Micah Gentzel is a web developer with 10 years of experience in website management, full-stack development, and UX/design. Micah's technical and creative expertise is complimented by the soft skills necessary to guide clients and non-technical stakeholders in website strategy based on analytics, user experience, and accessibility best practices.
Work Experience
- 01/2024 — Present
Technical Manager
Push10 and Third & Arch- Facilitates clear and effective communication with clients to ensure their needs are met.
- Manages multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring they are completed on time and within scope.
- Leads a development team towards achieving project goals through strong guidance and support.
- Provides technical support to end-users, troubleshooting issues and offering solutions.
- 06/2022 — 01/2024
Developer Lead
- Leads WordPress development projects for an award-winning web agency based in San Jose.
- Works directly with clients, project managers, lead designers, and other stakeholders to ensure delivery of website build and maintenance projects.
- Prepares and executes website build plans, content audits, performance testing, and site optimizations.
- Manages in-house andd ofsshore development teams on each project.
- Leads website maintenance accounts for clients on retainer.
- 08/2020 — 06/2022
Full-stack Web Developer & Email Marketing Strategist
- Full-stack web developer for a full-service creative marketing agency specializing in food and beverage clients.
- Plans web projects with account executives and creative teams based on evolving best practices in web production, such as mobile-first and accessibility-focused design.
- Sets up and maintains entire web development process for clients, from hosting to website programming and ongoing maintenance.
- Builds custom HTML marketing emails and fully custom WordPress themes based on designs produced by in-house creatives.
- Designs, builds, and presents reports directly to clients regarding web and email performance against KPI goals and industry benchmarks on a quarterly basis.
- 06/2019 — 05/2020
Senior Developer & Junior Partner
Digi Dev IO- Junior partner in web development venture startup founded by FunnelKake CEO.
- Provided upgrades and maintenance to FunnelKake internal app as lead developer and operations manager.
- Worked on in-house project management and social sharing web apps intended for whitelabel use.
- Built templates for self-hosted WordPress client sites and provided maintenance and customizations as needed.
- 07/2017 — 05/2020
Web Developer
- Senior web developer for inbound marketing agency offering custom websites.
- Built client websites using WordPress, BigCommerce, and Shopify.
- Maintained and extended in-house project management system built on legacy codebase (Symfony version 2.4).
- Setup client hosting and website maintenance processes to work at scale in a small agency onboarding 5-10 clients monthly.
- 03/2017 — 01/2020
Web Developer
- Maintained legacy (Symfony version 1.3) web app with 10k clients built for small businesses to manage their own websites using a custom CMS.
- Performed on-demand customizations to client websites using built-in support ticket system.
- Worked with original developer team to modernize old templates.
- Improved site editing capability to reduce support requests.
- 05/2013 — 03/2017
WordPress Developer & Product Photographer
- Web developer for branded WordPress website for an ecommerce company based in Allentown, PA.
- Built custom HTML templates for branded eBay listings under sub-brands SkyTechStore, Time4Deal, and CoverON.
- Built custom WordPress plugins for main website for listing featured products, featured brands, and phone case search by make+model.
- Streamlined inhouse product photography by building and maintaining inhouse intranet image optimization and SKU-based indexing tools.
Soft Skills
- Leadership/Project ManagementWeb development lead.
- Reporting & KPI'sPresent performance to stakeholders.
- Website StrategyInformation architecture and goals.
- Email Marketing StrategyIntegrate creative with goals.
- Client Proposals & ContractsAlign goals before execution.
- Client PitchesOutline capabilities to prospects.
Hard Skills
- Web design & UXBegin and end with user experience.
- Web QADiffy, WAVE, WCAG, 508.
- Mobile-FirstMost users are mobile.
- Web AccessibilityFollow WCAG and best practices.
- Responsive Web DesignDevice sizes and orientation.
- Responsive Email DesignEnsure universal usability.
- HTMLSemantic HTML5.
- CSSWith SASS/LESS.
- JavascriptUse latest standards.
- Web StacksLAMP and LEMP.
- Domains & HostingRegistration and DNS management.
- PHPVersions 5 through 8+.
- SQL DatabasesMySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB.
- WordPressFull-stack development, custom themes and plugins.
- Email Marketing PlatformsMyEmma, Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
- Email TechnologySMTP, DKIM, SPF.
- Email TestingLitmus.
- SymfonyModern PHP framework.
- TwigHTML framework for websites.
- Version Control/GitGithub and Bitbucket.
- DoctrineDatabase ORM.
- MJMLHTML framework for emails.
- ServersApache and nginx.
- Operating SystemsLinux, MacOS, Windows.
- Google AnalyticsWeb metrics and KPI's.
- Google AdsDigital Marketing.
- Facebook BusinessWeb Anayltics and Digital Marketing.
- Google Tag ManagerImplementing containerized tags.
- Office SuitePowerpoint, Excel, Word.
- Creative CloudPhotoshop, Illustrator, AE, Premiere Pro.
- ProductivityWorkamajig, Jira.
Examples
-
Clear Digital
Dev Lead on full site rebuild for agency with Silicon Valley tech clients with team of full-stack developers.
Rebuild using Astro front-end framework integrating with WordPress CMS. Netlify and Pantheon hosting.
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Portworx
Maintaining a recently-rebranded and rebuilt WordPress site as Technical/Dev Lead with team of full-stack developers.
Custom back-end CMS integration using Advanced Custom Fields. Pantheon hosting.
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Nile
Dev Lead on full site rebuild for NaaS (Networking-as-a-service) client with team of full-stack developers.
Custom back-end CMS integration using Advanced Custom Fields. WPEngine hosting.
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Noble AI
Technical/Dev Lead on maintenance retainer for rebranding a science-based AI client with team of web designers.
Webflow hosting + pagebuilder.
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Habu
Dev Lead on full site rebuild for a data clean room company from internal wireframes and designs based on new branding.
Custom mega menu, optimizations for page speed, and ongoing maintenance projects; CMS for pages using page builder (Elementor). Pantheon hosting.
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Cribl
Updating and ongoing WordPress development for a data observability pipeline company.
Custom mega menu, optimizations for page speed, and ongoing maintenance projects.
Converting hard-coded theme templates to page builder-friendly templates for client-friendly updating.
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Lightbits
Updating and ongoing WordPress development for a data storage company.
Converting templates using outdated WPBakery page builder to more flexible Elementor page builder.
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Mrs. T's Pierogies (2 Websites)
Ongoing development of client's consumer and foodservice websites, including annual presentation of recommendations and updates.
Quarterly reporting on web KPI's and recommendations to hit KPI goals.
Focus on improving user experience and mobile-friendliness at every opportunity.
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Mrs. T's Pierogies Marketing Emails
Produce monthly marketing emails for a large consumer mailing list generated from website and promo opt-ins.
Use email best practices regarding responsive, HTML, screen reader-friendly emails; test for deliverability and rendering on multiple devices with Litmus.
Send and report on KPI's with MyEmma email marketing platform.
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Mrs. T's Pierogies Store Locator
Build a modern, mobile-first, responsive store locator for Mrs. T's Pierogies.
Custom API integration using Neilsen product data to search a radius around a zipcode for stores containing client's products.
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Friends LifeCare Website Upgrade
Upgrade an aging website with hundreds of pages with a new child theme, primarily focusing on intended user pathways through the homepage.
Custom-develop a child theme of existing custom theme to maintain continuity of functionality with all existing pages.
Provide ongoing maintenance for website on client's own hosting as well as several affiliated microsites; audit plugins for potential updates and troubleshoot server issues with client's hosting provider.
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Seltzer's Lebanon Website
Transfer existing content from a static HTML site to WordPress on a custom-built theme, allowing easier updates to content and addition of custom post types for Recipes and Products.
Provide ongoing maintenance and upgrades on a yearly basis.
Education
- 01/2013 — 05/2014
Lehigh Carbon Community College
A.S., Computer Science- Game and simulation development track.
- Programming and digital arts focus.