Kevin Champlin · Senior Full-Stack Engineer · WordPress & Applied AI
20+ years architecting and shipping production web platforms for Fortune 100/500, regulated-industry, and high-growth clients. Deep WordPress / WooCommerce / PHP plus a self-funded applied-AI portfolio. F500 work through Champlin Enterprises; local businesses because community matters.
WordPress 7.0 Readiness Checklist: What Breaks on May 20 (and How to Audit Your Stack Before It Ships)
WordPress 7.0 ships May 20, 2026 with DataViews, the AI Client, and PHP 7.4 as the new minimum. A senior engineer's checklist for auditing your stack before update day.
How I actually work
20+ years shipping production code before LLMs were useful — PHP, .NET, native iOS and Android, enterprise WordPress, distributed systems. The judgment about what ships, what scales, and what to throw away comes from the two decades at the keyboard before AI existed. AI is the leverage I bolt on top because it earns its keep — not a foundation I lean on.
In practice that looks like 8+ hours a day driving Claude Code across dozens of production systems — scoped tasks, verified diffs, nothing committed I haven't read. I treat the model the way a senior staff engineer treats a strong but new IC: clear scope, tight review loop, the bar set by me.
The frontier I'm currently working: machine learning guided by AI. I design the experiments and own the production constraints; Claude accelerates the iteration — feature-set hypotheses, model-class tradeoffs, reading validation curves, rewriting pipelines between runs. The ML models do the quantitative lift. Diamond and Vantage are running this loop in production.
Featured offer · For VPs of Engineering
Two-week audit. Three highest-ROI AI integrations identified, scoped, and ranked. One working pilot for the top pick. $15K flat, credited toward implementation if we build any of them.
For mid-market enterprises with 50–500 engineers, a codebase that's been in production three-plus years, and a board that mandated an AI strategy six months ago. No deck. No workshop. A senior engineer, two weeks, one shippable outcome.
Capabilities
Web apps, mobile apps, and AI integrations engineered end-to-end by a senior engineer. Your code, your repo, your ship date. No middle layers.
Web apps, APIs, and internal platforms built for production. Full-stack engineering across TypeScript, PHP, .NET, and Python—designed to scale, documented to maintain, owned by you.
See how I engineer itNative iOS (Swift/SwiftUI) and Android (Kotlin/Compose) apps—plus Kotlin Multiplatform when you need both without doubling the cost. App Store and Play Store ready.
See shipped appsLLM systems that survive production: agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, and custom tooling—including BrandForge, the multi-brand AI image studio I built for agencies. Plus self-serve training through three published books.
See AI capabilitiesCustom themes, custom plugins, headless WordPress, and performance tuning. Content systems that stay fast at scale and integrate cleanly with the rest of your stack.
See WordPress workAbout Kevin
I build production software. Web, mobile, and AI systems shipped end-to-end. 20+ years of code behind me—PHP, .NET, Swift, Kotlin, TypeScript, Python—which means I skip the handoffs and ship the thing myself.
Most of my Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 work runs through Champlin Enterprises, LLC—senior engineering on AI integration, platform rebuilds, and custom software for companies like Wells Fargo and household-name consumer brands.
I also work with local businesses—restaurants, nonprofits, chambers, the occasional chiropractor. Community matters. Same engineer who ships for a global apparel brand is the same one who'll build your storefront or your booking app.
Selected Client Engagements
Current, recent, and earlier-career engagements with household-name clients. Scope detail under NDA — the names are the receipt.
Senior Full-Stack WordPress Engineer. Template modernization across Levi Strauss web properties — legacy-PHP cleanup, ACF-driven editorial agility, plus an LLM / answer-engine discoverability layer (llms.txt, JSON-LD entities).
Engineering on consumer brand systems across one of North America's largest beverage portfolios.
.NET and SQL Server at scale — PCI-audited transaction systems, SSIS pipelines, SAN-level storage optimization on an internal agent portal.
BrandForge
Spin up a workspace per client. Lock the faces, palettes, products, and tone of voice once—then render on-brand stills, ads, and product shots in seconds. Agency-grade output without the agency-grade retouching bill.
New from Kevin Champlin
Just Use It is the no-jargon guide to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for parents, students, business owners, and seniors. The Operator's Edge gives small business owners a 30-day plan to deploy AI across the whole business. Ship It is the field report on using AI to build two working apps in a single afternoon.
Open source
Six skills I built and lean on every day — context discipline, parallel agent audits, pre-deploy review. MIT-licensed, no signup, no upsell. Clone the repo, copy a folder into ~/.claude/skills/, and you're shipping with the same toolkit I am.
Why hire me
Code shipped at Fortune 100 banks, global consumer brands, and your-block local businesses. Same engineer, same standards.
Web, iOS, Android, APIs, and data—engineered together so your product doesn't live on a handoff boundary.
LLM integrations built past the demo: guardrails, verification, cost control. Real systems, not prototypes.
Direct work. Weekly demos if you want them. Code you own, in your repo, the moment it's written.
From the journal
For more writing, see the Champlin Enterprises, LLC blog.
WordPress 7.0 ships May 20, 2026 with DataViews, the AI Client, and PHP 7.4 as the new minimum. A senior engineer's checklist for auditing your stack before update day.
Read moreLearn how to enhance business throughput through AI-driven decision-making strategies.
Read moreLearn how to manage costs effectively in private AI deployments for lasting efficiency.
Read moreCommon questions
Custom web applications, iOS and Android apps, and AI integrations—shipped end-to-end. Kevin engineers full-stack systems across TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin, PHP, .NET, and Python. Code lives in your repo, owned by you, built to scale in production.
Yes. Most enterprise work runs through Champlin Enterprises, LLC—senior engineering for Fortune 100 banks, global consumer brands, and household-name apparel and beverage companies. Engagements are under NDA; the standard is not.
Absolutely. Local businesses, restaurants, nonprofits, chambers, and small operators are welcome. Community matters. The same senior engineer who ships for Fortune 500 clients builds local projects with the same standards, scoped to fit.
Send the build details—what you’re trying to ship, the constraints, the date—and I’ll come back with a number, not a brochure. Flat fee where possible. Senior engineering rates, not consultancy retainers. No bait-and-switch.
Yes—self-serve. Three published books covering practical AI for operators, builders, and everyday users. Plus the Generative Identity Engine (GIE), a hands-on platform for multi-product, multi-spokesperson AI campaigns. Training through content and tools, not hour-billed coaching sessions.
20+ years across PHP, .NET, C#, TypeScript, JavaScript, Swift, Kotlin, and Python. Mobile in Swift/SwiftUI (iOS), Kotlin/Compose (Android), and Kotlin Multiplatform (cross-platform). AI integration with Claude, GPT, Gemini, and custom agentic toolchains. Legacy modernization across Visual Basic and Classic ASP when it comes with the territory.
Start a project
Send me the details—what you're building, what's in the way, what ship date you need. I'll reply within 24 hours with a realistic plan, not a sales pitch.
