Sr. Full-Stack Engineer — Team Lead

AmerHamdan

Ten years of shipping and re-shipping production web systems: news platforms, global hiring marketplaces, a restaurant SaaS with 1,000+ active users. Most of the work is migration — taking something slow and legacy and rebuilding it without ever turning it off.

Amer Hamdan, Senior Full-Stack Engineer & Tech Lead
Istanbul, TR
Based
Istanbul, Türkiye
Remote-friendly
Open to
Senior full-stack · Tech lead
AI-product · Architecture
Core stack
TypeScript · Next.js · Node
Laravel · PostgreSQL · GCP
Span
2016 — present
Ten years in production
Building for production
10 yrsBuilding for production2016 — Present
Performance gain
+70%Performance gainWordPress → Next.js rebuild
Active SaaS users
1,000+Active SaaS usersAmenu, built solo
Sites delivered
21+Sites deliveredAs team lead at Alpha Creative

Profile

Senior full-stack engineer and team lead with ten years building and rebuilding production web platforms across news, recruitment, healthcare research, and SaaS. Leads small teams through legacy migrations — PHP to Laravel, WordPress to Next.js — and ships the result with measurable gains in performance, engagement, and delivery rate. Comfortable owning the whole path: data model, API, interface, cloud deployment, and the SEO and Core Web Vitals work that decides whether anyone finds the product at all.

Work

Work history

  1. 2023now

    Senior Full-Stack Developer / Team Lead

    ID8 Media · Istanbul, Türkiye

    Lead engineer across the agency's product portfolio — multi-client platforms, newsroom tooling, and large-scale hiring products.

    • Raised project success rate 25% by leading development teams through 5 complex, concurrent client builds.
    • Improved software efficiency 15% for news agencies by engineering tailored publishing and content-delivery solutions.
    • Built large-scale global hiring platforms handling multi-region job data and employer workflows.
    • Own the delivery pipeline for multi-client sites: architecture, code review, deployment, and post-launch performance.
    • Team leadership
    • Next.js
    • Node.js
    • TypeScript
    • Laravel
    • Google Cloud Run
  2. 2021now

    Web Lead & Site Administrator

    Multifaith Alliance · New York, United States (remote)

    Rebuilt and now maintain the public platform for a US non-profit working across the MENA region.

    • Improved site performance 70% by rebuilding the entire site with Next.js and Tailwind CSS.
    • Migrated a legacy WordPress installation to a fully custom modern stack with no loss of content or search ranking.
    • Built dynamic page types and a reusable component system the non-profit's staff can extend without a developer.
    • Reworked SEO structure, page-load speed, responsive behaviour, and production deployment.
    • Next.js
    • Tailwind CSS
    • SEO
    • Migration
    • Core Web Vitals
  3. 2020now

    Founder & CEO

    Amenu (SaaS) · Global

    Menu-management SaaS for restaurants, designed, built, and operated solo.

    • Grew to 1,000+ active users, demonstrating real market adoption without a sales team.
    • Shipped three major versions, each iterating on features, onboarding, and performance from live usage data.
    • Built and run the full stack independently — product, front end, back end, billing, infrastructure, and support.
    • SaaS
    • Product ownership
    • Full-stack
    • Multi-tenant
  4. 20212023

    Head of Developers Team

    Orient News · Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Led the engineering team behind the digital transformation of a major regional news agency.

    • Increased user engagement 30% by leading the development of a new website for a major news agency.
    • Boosted platform performance 30% by migrating the newsroom from native PHP to Laravel.
    • Built and led the development team from scratch, setting review standards and release process.
    • Owned the SEO strategy and content architecture, growing organic traffic and improving Core Web Vitals.
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    • Next.js
    • Technical SEO
    • Team building
  5. 20162021

    Head of Developers

    Alpha Creative Agency · Istanbul, Türkiye

    Ran the programming team at a full-service creative agency.

    • Delivered 21+ production websites across client industries.
    • Led the programming team day to day, from scoping through delivery and handover.
    • Designed and implemented admin panels and front-end interfaces for clients with no in-house technical staff.
    • PHP
    • Team leadership
    • Admin systems
    • Front-end

Also, over the same years

  1. 2020now

    SEO & Technical ConsultantFreelance

    Global

    Delivered comprehensive site status analyses for 100 clients, translating audits into ranked action lists.

  2. 20202021

    Senior ConsultantInhouse Global

    Istanbul, Türkiye

    Increased user engagement 30% by developing a fully functional website from scratch.

  3. 20192020

    Full-Stack Web DeveloperJob2Go Recruitment Agency

    Wales, United Kingdom

    Reduced downtime 30% by defining the site roadmap and establishing robust server infrastructure.

  4. 20182019

    Full-Stack Web DeveloperQuestionnaire Connect

    United States (remote)

    Increased survey response rate 35% by developing a purpose-built web application for Questionnaire Connect®.

Projects

Selected projects

  • +30% engagement · +30% platform performance

    Orient News Platform

    Orient News · 2021 — 2023

    Full digital transformation of a regional news agency: legacy native PHP rebuilt on Laravel, then a Next.js front end on top for speed and search.

    • Migrated the newsroom off native PHP without interrupting publishing
    • Built and led the engineering team from zero
    • Restructured content architecture and technical SEO
    • Optimised Core Web Vitals across article and index pages
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    • Next.js
    • React
    • SEO
  • +70% site performance

    Multifaith Alliance

    2021 — Present

    Complete rebuild of a US non-profit's public platform, moving from WordPress to a custom Next.js and Tailwind stack with a reusable component system.

    • WordPress → Next.js migration with content and rankings preserved
    • Dynamic page types staff can compose without a developer
    • SEO structure and page-load rework
    • Responsive design and production deployment pipeline
    • Next.js
    • Tailwind CSS
    • TypeScript
    • Migration
    • SEO
  • 1,000+ active users

    Amenu

    Independent · 2020 — Present

    Menu-management SaaS for restaurants. Built solo end to end and iterated across three major versions based on how real venues actually used it.

    • Front end, back end, infrastructure, and support owned solo
    • Three shipped versions driven by live usage data
    • Multi-tenant architecture for independent venues
    • Sustained adoption with no sales team
    • SaaS
    • Node.js
    • Product
    • Multi-tenant
  • +25% project success rate across 5 builds

    Global Hiring Platforms

    ID8 Media · 2023 — Present

    Large-scale recruitment platforms handling multi-region job data, employer workflows, and candidate matching, delivered alongside multi-client site operations.

    • Multi-region job data models and employer workflows
    • Led concurrent delivery across five complex builds
    • Shared component and deployment standards across clients
    • Cloud Run deployment with CI/CD
    • Next.js
    • TypeScript
    • Node.js
    • Google Cloud Run
    • Docker
Stack

What I build with

Backend
  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • Laravel (PHP)
  • Strapi
  • RESTful API design
  • Authentication
  • Role & permission systems
  • Caching
Frontend
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Tailwind CSS
  • HTML5
  • CSS3
  • Responsive design
  • UI/UX
  • shadcn/ui
  • Material UI
  • REST API integration
Data
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • Prisma ORM
  • Schema design
Cloud & DevOps
  • Google Cloud Run
  • Google Cloud Build
  • Docker
  • Linux server management
  • Nginx
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Git
  • GitHub
AI Integration
  • LLM API integration
  • AI-assisted product features
  • Workflow automation
  • AI-assisted development tooling
Practice
  • Technical & on-page SEO
  • Core Web Vitals
  • Team leadership
  • Agile / Scrum
  • Accessible layouts
  • Jira, Trello, Slack
Languages
ArabicNativeEnglishProfessional working proficiencyTurkishAdvanced
Contact

Take the CV with you

Open to senior full-stack, tech lead, and AI-product roles — remote or Istanbul. The fastest way to reach me is email — I answer within a day.

The JSON follows the JSON Resume schema, so an applicant tracking system or an AI agent can read the whole record without parsing a document. There is a /llms.txt too, and the CV is also a plain web page.

Phone / WhatsApp
+90 553 327 11 00