Senior web developer & team leader · 9+ years

Clearer experiences.
Stronger systems.

I’m Andrew. I connect product thinking, hands-on engineering, and team leadership to turn complex web challenges into useful experiences—and systems built to grow.

Explore my work Contact Andrew
From thinking to shipping

01 / Idea

Start with the right question.

Connect the user need, business goal, and constraints before choosing what to build.

Explore my approach

An interactive sketch of how I think—not a client deliverable.

Experience, in context

Ripley’s: supporting a WordPress multisite, then bringing multiple websites into one site.

30+ legacy websites modernized
in a six-month overhaul
25% online conversion increase
reported after launch
~8hrs manual editorial work
saved each week
1.03M peak monthly visits on
the consolidated Ripley’s site

Ripley’s conversion result came from private company analytics shared with stakeholders and was measured within one month after the six-month overhaul.

Selected work / 01

Complex challenges. Useful outcomes.

Modernizing platforms, simplifying workflows, and connecting technical decisions to the people and businesses they serve.

Conceptual illustration of legacy website interfaces being consolidated into a modern platform with analytics dashboards.
Conceptual illustration of website consolidation; it is not a screenshot of the delivered product.
01 Enterprise · Website consolidation

Ripley’s Multisite-to-Single-Site Overhaul

Supported Ripley’s WordPress multisite, then helped overhaul it by bringing multiple websites into a single site while maintaining day-to-day operations.

Senior Web Developer / Team Lead; managed 1–4 developers and coordinated with QA and cross-department design and content partners.

  • 30+ legacy websites modernized six-month consolidation project
  • +25% online conversions within one month after launch
  • 1.03M peak monthly visits consolidated Ripley’s website
  • Technical leadership
  • Site consolidation
  • Accessibility
  • Svelte
  • TypeScript
Explore the case study
Conceptual illustration of scattered documents and media flowing through editing, approval, scheduling, and publishing into multiple digital channels.
Conceptual illustration of editorial workflow automation; it does not depict the actual system or its integrations.
02 Ripley’s Entertainment · Content operations

Editorial Workflow Automation

Automated recurring editorial steps across notifications, editing, approvals, scheduling, and publishing.

Built an automated editorial workflow as part of senior web development and team leadership work.

  • ~8 hrs manual work saved per week; approximate observed estimate
  • Automation
  • Editorial operations
  • Workflow design
  • Efficiency
Explore the case study
Conceptual illustration of multiple digital properties connected through a central integration layer to content management, analytics, and supporting systems.
Conceptual illustration of a connected multi-site ecosystem; it does not depict the actual systems or their integrations.
03 Web operations · Performance optimization

National Park Express Performance

Personally optimized a National Park Express site, reducing reported page-load times from more than seven seconds to under four.

As Webmaster, owned website strategy and operations across development, performance, SEO/SEM, integrations, maintenance, and delivery.

  • 7+ sec page-load time before optimization
  • <4 sec page-load time after optimization
  • Performance
  • WordPress
  • APIs
  • E-commerce
  • Web operations
Explore the case study
Responsive desktop, tablet, and phone mockups displaying the Love Like Landon nonprofit website and its donation call to action.
Love Like Landon’s website shown across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
04 Nonprofit · WordPress · SEO

Love Like Landon

A nonprofit website organized around a clear donation journey, persistent donation call to action, and a custom contact form.

Freelance project — end-to-end ownership across strategy, design, development, and delivery, including website and SEO optimization.

  • +80% organic traffic growth following website and SEO optimization
  • WordPress
  • SEO
  • Organic traffic
  • Donation flow
Explore the case study
Responsive desktop, tablet, and phone mockups displaying the Leelanau Gear storefront and outdoor retail brands.
Leelanau Gear’s unified storefront, shown across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
05 Retail · WordPress · Performance

Leelanau Gear

A website refresh that brought two sites under one brand and made seasonal store hours and directions easier to find.

Freelance project — end-to-end ownership, with targeted website optimization and performance improvements.

  • 50s–60s initial performance scores
  • 80s–90s scores within the first month
  • WordPress
  • Performance
  • Content structure
  • Responsive design
Explore the case study
Desktop screenshot of the AP Web Tech homepage with a service-focused headline and project-start and website-evaluation calls to action.
AP Web Tech homepage, desktop view.
06 Owned business · Web development

AP Web Tech

My business website brings together service positioning, a clear project process, selected client work, and practical guidance for businesses investing in their web presence.

My own business — end-to-end ownership of client projects from discovery and strategy through design, development, deployment, and ongoing support.

  • 20+ client websites delivered
  • 20+ client websites
  • Positioning
  • Content strategy
  • SEO
Visit the website
Silver Showers Senior Care desktop homepage with services navigation and an in-home hygiene assistance message over a photograph of a senior with a dog.
Silver Showers Senior Care homepage, desktop view.
07 Senior care · WordPress

Silver Showers Senior Care

A focused website that helps seniors and families understand non-medical in-home care, local coverage, and how to ask for support.

Freelance project — end-to-end ownership across strategy, design, development, and delivery.

  • 50/100 performance score PageSpeed Insights mobile
  • 100/100 accessibility score PageSpeed Insights mobile
  • 92/100 best practices score PageSpeed Insights mobile
  • 85/100 SEO score PageSpeed Insights mobile
  • WordPress
  • Service journeys
  • Local SEO
Explore the case study

These case studies focus on documented outcomes and responsibilities. Replace temporary visuals with client or employer imagery only after confirming it can be shared publicly.

What I bring / 02

Engineering, with leadership.

Not just the tools or the code—a connected practice spanning product goals, team collaboration, technical decisions, and what ships.

01

Engineering & team leadership

Connecting product goals to technical direction while helping a web team collaborate and deliver dependable work.

  • Technical architecture
  • Team management
  • Technical leadership
  • Project delivery
  • Documentation
02

Frontend & experience

Building responsive interfaces with care for how they read, feel, and work across devices.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Svelte
  • UI/UX
03

Platforms & integrations

Connecting content systems and external services to a business's everyday needs.

  • WordPress
  • PHP
  • AJAX
  • API integrations
  • jQuery
04

Quality & delivery

Making launches more dependable and experiences easier to find, use, and maintain.

  • Performance
  • Accessibility
  • SEO / SEM
  • Analytics
  • Cloudflare
  • GitHub

Problem solving / 03

Start with the problem.
Follow the evidence.

A repeatable way to move from a confusing symptom to a tested, maintainable improvement. Open any step to see the questions behind it.

This is the approach I bring to technical and product problems—not a claim that every project followed an identical process.

  1. 01 Understand the problem Who is affected, what are they trying to do, and what is happening instead?

    Clarify the user, business goal, constraints, and the behavior that needs to change before choosing a solution.

  2. 02 Measure what matters What evidence can distinguish a real issue from an assumption?

    Use the evidence available—user reports, analytics, reproduction steps, or system behavior—and be clear about what is not yet known.

  3. 03 Investigate the system Where does the behavior begin, and which connected parts influence it?

    Trace the path through the interface, data, integrations, and delivery environment rather than patching only the visible symptom.

  4. 04 Find the root cause Which cause best explains the evidence and the surrounding behavior?

    Compare likely explanations against what can be observed. Keep uncertainty explicit when the evidence is incomplete.

  5. 05 Implement a focused change What is the smallest coherent change that addresses the cause?

    Choose an approach that fits the existing architecture, preserves intended behavior, and avoids adding needless complexity.

  6. 06 Validate and iterate Does the change work in the real experience, including edge cases?

    Check the result against the original problem, test relevant behavior, and refine the solution when the evidence calls for it.

Architecture perspective / 04

Think in connected layers.

A useful web experience is a system. Explore the layers—and the quality concerns that cross all of them.

This is a way to reason about web products, not a diagram of one specific project’s implementation.

  1. 01
    UI / UX

    The interface, content, and paths people use to accomplish a task.

  2. 02
    Components

    Reusable interface pieces and the boundaries that keep them understandable.

  3. 03
    Application

    The product behavior that connects interface actions with useful outcomes.

  4. 04
    Server

    Handle requests and provide application services when the project needs them.

  5. 05
    Data

    The content and information a product needs to present or process.

  6. 06
    Infrastructure

    The hosting and delivery foundations that make the experience available.

Experience / 05

Built with teams. Grew into leading them.

Freelance ownership and in-house development leadership have both shaped how I approach web work.

AP Web Tech ran concurrently with my other roles; Ripley’s was my primary in-house focus.

  1. Jun 2022–Apr 2025

    Ripley’s Entertainment

    Senior Web Developer / Team Lead · progression into web team management

    Supported a WordPress multisite, then helped bring multiple websites into a single site during a six-month overhaul that modernized 30+ legacy websites. A 25% conversion increase was reported within one month after launch. Also prioritized accessibility improvements and built editorial automation that saved about eight hours of manual work per week.

  2. Nov 2019–Oct 2021

    National Park Express

    Webmaster

    Owned web operations across development, performance, SEO/SEM, integrations, maintenance, and delivery; reduced page-load times from 7+ seconds to under 4 seconds.

  3. Apr 2016–Present

    AP Web Tech

    Senior Web Developer · freelance

    Delivered 20+ client websites, owning work across discovery, development, responsive UX, technical SEO, performance, branding, deployment, and ongoing support. This work ran concurrently with in-house roles.

A little about me / 06

Andrew Petersen in a navy blazer and white shirt, seated in an office.

I care about the thinking behind the interface.

I’m Andrew, a senior web developer with more than nine years of professional experience. I’ve worked across freelance client projects and in-house web teams, from owning a project end to end to leading senior development work and taking on web team management.

That leadership experience complements my hands-on engineering. I care about helping a team align on priorities, make sound technical decisions, and deliver work that serves the people using and maintaining it.

My work often sits between interface, engineering, content, and business goals. I look beyond the visible symptom to understand how the pieces fit together, then work iteratively—finding the root problem, making a cohesive change, and checking it against real behavior. I value clear communication, evidence over assumptions, and technology that solves the need without adding needless complexity.

Start a conversation / 07

Let’s make the web work better.

For a role, a thoughtful question, or a conversation about the work.

Email Andrew LinkedIn