quality & Testing: PHPUnit, CI/CD, and strict code quality standards.
- Modern PHP: Eloquent, Blade, PSR; scalable applications with performance focus.
- Technical Leadership: Authored Stale Cache library—Laravel caching patterns for WordPress at enterprise scale.
Syde, Software Engineer, 2023 — present
Engineered mission-critical corporate web applications using modern PHP practices: PSR containers, service classes, and PHPUnit. Focused on code quality and technical debt reduction.
Elementor / Strattic, Senior Engineer, 2018 — 2023
Initial hire; architected the WordPress-to-static conversion framework. Led CI/CD, code reviews, and Jamstack performance optimization. Company acquired by Elementor in 2022.
Varnish Software, WordPress consultant, 2017
Revamped corporate website and developed performance metrics for caching solutions.
Crowd Favorite Europe / Forsite Media, Senior engineer, 2014 — 2017
Developed security software for banking and enterprise WordPress plugins for large-scale sites. Focused on quality, security, and architecture.
10up, WordPress Engineer, 2013 — 2014
Led security audits and performance optimization for Fortune 500 sites. Focused on high-availability architecture and quality standards.

Key Projects & Clients🚀

Major Hollywood Studio: Performed security hardening and technical audits for 4 high-traffic websites; identified 7 critical security flaws and achieved a 20% average reduction in page load times.
Major European Football League: Managed the corporate platform and engineered national-scale sports data APIs, supporting 500k+ monthly visits.
Norwegian Government: Architected secure, hardened multi-site networks for state-to-citizen communications serving over 5 million residents.
Global Beverage Leader: Developed a high-performance full-stack platform for a Super Bowl commercial URL; reduced total page load size by 94% and total file requests by 99%.
Varnish Software: Rebuilt corporate infrastructure and engineered enterprise-grade caching benchmark tools, resulting in a 60% improvement in load times.
Navigation Frameworks: Engineered dynamic navigation systems for Nancy Cartwright and a proposed whitehouse.gov architecture, supporting 10M+ monthly visitors.

Community & Open Source🛠️

Open Source Development: Contributed to WordPress core and major plugins (Yoast SEO, WooCommerce). Authored 41 public plugins with 100,000+ active installs, including Disable Emojis (70k+).
Community Leadership: Founded and scaled Free Advice Berlin (30k members) and Berlin Hikers (11k members). Specialized in community governance and engagement.
Authorship & Speaking: Contributor to WP Tavern and industry publications since 2007. Organizer for WordCamp Europe 2019 and other international technical events.
Strategic Growth: Founded the Berlin Coworking Club (2,900 members) and the Undiecar League (2,000 competitors), focusing on sustainable growth.

Education🎓

Bachelor of Science, University of Otago, 1998 — 2000
Master of Science, University of Otago, 2001 — 2002

References📄

Professional references and work certificates from previous roles, including Syde, Strattic and Truer than North are available upon request.