Scott Keck-Warren

warren5236@gmail.com | Saginaw, MI | scott.keck-warren.com | github.com/warren5236

Backend engineer, 15+ years. Built a SaaS survey platform for long-term care facilities from zero to $3M ARR; now writing backend services and integrations at Activated Insights. PHP/Laravel background with deep OOP grounding.

Experience

Senior Software Engineer

April 2025 – Present

Activated Insights · Remote

  • Migrated the application to AWS, cutting hosting costs 50% and improving response times by more than 25%.
  • Built integrations with Vicidial (predictive dialer) and Keycloak (identity/auth) to support a contact center workflow serving 3,000+ long-term care facilities.
  • Worked within HIPAA compliance requirements throughout; data handling, access controls, and integrations all built to meet those standards.
  • Built an AI-assisted development workflow covering spec review, code generation, and PHPUnit test coverage; the team adopted it and now ships every feature through it.
  • Built MySQL views for cross-department reporting, giving non-engineering teams direct query access without touching production tables.

Chief Technology Officer

April 2018 – April 2025

WeCare Connect · Frankenmuth, MI

  • First engineer; built the core PHP/Laravel SaaS platform from scratch, then grew the team to five developers by recruiting, performing technical interviews, training sessions, and ongoing mentoring.
  • Built HIPAA-compliant HRIS and EMR integrations with long-term care facility administrators, writing technical specs with customers before any code was written.
  • Cut dashboard load times from 20+ seconds to under 1 second for large clients by rewriting ORM queries as raw SQL using views and targeted denormalization.
  • Wrote product requirements with internal product owners and external customers before implementation began.
  • Scaled the platform to $3M+ ARR.

Programming Manager

February 2012 – March 2018

STAGES Software · Frankenmuth, MI

  • Joined as junior developer on a K-12 teacher evaluation platform serving 500+ school districts; left as lead architect.
  • Migrated the application from no framework to Laravel with no downtime.
  • Hired and led three developers as the team grew.

Skills

Content & Community:
Video editing, podcast hosting, short-form content, technical writing, conference speaking, developer education
AI & LLMs:
LLMs, MCP servers, tool-calling agents, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted development
Languages:
PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SQL
Frameworks & Frontend:
Laravel, Livewire, Eloquent, Angular, Bootstrap
Backend & Data:
SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL), NoSQL (Redis, Memcache, MongoDB), REST APIs, GraphQL, microservices, event-driven architecture, queue-driven processing
Integrations:
Stripe, Twilio, ViciDial, Keycloak
Architecture & Design:
Object-oriented design patterns, event-sourcing
Infra & DevOps:
AWS, Docker, Linux, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, New Relic
Quality & Tooling:
PHPUnit, PHPStan, Rector, Git, end-to-end testing
Security & Auth:
OAuth, SSO, HIPAA
Process:
Scrum, Jira, project management

Publications & Media

  • Monthly PHP column, php[architect], November 2024 – present.
  • Host, php[architect] Community Corner podcast, bi-weekly, November 2023 – present.
  • Educational video series on PHP and web development, php[architect] YouTube channel, August 2022 – present.

Education

BS, Computer Engineering

2009

Michigan State University · Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu