# Matt Ruetz

**Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer**
Burnaby, BC, Canada · matt.b.ruetz@gmail.com · 519-574-5280
https://mattruetz.com · https://github.com/MattRuetz · https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ruetz

## Summary

Full-stack software engineer with a **B.Eng. in Computer Engineering** and 5+ years shipping production web products end to end. I build and maintain **Shopify apps used by 1,300+ merchants** at Bolle Digital, and I architected **two production marketplace platforms** (SmileJump and HomeJump) as lead engineer, with **600+ merged pull requests** between them. My daily stack is TypeScript, React/Next.js, Svelte, Node.js, PostgreSQL and MongoDB, with deep experience in Stripe billing, Twilio, LLM tool-calling agents, background job systems, and CI/CD. I own work from database schema to pixel, write the tests, and fix revenue-impacting bugs with data, not guesses.

- **1,300+** Shopify merchants on apps I ship
- **600+** Merged PRs on two platforms I led
- **6,400+** GitHub contributions, last 12 months
- **30+** Client projects shipped, 5.0★ reviews

## Technical Skills

- **Languages:** TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, PHP, SQL, HTML5, CSS3, Liquid
- **Frontend:** React 19, Next.js 16 (App Router), Svelte 5, SvelteKit, Vue/Nuxt, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Shopify Polaris, GSAP
- **Backend:** Node.js, Express, REST APIs, Webhooks, FastAPI, Auth.js, Clerk, Lucia, RBAC, Job queues (Bull, pg-boss, Inngest, cron)
- **Data:** PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Prisma, Drizzle, Mongoose, PocketBase, SQLite, MySQL, pandas, GeoPandas
- **AI and LLMs:** Vercel AI SDK, OpenAI API, Anthropic Claude API, Tool-calling agents, LLM guardrails, AI-assisted development (Claude Code)
- **Commerce:** Shopify app development, Theme app extensions, Metafields and metaobjects, Shopify Billing, Stripe (Billing, Identity, Tax), WHMCS modules, WooCommerce
- **Integrations:** Twilio Voice and SMS, Resend, Postmark, Meta Lead Ads and Pixel, Google Places API, PostHog, Sentry
- **Cloud and DevOps:** Vercel, Cloudflare (Workers, R2, Turnstile), Fly.io, Render, Docker, Nginx, PM2, GitHub Actions CI/CD
- **Quality:** Vitest, Jest, Playwright, Smoke testing, WCAG 2.1 AA, Core Web Vitals, Technical SEO and schema.org
- **Design and CMS:** Figma, UX/UI design, WordPress (custom themes and plugins), Shopify themes

## Professional Experience

### Full-Stack Developer, Shopify Apps, Bolle Digital
Jan 2025 to Present · Remote

Core engineer on a portfolio of Shopify apps. #1 individual code contributor to Recipe Kit, plus owner of storefront widgets, billing logic, security fixes, internal tooling, and merchant support.

#### Recipe Kit (Shopify app, Built for Shopify, 4.8★, 1,300+ stores) · https://apps.shopify.com/recipe-kit

- Top individual contributor to the Next.js/Express/PostgreSQL codebase: **1,347 commits** across 17 months, covering admin UI, API, job queues, and theme extensions.
- Audited plan entitlements with a production dry run over **1,806 shops** and found **432 paying merchants** flagged as unsubscribed (about 285 were blocked from creating recipes). Fixed it at the source and cut off 57 non-paying shops that had paid access.
- Shipped the monetization layer: a **Free plan** with server-enforced recipe caps, price-band grandfathering, analytics and translation paywalls that keep **2,167 churned shops** out of paid features, and a private Enterprise plan with API access.
- Corrected inflated schema.org ratings on **39,060 recipes across 1,325 stores** (mean overstatement 0.37 stars), protecting merchants' Google rich results. Added VideoObject and FAQ structured data.
- Built native multi-language support on Shopify metaobjects with a Redis-tracked background migration queue, and fixed a defect that left **75% of recipes** unable to reach full translation.
- Integrated a Svelte 5 storefront widget served from a CDN and kept the Liquid extension under Shopify's 100 KB limit. Rebuilt CSV and AI-assisted recipe import (blog posts, pages, competitor apps).
- Hardened the app: authenticated an open sync endpoint, required session tokens on billing APIs, and added a **12-second production smoke test** across 17 admin pages plus real-browser widget tests in GitHub Actions.

#### Better Blog Comments (Shopify app, comments and ratings)

- Rewrote the storefront widget in Svelte 5 and migrated storage to Shopify metaobjects with dual-write, backfill, and safe fallbacks.
- Patched a critical XSS, customer identity spoofing, and an app-proxy HMAC validation flaw, published as a **GitHub Security Advisory**.
- Restored a rating sync into Recipe Kit that had been silently broken for months and backfilled **885 missed ratings across 15 stores**. Cut about **100 KB** from the settings bundle and added comment likes and a stats dashboard.

#### Internal platform and Wait.li (SvelteKit admin tools, React Router 7 app)

- Built an operational-tools framework for the internal admin (tool registry, role-based access, preview, confirm, and audit log) and a **CSS Studio** with live DOM inspection and an AI assistant for merchant styling fixes.
- Wrote a JSON-LD recipe schema validator and data-repair scripts. Added a Playwright E2E API suite to the Wait.li rewrite.
- Resolved **586 merchant support tickets** in Help Scout, turning recurring issues into product fixes.

**Stack:** TypeScript, Next.js, React, Svelte 5, Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL, Prisma, Redis, Bull, pg-boss, Shopify Polaris, Liquid, Cloudflare Workers, OpenAI, Sentry, GitHub Actions

### Founder and Lead Engineer, Matt Ruetz Web Solutions
Jan 2022 to Present · Burnaby, BC · https://mattruetz.com

Independent studio building web platforms and custom sites for startups and businesses across Canada and the US. 30+ projects shipped with a 5.0 average client review.

#### SmileJump (Dental patient-acquisition marketplace, sole engineer) · https://www.smilejump.com

- Architected and built the full production platform alone: **1,532 commits, 316 merged PRs, 247 API routes, 101 pages** on Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, and MongoDB, with 5 user roles from patient to super admin.
- Replaced a manual spreadsheet workflow where ad leads waited **6 to 8 hours** for first contact with automated Twilio SMS and an **AI nurture agent** (Vercel AI SDK tool calling) that finds clinics, checks live availability, and books appointments, with guardrails, model fallbacks, human escalation, and kill switches.
- Built usage-based billing on Stripe: subscriptions, per-appointment billing events, batch invoicing, refunds, disputes, and Stripe Tax.
- Shipped an in-browser Twilio dialer with call recording and 3-way conferencing, consent-aware SMS, 14 scheduled jobs, a Meta lead-ingestion pipeline, and geographic market-intelligence reports.
- Documented architecture with ADRs and dated design docs, and covered critical paths with 74 Vitest suites.

#### HomeJump (Home-services marketplace, lead engineer) · https://www.homejump.ca

- Led development of a two-sided contractor marketplace (**968 commits, 295 merged PRs, 313 API routes**) and directed a second developer.
- Built contractor identity verification with Stripe Identity, lead-credit pricing, referrals, quotes, and a project lifecycle engine.
- Designed a branching question-tree service catalogue builder with an AI audit pipeline, seeded by custom Playwright scrapers.

#### LinkBro (Canadian ISP, lead-gen platform and billing integrations) · https://linkbro.ca

- Built the SvelteKit and PocketBase site and lead platform: B2B and residential prequalification, lead admin with status tracking, Meta Lead Ads webhooks, and funnel drop-off analytics.
- Wrote custom PHP **WHMCS provisioning modules** for three upstream carriers (GigaFibr, BeaverTV, SystemLifeline) to automate product sync, ordering, and fees.
- Built a GeoPandas pipeline that joins federal ISP coverage data with postal boundaries to find **1,630 fibre-serviceable postal areas** for targeting.

#### Client platforms and sites (SaaS, non-profit, e-commerce)

- **N:OW for Net-Zero** (nowfornetzero.org): education platform for a Canadian climate foundation with member accounts, curriculum content types, funding applications, and an Energy Audit tool that generates custom reports.
- Custom-coded SvelteKit, WordPress, and Shopify builds for 20+ businesses including Fern Ridge Eco-Landscapes, Luke Gelata Films, Harvest Shreds, and oo'mämē, all built to WCAG 2.1 AA and Core Web Vitals targets.

**Stack:** Next.js, React, SvelteKit, TypeScript, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, PocketBase, Stripe, Twilio, Vercel AI SDK, Resend, Cloudflare R2, Vercel, Docker, WordPress, Shopify, PHP, Python

### Lead Web Designer and Developer, Growth Boss Digital Marketing Agency
Apr 2022 to Aug 2024 · Remote

- Led the agency's web team, delivering design, development, and launch for multiple client websites at once.
- Designed and developed conversion-focused, responsive websites on WordPress and custom code for small and mid-sized businesses.
- Owned performance, maintenance, and fast issue resolution across the client portfolio, and wrote the team's documentation for updates and maintenance.

**Stack:** WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Figma, UX/UI design

## Selected Projects

### MySurvivorClub (Consumer SaaS, personal product)
Feb 2025 to Present

Fantasy league platform for the TV show Survivor, rebuilt from Next.js and MongoDB into SvelteKit with Lucia auth, Drizzle, PostgreSQL, Stripe payments, and Cloudflare R2 (300+ commits).

### Clarence and Hermes Quant (Algorithmic trading systems)
Mar 2026 to Jun 2026

A Python crypto grid-trading bot (FastAPI, ccxt, websockets, Docker) with ATR-adaptive grids, FIFO lot P&L, and a drawdown kill switch, plus a TypeScript research workbench using the Anthropic API to propose, backtest, validate against overfitting, and paper-trade strategies (500 commits combined).

### Project Twilight (WIP) (Multi-tenant agency SaaS, in development)
Jun 2026 to Present

AI-native operating platform for marketing agencies, nested Agency to Brand to Campaign, with an AI agent docked on every screen that drives the app through typed tools, Meta ad account sync, and a creator marketplace. Built on Next.js, Clerk organizations, Neon Postgres with Drizzle, Inngest workflows, and Vercel Blob, tested with Playwright and Vitest (300+ commits in 3 months).

## Education

### Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), Computer Engineering, University of Guelph
2016 to 2021

**Coursework:** Software Design, Data Structures and Algorithms, Large-Scale Software Architecture, Database Management