J ay

Full-stack developer.

15+ years building, owning, and shipping.

I build things end-to-end, from messy legacy systems to production-ready products that stick.

Get in touch

// about

I'm Juan Hernandez, and most people call me Jay. Born in 1988 in the Dominican Republic, I've spent most of my life in NYC and now live on Long Island with my wife and three kids. I got my start in web at WebMD, working on the Medscape editorial team before moving into development roles at agencies and startups across the NYC area. Early on I learned to own projects end to end, and that approach has stayed with me ever since.

For nearly a decade I was a core developer at Socialix, an influencer marketing platform used by brands and agencies. I built and scaled the product from the ground up: CRM, campaign workflows, social platform integrations, automated post metrics. A long run of shipping real features for real users.

These days I'm a Web Developer IV at AAA Northeast, building member-facing web applications: membership management, vacation booking, internal tooling. Outside of work I build BookTrail, a family reading tracker, as a way to stay sharp and try new things. Nearly two decades in, I still find it interesting.

// stack

Backend
Laravel / PHP MySQL SQLite REST APIs
Frontend
JavaScript / TypeScript Livewire Alpine.js Tailwind CSS
Tooling & Infrastructure
Docker AWS Lambda Herd Git Bugsnag Nightwatch
Currently exploring
Astro Volt (Livewire) Claude Code / AI-assisted dev

// experience

AAA Northeast

Web Developer IV – promoted from Web Developer II

Jun 2022 – Present

Building and maintaining member-facing web applications for one of the largest AAA clubs in the country. Core projects include the online membership management portal and the member vacation booking system. Also built an internal tooling suite used across teams. Stack spans Laravel, Blade, Livewire, Alpine.js, Tailwind, Docker, AWS, and Lambda functions.

Laravel Livewire Alpine.js Tailwind CSS Bootstrap Docker AWS Lambda CI/CD

Socialix

Lead Developer – promoted from Jr. Developer

Nov 2013 – Jun 2022

Core developer on an influencer relationship management platform used by brands and agencies to discover influencers, manage campaigns, and measure ROI. Built a full CRM with enriched influencer profiles, a campaign workflow engine, and reporting dashboards covering social performance, traffic, and conversions. Built deep integrations with major social platforms to automatically pull post metrics tied to brand campaigns, and at one point supported automated social posting. Worked closely with the founder/lead developer across the full product lifecycle.

CakePHP jQuery MySQL REST APIs Social Platform Integrations Angular Node.js

Digitamite

Jr. Web Developer

Mar 2012 – Nov 2013

Joined as a developer on SponsorHub before moving into building MomsAffiliate, an affiliate network targeting mom bloggers. Laid the foundation for what would eventually evolve into the Socialix influencer platform.

CakePHP MySQL jQuery jQuery UI

Nonprofit Solutions Network

Web Developer

Oct 2009 – Mar 2012

Built SummerBuilder, a summer camp registration platform for a New York City school. Also maintained and updated sites for various nonprofit clients. First real experience owning a project end-to-end, from requirements through deployment.

CodeIgniter MySQL jQuery

WebMD

Junior Producer

Apr 2008 – May 2009

Started my career in web at one of the most recognized names in health media. Worked on the Medscape editorial team converting medical journal content into WebMD's CMS. An early education in structured content, publishing workflows, and working at scale.

CMS Content Publishing

// open source

Simple Machines Forum

~2005 – 2007

Support Specialist → Community Contributor

Before making the jump to professional development, I contributed to the SMF open source forum community. Started as a support specialist and grew into an active code contributor, writing forum conversion scripts that let users migrate from other platforms (like phpBB) to SMF and publishing mods that extended SMF's core functionality. An early lesson in reading unfamiliar codebases, shipping work used by real communities, and the value of showing up consistently.

SMF Mods Directory

// projects

BookTrail

A family reading tracker built for parents and kids.

Live, free for all families

A full-stack web application that helps families build lasting reading habits. Parents manage a shared dashboard with individual child profiles, reading goals, achievements, and a curated library of 80+ children's books sourced from the Open Library API. Kids get their own "Kid Mode," a simplified, child-friendly interface with QR-code login so young readers can jump in without a password.

Features include session tracking with an active reading banner across all pages, wishlists, genres, family book collections, and a Filament-powered admin panel.

Built end-to-end with Claude Code. My first deep dive into AI-assisted development.

Laravel 12 Livewire 4 Volt Tailwind CSS 4 Filament SQLite Fly.io
Visit live site

// currently building

BookTrail · Expanding the curated book library, improving Kid Mode, and exploring new features based on user feedback.

jaycodes.dev · This site — built with Astro as a first dive into the framework. Now live.

// contact

Not looking for anything in particular, but if you want to talk shop, collaborate, or just say hello, my inbox is open.