Jacob Ham

Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer and Tech Lead with 9+ years of hands-on experience designing, architecting, and scaling high-traffic, production-grade web applications, RESTful APIs, and distributed backend services using PHP (Laravel, Symfony/Doctrine) alongside modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Vue.js, TypeScript, Next.js). Proven track record leading engineering teams, mentoring developers, conducting rigorous code reviews, and driving architectural direction across the full SDLC in Agile/Scrum environments. Deep expertise in relational database design and optimization (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Aurora, MariaDB) with ORM frameworks (Eloquent, Doctrine), event-driven architectures (Kafka, SQS, RabbitMQ, Redpanda-style streaming), and cloud-native infrastructure on AWS, GCP, and Azure with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS), Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines. Skilled in applying security-by-design principles (OWASP Top 10, secure auth, encryption, PCI-conscious patterns) for payments and financial systems. Early and disciplined adopter of AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code) - leveraging them to accelerate delivery while rigorously validating output for quality, security, and maintainability. Strong communicator who translates complex business requirements into scalable technical solutions and champions accessibility, observability, and engineering excellence across cross-functional teams.