Startups, small businesses, mid-sized companies, large corporations, self-employment; I've had a taste of it all. One thing has been consistent in all my positions: my thirst to learn and grow. Each ...
Caleb Hornbeck
2 jobs near Columbus, OH
Startups, small businesses, mid-sized companies, large corporations, self-employment; I've had a taste of it all. One thing has been consistent in all my positions: my thirst to learn and grow. Each ...
Associate Partner -- IT
Camas, WA · On-site
Startups, small businesses, mid-sized companies, large corporations, self-employment; I've had a taste of it all. One thing has been consistent in all my positions: my thirst to learn and grow. Each ...
Associate Partner -- IT
Camas, WA · On-site
Startups, small businesses, mid-sized companies, large corporations, self-employment; I've had a taste of it all. One thing has been consistent in all my positions: my thirst to learn and grow. Each ...
Other
Posted 14 days ago
Job description
Startups, small businesses, mid-sized companies, large corporations, self-employment; I've had a taste of it all. One thing has been consistent in all my positions: my thirst to learn and grow. Each position has offered many experiences to do just that.
September 2025 - Present Owner & Principal Engineer | ByteCabinet | Remote- Replaced a brittle WP EasyCart implementation for a defense equipment retailer with a custom OpenCart build, including a native extension for automated distributor FTP sync and drop-ship API fulfillment — eliminating all manual order processing.
- Optimized a production ecommerce search query from 30 seconds to under 2 via targeted database indexing.
- Built a full event registration platform with tiered pricing, early-bird discounts, per-event capacity limits, and abandoned cart recovery.
- Designed and deployed a WireGuard VPN with web UI for a SaaS client, using it to IP-whitelist the staging environment and restrict access to sensitive production resources previously open to the public.
- Proposed a containerization migration for a SaaS client's flagship product projected to reduce baseline hosting costs from $300 to $20/month.
- PHP
- Mako
- MySQL
- Inertia
- Vue
- SASS
- AWS
- Linode
- Docker
- CI/CD
- GitHub
- Apache
- Coolify
- WireGuard
- Astro
- OpenCart
- SQLite
- Coding standards
- Built a Chrome extension redesigning the Canvas SpeedGrader workflow from manual-step to auto-advance with override, shrinking a 5-minute grading task to under 30 seconds.
- Integrated local LLM inference via Ollama to automate rubric-to-submission matching, reducing manual review time per submission.
- Grade introductory coursework in cloud computing, software development (Python), and agile project management.
- Python
- Chrome
- CRXJS
- Local LLM inference
- AI integration
- Proposed, designed, and built the Author Portal, eliminating recurring spam submissions and consolidating author communication from three tools into one — reducing process management time by an estimated 50%.
- Discovered hardcoded production database admin credentials in phpMyAdmin configuration exposing public admin access; remediated overnight, investigated for unauthorized access, and authored the incident report.
- Took over and led development of the flagship SaaS platform from an inherited codebase, establishing quality standards while delivering features and systematically addressing technical debt.
- Participated in initial requirements gathering, database design, and user story planning for the flagship product.
- Collaborated on and reviewed code quality improvements against a codebase inherited from a prior vendor with inconsistent standards.
- PHP
- Laravel
- Mako
- MySQL
- Inertia
- Vue
- Tailwind CSS
- SASS
- AWS
- Linode
- Docker
- CI/CD
- GitHub
- Apache
- WireGuard
- Leadership
- Team management
- Instruction
- Coding standards
- Security incident response
- Led Stripe and AvaTax integration across multiple engineering teams, shifting tax liability to customers and recovering 7% in operating expenses while eliminating 20 combined monthly hours of manual overhead from accounting and billing.
- Deployed Zabbix across a fleet of 150 servers (up from 16), standardizing role-aware monitoring and multiplying observable metrics 10-100x per endpoint, alongside Ansible for configuration management.
- Architected Graylog log aggregation from zero across 150 servers and multiple codebases — the observability foundation the DevOps team later used to build an in-house APM platform.
- Contributed to zero-downtime migration of the flagship ATS platform from end-of-life CentOS 6 infrastructure serving 10k clients and 150k users at sustained 1k+ requests/second.
- Designed and built the backend foundations for Text2Apply, a client-configurable SMS bridge for the flagship ATS; identified a structural conflict in the core data model and proposed a reorganization that resolved systematic UX and process issues.
- Mentored four engineers across software development and systems administration roles.
- Contributed across 10+ software projects serving 10k clients, 150k users, and 10TB of data at 1k+ requests/second.
- PHP
- MySQL
- Go
- Node.js
- Bash
- YAML
- Apache
- pfSense
- FortiGate
- OpenVPN
- SSH
- VirtualBox
- Docker
- Amazon Web Services
- Linode
- Ansible
- Graylog
- PHPUnit
- Stripe
- AvaTax
- Imperva WAF
- F5 WAF
- CI/CD
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- Backups
- Security and system hardening
- Sole architect and developer of the web application foundations, including partner time tracking and IoT device communication.
- Collaborated with hardware engineer to design a lightweight encrypted communication protocol minimizing data transfer volume between IoT scooters and backend.
- Utilized built-in cryptographic libraries for secure device authentication — no third-party security dependencies.
- PHP
- Fat-Free Framework
- MySQL
- CI/CD
- PHPUnit
- Apache
- SSH
- IOT
- Security and system hardening
- Encryption
- Cryptography
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- Architected a Graylog log aggregation pipeline from default configuration to a production-grade system with structured streams, index sets, and processing rules — eliminating daily manual IP blacklisting and automating firewall-level blocking of repeat offenders via pfSense integration, saving 30-60 minutes of daily manual work.
- Deployed high-availability pfSense firewall pairs across office and datacenter with OpenVPN site-to-site failover configuration.
- Led phone system modernization from aging PBX to virtualized Twilio VoIP platform, later foundational for company-wide remote work.
- Served as significant technical respondent during a successful SOC2 audit, demonstrating Graylog and pfSense security controls in real-time to auditors.
- Configured Microsoft 365 audit log ingestion via custom parser into Graylog for compliance visibility.
- Set up IP reputation blacklisting, geo-blocking, and Snort IDS evaluation across perimeter firewalls.
- PHP
- C#
- Graylog
- Windows
- Apache
- pfSense
- OpenVPN
- SSH
- VoIP
- SOC2 compliance
- Automated threat response
- Backups
- Security and system hardening
- High availability
- Networking
- Firewalls
- Served as informal lead tech missionary during iPad rollout across a mission of ~200 missionaries.
- Built a member list conversion tool outputting Garmin GPS waypoints and Maps.me files, including Google Maps geocoding, color-coded household status indicators, custom notes formatting, and multi-source API rate handling.
- Scaled tool for mission-wide deployment overnight at mission president's request, including documentation and parallel processing support for distributed use.
- PHP
- Google Maps API
- Geocoding
- GPS data formats
- Maps.me
- Leadership
- Team management
- Public speaking
- Instruction
- Tutored computer science and mathematics courses for college and adjacent high school students.
- Built a desktop application automating tutor timesheet generation, saving approximately 15 minutes per pay period per tutor.
- Collaborated with another tutor on a web-based version using Morse code over audio connection for cross-device data transfer — a constraint-driven creative solution worth noting for the portfolio.
- PHP
- C#
- .NET
- Windows
- PDF processing
- Math
- Computer Science
- Wrote a bash script to standardize and automate software upgrades across 100-200 student computers campus-wide, ensuring consistent state across all machines simultaneously.
- Helped with issues regarding Windows computers and the campus network.
- Repaired and replaced parts in Windows computers.
- Maintained and regularly updated computers.
- Troubleshoot and facilitated the repair of audio/video equipment.
- Bash
- Windows
- Guidance