Focus
I lead high-stakes platform rebuilds and AI initiatives for agencies, banks, and higher-education institutions. Every engagement ships with architecture diagrams, incident playbooks, and measurable KPIs.
Engineering background
Two decades of senior engineering. Deployed where it counts.
Production platforms that blend AI, automation, and measurable outcomes — refined over 20+ years of enterprise releases, higher-education systems, and Fortune 100 reliability work.
“AI doesn’t replace senior engineers — it amplifies them. I design systems where people set the strategy and AI handles the heavy lifting.”
— Kevin Champlin
Every AI engagement begins with clear constraints, data protections, and a human in the loop.
Core capabilities
- Platform modernization (.NET and PHP monoliths to modern TypeScript, PHP 8, and service-oriented architectures)
- Database and data warehousing (SQL Server, MySQL, reporting and analytics stacks)
- AI workflow design (copilots, prompt orchestration, and retrieval-augmented pipelines)
- DevOps and observability (CI/CD, telemetry, on-call leadership)
- WordPress engineering (custom plugin development, multisite architecture, performance optimization)
Champlin Enterprises, LLC — Founder & Principal Engineer
Leading SaaS launches, platform rebuilds, and AI-powered engineering stacks for Chicago-metro and remote clients. Senior-level delivery on a limited client roster.
Wells Fargo — Senior / Lead Software Engineer
Owned .NET and C# services, SQL Server tuning, and PCI-audited deployments supporting millions of daily transactions.
Illinois Valley Community College — Programmer, DBA, Sysadmin
Full-stack ownership of ERP customizations, backup and recovery strategy, campus networking, and faculty-facing tooling.
LaSalle-Peru High School — Programming Instructor
Taught the next generation of engineers while maintaining the computing labs they built in.
How I integrate AI into production systems
AI is a multiplier only when paired with engineering discipline. On real engagements, that means coupling automation with guardrails so your data, users, and uptime stay protected.
- Code and architecture copilots. Design reviews, refactors, and migration plans grounded in your existing stack and constraints.
- Workflow automation. Integration between CRMs, ERPs, and custom tools so your team spends less time on manual handoffs.
- Private AI stacks. Copilots and chat interfaces that live on infrastructure you trust and respect NDAs by design.
- Analytics and decision support. Turning logs, metrics, and transcripts into dashboards that drive real roadmap decisions.
20+ years in production
Production code shipped continuously since the era when ASP.NET WebForms and classic PHP shared deployment calendars. Migrations across every major platform shift: monolith to service architecture, on-prem to cloud, and now AI integration.
WordPress engineering
Building on WordPress since version 3, with continued client work on custom themes, plugin development, and performance tuning. Senior-level engineering on WordPress looks different from page-builder work: it’s the core updates, security posture, schema, and server-side choices that determine whether a site scales.
Education-sector experience
Years running the full technology stack for a community college: ERP customizations, faculty tooling, SIS integration, and campus networking. This is where systems-level engineering habits were formed — and why runbooks, backups, and disaster recovery are first-class concerns.
Stack breadth across eras
- Early career: Visual Basic, Classic ASP, PHP 4, SQL Server
- Enterprise years: .NET, C#, Windows Server, SSIS pipelines
- Current: PHP 8, TypeScript, React, GraphQL, and cloud-native deployments
Language breadth
Production code shipped in Visual Basic, Classic ASP, .NET, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Java, React, and Vue. The language is usually the smallest decision on a project — the architecture around it is where senior judgment matters.
Reliability obsession
Two decades of on-call rotations, incident reviews, and SLA negotiations have sharpened a simple operating principle: observability and rollback plans are not optional. Every deployment ships with logging, tracing, and a documented recovery path.
2003
Taught programming at Illinois Valley Community College while building registrar-office utilities in VB6 and maintaining campus lab infrastructure.
2008
Wells Fargo: led .NET and SQL Server work on PCI-audited transaction systems, including SSIS pipelines and SAN-level storage optimization.
2015
Illinois Valley Community College: full-stack ownership as programmer, DBA, and system administrator across ERP, networking, and backup strategy.
2024
Independent consulting as Champlin Enterprises, LLC: PHP, TypeScript, GraphQL, AI integration, and edge-deployed platforms for agency-scale clients.
What this looks like on your project
A few releases in, engineering teams consistently report:
- Cleaner releases. Fewer regressions, clearer rollback plans, and observability wired in from the first ticket.
- Faster delivery. Automation and AI applied where they remove toil — never where they add risk or obscure complexity.
- Durable systems. Schemas, documentation, and runbooks that make the next engineer glad you invested early.
Credentials
Selected record.
- 20+ years in production software engineering
- Enterprise data migrations, PCI audits, and production on-call leadership
- Self-hosted infrastructure lab (Kubernetes, Proxmox) for continuous experimentation
Operating standards
- Uptime: observability-first, not reactive
- Latency budget: sub-200ms at the edge, or it doesn’t ship
- Every release has a named owner and a documented rollback path
Beyond the build
- Forensic audits and post-incident reviews
- Infrastructure lab: self-hosted Kubernetes and Proxmox clusters
- Mentorship: high-school programmers coached into CS majors
Where this helps most
Deep-dive work on caching layers, query plans, or AI workflows that can’t leak data. Architecture reviews. AI integration planning. Platform rebuilds where senior-level judgment decides the outcome.