Same person in the discovery meeting and the code editor.

I work with you from first conversation through last deployment. No handoff, no translation layer. I write the code myself.

I ship faster than I used to. My tools got better. And so did I.

Thirty years of engineering judgment plus AI-assisted development. I can see the whole system and still be the one at the keyboard.

Most senior consultants advise. I build.

I'm not here to write a report and leave. I'm here to ship the thing that solves your problem.

I don't hand off the hard parts.

The discovery work, the architecture, the code, the rollout. Same person, one conversation, all the way through.

Thirty years in. Still the one at the keyboard.

Developer, architect, CTO, VP. The titles kept changing. The code kept calling me back.

I build software that makes people say "I didn't know that was possible."

That reaction is what every project is for. Everything else is engineering in service of it.

Your idea. My hands. Working software.

I listen harder than most developers. I ship faster than most consultants. The overlap is where the interesting work happens.

The builder you wish had been in the first meeting.

I understand the business problem. I know what's actually buildable. I start building on day one.

Get in touch
David M. Anderson

What I build

Client engagements and open source projects. I build both, and they feed each other.

Case Study Government

Large Municipal Government Portfolio Rationalization

Built the scoring engine, financial model, and contract-to-application mapping for a 600-application portfolio spanning 47 departments. Automated the analysis and handed the team the tools to keep the program running after the engagement.

  • 600+ applications inventoried and scored
  • $8.78M verified savings in Tier 1 consolidations
  • 28 contract cancellations ready to execute
  • Tools still in use
Major US city
Case Study Startup

Industrial B2B Marketplace Startup

Joined a seed-stage startup as Interim CTO. The product was a Joomla proof of concept; I rebuilt it from scratch as the sole developer on PHP, hired an onshore/offshore engineering team, and migrated the platform to Java as the product matured. Stayed to close the Series A, then exited.

  • Product rebuilt from the ground up
  • Engineering team hired and led
  • Platform migration PHP to Java
  • $5M Series A raised
Seed-stage startup · Interim CTO
Case Study Professional Services

New Service Line at a Professional Services Firm

Designed and stood up a new service offering from concept to recurring revenue. Built the practice, the delivery model, the client relationships, and the team around it. Zero to $500K ARR in three years. Still running.

  • New practice area built from scratch
  • $500K ARR within three years
  • Team hired and led
  • Offering still in market
Professional services firm
Case Study Startup Technology

Technology Startup Operational Turnaround

Walked into a $250K operating loss and built the systems, processes, and tools that reversed it. That infrastructure is what made the turnaround stick.

  • $250K operating loss reversed to profit in six months
  • Operational systems built and in use
  • Team aligned on a new rhythm
Series A technology startup
Case Study Energy Productivity

Intranet Modernization at an LNG Operator

Migrated an LNG operator's intranet to SharePoint Modern with a hub-site architecture. Delivered the base framework, branded navigation, and governance pattern in the planned 60-day window, and trained the internal team to own the platform from day one.

  • 25 sites consolidated under a single hub-site architecture
  • IT exited per-site administration to focus on platform health
  • Corporate communications shifted from broadcast email to the intranet; executive voice followed
  • Internal team has owned maintenance since launch; ongoing engagement for guidance and training
Major US LNG operator
Case Study Energy Human Resources Productivity

Talent Lifecycle Management on Microsoft 365

Built three Microsoft 365 workflows — Onboarding, Offboarding, and Transfer — to replace a brittle Jotform process. Designed as a stop-gap between an outgrown Paycom and a coming UKG implementation. The stop-gap stuck.

  • Microsoft Lists, Forms, and Power Automate; internal team owned the solution from day one
  • ~20 hires/transfers and ~20 offboards processed per month since launch
  • Scattered "people data" centralized into a working source of truth
  • Adapted to consume UKG as the data source in phase two; still running today
Major US LNG operator
Case Study Energy Productivity

Interim Directives Tracking for Regulated LNG Operations

Built parallel SharePoint sites for pipeline and terminal operations (kept separate by regulation) to capture interim directives, track acknowledgements, and notify managers as due dates approach. Replaced a spreadsheet-and-email process that no longer scaled.

  • Two sites, ~4 Power Automate workflows each; initial delivery in three weeks, agile cycle since
  • 2-4 directives issued per week, hundreds of acknowledgements per directive
  • SharePoint-triggered workflows: response capture, due-date tracking, manager escalation
  • Auditable system of record for a regulator-facing process
Major US LNG operator
Case Study Energy Finance Productivity

Sales-and-Use Tax Decision Tool

Replaced an expert-only Excel tax matrix with a guided form casual users could navigate. The client assumed Microsoft Forms or Power Apps were the only options for a SharePoint-hosted tool; built it as HTML and JavaScript inside a SharePoint .aspx page so the business team could maintain the rules in a plain constants file.

  • HTML and JavaScript embedded in SharePoint via classic .aspx pages
  • Lookup rules and item categories live in a separate constants file that finance staff edit directly
  • Covers Texas and Louisiana sales-and-use-tax rules including direct-pay exemptions
  • In production daily; users describe it as a major time-saver vs. the old matrix
Major US LNG operator
Case Study Energy Information Management

CFIHOS Handover Plan for an LNG Export Mega-Project

Authored the DFO (Documents for Operation) Handover Master Project Plan and Information Specifications that now govern document and data transfer from EPC contractors to an LNG operator. Translated the CFIHOS industry standard into a working contract artifact through cross-functional engagement across executive, legal, commercial, finance, supply chain, operations, and SSHE groups.

  • Master Overarching Project Plan and DFO Information Specifications delivered
  • Aligned with CFIHOS Implementation Guide for Principals, extended for operator-specific requirements
  • Multi-year EPC handover underway against this plan
  • Governs document and data delivery for a $10B+ LNG export build-out
Major US LNG operator
Case Study Energy Human Resources Information Management

UKG-to-Azure SQL Pipeline for Power BI Analytics

Built a Java service to pull employee data — timesheets, pay history, requisitions, demographics — from UKG (Ultipro) into the client's Azure SQL data warehouse on a nightly cadence. The Power BI team had the analytics skills and UKG had documented its REST API; the missing piece was the integration.

  • Filled the gap between UKG's REST API and the client's Power BI team
  • Plain Java, JDBC, hand-rolled REST client; no framework
  • Briefly built a MongoDB variant on a senior manager's preference; demonstrated Azure SQL was the right target and pivoted back
  • Nightly job still running in production; team has owned it since handoff
Oilfield chemicals firm
Case Study Energy Finance Information Management

AFE and JIB Workflow Migration off OpenText

Rebuilt the AFE (Authorization for Expenditure) and JIB (Joint Interest Billing) workflows for a 20-person finance organization that had divested most of its E&P assets but couldn't retire its OpenText subscription while those workflows depended on it. New workflows shipped on Power Automate and SharePoint; OpenText went away. Parallel workstream implemented the records retention schedule on Microsoft Purview to govern the new SharePoint content.

  • AFE (Authorization for Expenditure) and JIB (Joint Interest Billing) workflows rebuilt on Power Automate and SharePoint
  • OpenText subscription retired after migration, eliminating a major recurring cost for the lean org
  • Records retention schedule implemented on Microsoft Purview as a parallel workstream
  • Workflows have run independently for ~5 years post-handoff (confirmed by a contact after the company was acquired)
Mid-cap E&P independent turned holding company
Open Source Productivity

Blick

Your Microsoft 365 day on a single screen: next meeting, the rest of today's calendar, unread email, Teams chats with new activity, and your presence. RSVP from the calendar card or directly from the email row. Set your Teams presence and out-of-office without opening Teams. Free. Open source. iOS-first.

  • Native iOS app in Swift and SwiftUI (iOS 17+); home-screen widget for next meeting, unread count, and pending chats
  • Microsoft Graph for live calendar, email, Teams chats, and presence; bulk inbox triage tuned for Focused, Other, meeting notices, mailing lists, and external senders
  • MIT-licensed; no analytics, no telemetry, no third-party trackers; talks only to Microsoft endpoints
Open Source Information Management Technology

xql

A SQL prompt for SharePoint lists and CSV files. Bind to a list through Microsoft Graph, or to a local CSV, then run SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT through one command-line tool. WHERE clauses translate to server-side OData, so even large lists return fast. Writes preview by default, so you see which rows would change before committing. Built for the bulk-edit problems the SharePoint UI gives up on and Power Automate can't fix without Premium.

  • Pure Go single binary; multi-tenant device-code auth via MSAL, works against any tenant out of the box
  • One grammar across two backends — the same SQL runs against SharePoint lists and CSV files
  • Dry-run preview with row sample and explicit confirmation; interactive REPL or one-shot --exec mode
Open Source Technology

paxc

A small DSL that turns Power Automate's verbose flow JSON into readable source code. Write terse code; deploy real flows. The interpreter paxr runs the same source locally so you can iterate without round-tripping through the cloud designer.

  • Rust compiler, local interpreter, and legacy-format packager
  • Round-trip ingest from real PA exports validated end to end
  • Covers PA's full action graph: control flow, error handlers, expressions, connectors
In Development Productivity

Xinglet

A small web app for creating and sharing single-page HTML files. Sign in, write HTML/CSS/JS in a real code editor, preview in a sandboxed frame, share with other users or invited email addresses, and download the file when you're ready. Built for the kind of one-page experiments that don't deserve a repo.

  • PHP and SQLite on shared hosting, no framework
  • CodeMirror 6 editor with sandboxed preview
  • Per-user accounts, share by user or email invitation
  • Hosted at xinglet.com, free to use
Open Source Technology

ved

A drop-in clone of ed, the original Unix line editor, in pure-stdlib Rust. Same interface and command set; friendlier when you're learning. Scripts written for real ed run against ved unchanged.

  • Pure-stdlib Rust, no external crates, no C dependencies
  • Drop-in compatible with GNU ed for scripts and pipelines
  • Adds clear error messages, command confirmations, and built-in help
Open Source Information Management Technology

Xensus

A self-hosted identity registry for Microsoft 365 tenants. It hands every person a permanent integer ID, never reused, and records where they appear across HR, Active Directory, and vendor systems, carrying the foreign ID each system knows them by. It doesn't sync, deduplicate, or replace your HR system; stewards assert and Xensus records, faithfully and audited. Useful exactly where stricter tools fail: when the truth is messy and spread across systems that disagree.

  • Pure Go, MIT-licensed; authentication runs through your own Microsoft Entra tenant over OpenID Connect
  • Never calls Microsoft Graph and reads nothing beyond the sign-in token; every write captured in an immutable audit log
  • First sign-in binds the deployment to its tenant; per-list CSV and full-registry zip export
Open Source Productivity

blick (CLI)

The command-line sibling of the Blick iOS app. Run blick and it prints what's next: your next meeting and how long until it starts, unread Outlook email, and the Teams chats with new activity. Email and chats share one numbered list, so acting is a keystroke — read a message, r3 to reply, d2 to mark read, x to clear and quit. No switching between Outlook and Teams to see who's waiting on you.

  • Single Go binary, no runtime dependencies; device-code OAuth into your own Microsoft 365, talks only to Microsoft Graph
  • Reply and triage inline from one numbered list of mail and chats
  • Same Microsoft 365 day as the Blick iOS app, a different surface

What clients say

"David maintains an incredible grasp on the details of his projects but doesn't get lost in them — he understands the big picture and keeps focused on success. I try to request David for my key projects. If cloning were legal, more of my clients would get to know David."

Mark Swanholm, VP Partnerships & Alliances, BillingPlatform

"David is one of those rare individuals who understands what it takes to deliver a successful project from a business, technical, and management perspective."

Michael Hergenrader, COO, Alitek Solutions

"It's rare to come across a dedicated professional that is as personable as David Anderson. He should be your next strategic hire. I have worked with David on numerous projects over the last five years and he has always proven to be a strong project manager and an excellent delivery principal."

Chris McWilliams, IT Consultant

"He is always one step ahead of the game and ensures his team is ready to handle anything that gets thrown at them. His communication skills are impeccable and he is extremely tactful when dealing with clients to ensure both parties come out on top. David goes above and beyond, and you can always count on him to deliver what was promised."

Adam Howe, APS Manager, Alitek Solutions

"I have worked with David in varying roles since 2005 and have gained an immense level of respect for his professionalism and integrity over that time. David always seeks to understand his clients' needs and deliver solutions that are tailored to achieving their specific objectives."

Steven Thomason, Manufacturing Compliance, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

"He has a great ability to quietly encourage his team members and make them feel that their role is an integral key component to the success of the project. He is a great listener and great motivator. His positive approach to difficult problems is one of the things that make him stand apart."

Russell Willmon, Senior Manager, Alitek Consulting

"He is a natural leader who can be relied on to deliver beyond expectations and help develop others on the team. His attitude fosters a professional and enjoyable work environment."

Julie Barrett, IT Consultant and Contractor

"He is a consultant and project manager of high integrity and strong work ethic."

Jim Hertzfeld, Digital Consulting, Strategy & Innovation

How I work

Most engagements start with a conversation about a problem. I listen for a while, ask a lot of questions, and start building. Not a prototype to demonstrate a concept; the thing itself, rough but working, that we can change on the spot while the person who will use it watches.

I stay in the room from that first conversation through the last deployment. There is no handoff. The person writing the code is the person who sat with the stakeholders. I am the one asking what actually needs to happen on Monday morning.

AI-assisted development is a core part of my practice. It lets me ship faster than I used to, but only because thirty years of engineering judgment keeps the code clean. I can tell good AI output from bad output, and I rewrite the bad parts. I also build in the open when I can. Open source is how I stay sharp, how I test ideas before I bring them to clients, and how I give back to the tools I use every day.

Every engagement is a build, even when it starts as strategy. A rationalization study ends with a scoring engine. A turnaround ends with the systems running the new process. The deliverable is working software, not a slide deck.

David M. Anderson

About

I have been building software for thirty years. Across that time I worked as a developer, technical lead, solutions architect, CTO, and VP. Each title took me a little farther from the code. I came back to it on purpose.

These days I am at the keyboard on hard technology problems. I analyze the data, build the tools, write the deliverables, and present the findings myself. I use AI-assisted development as a core part of how I work, not a novelty. Knowing what good code looks like is what lets me direct AI output rather than accept whatever it hands back.

Plenty of my career has been spent as a project manager, technical lead, and executive. All of that is still in the toolkit, and I am a strong project manager when the role calls for it. But it is not what I am doing now. Right now I am the person writing the code and sitting with the user while they try it. At this level of experience, that is rare, and it is where I am most useful.

My most recent engagement was an application portfolio rationalization for a large municipal government, where I built the scoring engine, the financial model, and the tools that keep the program running after I leave. Before that, client work across energy, startups, and government.

I live in Houston with my wife and kids. When I am not at the keyboard, I would rather be outside with them.

MS, Information and Telecommunication Systems Johns Hopkins University
BA, Mass Communication University of Hartford

Get in touch

If you have a hard technology problem, I would like to hear about it. I work with mid-market companies directly and with consulting firms as a subcontractor.