I’ve spent over 11 years as a software developer and architect, progressing from a full-stack developer to Lead Architect at Thinkific. I’ve set technical strategy, led teams through complex migrations, and architected and shipped company-wide AI initiatives from the ground up.
Today, I consult with companies to solve technical challenges—from architectural strategy to hands-on AI integration. I keep my skills sharp by building my passion project MMA Fantasy, a full-stack mobile app with 2,000+ monthly active users.
I can deliver the most value if your problem fits one of the following:
Performance. You bring me your slow app or struggling database. I diagnose the bottleneck, deliver an actionable plan, and either guide your team through the fix or implement it.
AI Integration. You want to add LLMs to your product or adopt AI tooling. I architect and build the system (RAG pipelines, chatbots, AI agents) and train your team on best practices.
Technical Debt Audit. You have a backlog of tech debt and don’t know what to tackle first. I implement observability, identify weak points, and deliver a prioritized roadmap that balances tech debt with product goals.
AWS Optimization. Your AWS bill is climbing or you suspect inefficiency. I audit your setup, optimize costs, and help migrate to components that make sense for your scale.
Developer Experience. Your engineers are slowed down by tooling or workflows. I identify friction points and build solutions—load testing infrastructure, CLI tools, testing strategies.
Prototype. You have a problem or feature idea nobody has time for. I build an end-to-end production-ready prototype your team can run with.
Work with an architect who can both code and lead.
Next step is to email lucasklaassen1@gmail.com and tell me which problems you’re dealing with, and we’ll set up an intro call.
I’m comfortable at all layers of the stack: from API backends to SPA frontends, Cloud infrastructure, and AI integrations.
Lucas is an incredibly intelligent yet humble leader who has made a tremendous impact as Thinkific’s Lead Architect. He has a remarkable ability to balance big-picture thinking with agility and pragmatism, always mindful of business impact and the risks of over-investment. Most notably, he has led the charge on our AI strategy, delivering an agnostic service that unlocked our UX transformation and ability to ship AI-powered features with ease. He’s a brilliant thinker, an excellent collaborator, and a key contributor to our success.
— Britt Skolovy, Previously Senior Director of Product @ Thinkific
Lucas is highly skilled in software architecture, consistently delivering high quality code that is both efficient and scalable. He is a natural problem-solver and always goes above and beyond to find the best solutions to complex technical challenges. I’ve seen first hand multiple instances in which he pulled together cross functional teams and guided them towards a solution to deliver the required requirements to the business.
— Sávio Lucena, Engineering Leader | Software Architect
Lucas is not only strong technically, but he also demonstrated a level of thoughtfulness about the customer problem we were looking to solve, and what the best solution would be beyond just the code.
— Sarah Greig, Director of Product at Pixieset