matt-taylor.tech

Experience

Two decades of building systems: for employers, for customers, and for myself.

Two parallel tracks. Day jobs on the left, founder ventures on the right, each in reverse chronological order. They run alongside each other on purpose: the operational discipline at work and the product discipline on the side reinforce each other.

Day jobs

  1. IT Director · Affinity Group

    Oct 2022 – Present · Charlotte, NC · Hybrid

    Hands-on systems engineer carrying the IT Director title at a national food brokerage. Where I write the scripts, draw the architecture, and run the migrations.

    • Architecting claude-forge: Python + Supabase + Azure Functions platform that caches Freshservice, AdminDroid, ScreenConnect, and Microsoft Graph data, and drives Claude API webhooks for ticket triage, reply drafts, and asset enrichment.
    • Authored an internal 76-script Microsoft 365 PowerShell admin library now used for monthly compliance reviews. Covers identity, security, Defender, Intune, Teams, SharePoint, and audit reporting.
    • Ran authorized external pentests on 3 production properties: 47 findings, demonstrated unauthenticated RCE under written authorization, GCP service-account key exposure confirmed.
    Read more →

  2. IT Manager · Ross & Witmer (HVAC)

    Apr 2011 – Oct 2022 · Charlotte, NC

    Built and ran the entire IT stack for a 125-user, 3-location HVAC business across an 11.5-year tenure. Network, identity, M365, monitoring, custom apps, and the Acowin rollout that took field service from paper to iPads.

    • Designed the network end to end: routers, switches, firewalls, site-to-site VPNs across 3 offices, hybrid Active Directory + Office 365 with Exchange Online.
    • Rolled out Acowin (third-party HVAC service management platform) as the replacement for a legacy Unix-based system. Owned the schema mapping into Acowin's Visual FoxPro DBF backend and the integration with Office 365 calendar and email.
    • Built custom web and mobile apps, monitoring solutions, and digital signage for the office floor. Maintained backups and DR, and deployed the company's LMS.
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  3. HVAC Mechanic, Service Tech, then Supervisor · Ward Plumbing & Heating; All Service Heating & A/C; Energy Tight

    2001 – 2011 · North Carolina

    A decade in the trade before IT. Started in new construction, moved through residential and light-commercial service on systems up to 30 tons, then stood up a brand-new HVAC division as the company's licensed mechanical contractor.

    • Hold the NC H-3-I Mechanical Contractors License, maintained current to this day. Served as Energy Tight's qualifier for a new BPI Gold Star HVAC division.
    • NATE certified in Heat Pump, Gas, Oil, and Air Distribution. EPA Section 608 Universal. BPI Building Analyst and Envelope Professional.
    • Designed systems with ACCA Manuals J, D, S, N, and Q. Produced mechanical layouts and load calcs in AutoCAD and Wrightsoft.
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Founder ventures

  1. Founder & Operator · Matt's Volleyball League

    Jan 2023 – Present · Cornelius, NC · Hybrid

    Recreational league I founded and operate. 150–200 players per season, 4 seasons per year. Built the platform, the brand, and the operating playbook myself.

    • Wrote VolleyballEngine: Next.js + TypeScript platform deployed to Cloudflare Workers via OpenNext. Generates schedules imported into Teamlinkt, runs brackets, calculates contractor revenue splits.
    • mattsvolleyball.com on Astro, tapping Teamlinkt APIs to surface live league data on the public site.
    • Tested with Playwright (E2E) and Vitest. Custom tournament algorithms (shuffle format, balanced-team draft) as standalone TypeScript modules.
    Read more →

  2. Founder & Owner · After Hours Data Systems

    2014 – Present · Remote · LLC formed 2018

    Self-taught cross-platform mobile dev across three platform generations. EPA 608 Practice on iOS and Android, in maintenance mode today.

    • App Inventor (2014) → Thunkable (2018) → Flutter (current). The 2018 rebuild and first iOS release is what inflected revenue.
    • Built ~20 experimental Android apps in the App Inventor era; killed the 19 that weren't earning, concentrated on the one product with market fit.
    • Companion Python tooling for source-question scraping, deduplication, and ingestion into the app's question bank.
    Read more →