Will Schmierer III
Jacksonville / St. Augustine, FL ·

Will Schmierer III / Always building

Jacksonville / St. Augustine, FL · Remote, open to travel

Forward Deployed Engineer · AI Agents & Developer Tools

I deploy voice AI receptionists and back-office agents for trades shops, including The Greatful Plumber, and migrated two plumbing shops from Housecall Pro to Jobber. I led 100+ engineers across 7+ years at WebDevStudios, delivering enterprise platforms for clients including Microsoft and the NBA. Twenty years shipping production systems, the last 18 fully remote.

I embed with owners, CSRs, and dispatchers at plumbing, HVAC, and electrical shops to map call, dispatch, and finance workflows, then deploy agents that run the shop’s software.

2-3 months to under a week.

At Plumber Marketing Firm, cut client site delivery from 2-3 months to under a week, onboarding to launch-ready. Web stopped being the bottleneck, even when onboarding ran at several new clients a week.

I built the agent workflows behind it there: small, testable tasks with human review. My studio runs on them.

Career client work includes Microsoft, NBA, NFL, Campbell’s, Waste Management, Viacom, Care.com, International Living, Love Is Respect, News Corp, Nickelodeon, Paramount, MTV, and Comedy Central. Client scale: NBA, 400M+ social followers; Care.com, 50M+ monthly transactions; Visit Philadelphia, 46M+ annual visitors to the city.

Selected Work

A few things I put into the world.

Tools, client work, and ideas I keep building on. Each is a different view of how I think and what I can bring to a team.

FITFO CLI homepage introducing its website and infrastructure discovery tool

Open-source tool

FITFO

Client handoffs often start with missing information. I built a CLI that gathers public domain, DNS, hosting, and website clues into a planning brief before the first conversation.

Explore the code →
Groundwork homepage introducing domain, email, and hosting diagnostics

Product thinking · Diagnostics

Groundwork

A way to understand who controls a business’s domain, DNS, email, and hosting before a rebuild or handoff. A recurring operational problem turned into a tool.

Explore Groundwork →
FieldContent homepage showing a job-photo marketing workflow with approval

Product · Field workflows

FieldContent

Turning job-site photos into marketing, with people in the approval loop. The product idea comes from understanding the field work and the business around it.

Explore FieldContent →
Lovable Gazelle homepage: Built by a plumber, with Will pictured in the field

Client delivery

Lovable Gazelle

AI transformations for the trades. Foundation first, not tools slapped on chaos. The work includes the build, the operating details, and a handoff the owner can use.

See client work →
Wapuu hugging the WordPress logo

Production operations

Production security response

Led the security response across 350 production environments, removing 254 compromised accounts from 138 of them. Traced the root cause to lapsed plugin updates and put a centralized update process in place. Resolved compromises their hosting and security providers had been unable to fix, and helped retain 95% of agency hosting clients.

Read the experience →
Survivor Science homepage for the stroke recovery community

Community & publishing

Survivor Science

The recovery community and podcast I founded after my stroke. A place for survivors to share experience, ask difficult questions, and keep building a life after injury.

Visit Survivor Science →
Will Schmierer personal website

The wider picture

WillSchmierer.com

Architecture, engineering, the trades, and the rebuild. My personal home base connects the work here to the rest of the story.

Explore the broader story →
Five playful robot agents exchanging tasks around a shared workbench

Agent setup & management

Agents for your team

I set up and manage AI assistants that help you and your team get work done. Grok Bot, OpenClaw, Hermes, Buzz, Muse, Amp. That list changes weekly. I can work with the tools you already use or help you choose and get set up. You don’t need to know where to start.

Start a conversation →
Technical Range

The work behind the buzzwords.

Fourteen areas, with the work and principles behind them. I choose the platform around the job.

Person Interface System Feedback CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

01 / Full-stack product

Full-stack web apps

TypeScript, React, and Next.js at the foundation, through Postgres, auth, and payments. The client portal runs on Next.js, Postgres, Clerk, Stripe, and Sentry. The interface is where the whole system meets a person. Design judgment, interaction, accessibility, and the details that make a product feel right.

  • TypeScript
  • Next.js
  • Postgres
  • Stripe

Evidence: client portal, 95 merged PRs and 436 passing tests; Agent-Ready Site Grader (grader.lovablegazelle.com), 78 merged PRs.

How I approach it

Start with the person and the task. Shape the interface, build it, then check the experience in the browser across screen sizes and input methods.

Direction Agent Review Ship CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

02 / How I build

AI-native engineering

AI is part of my everyday development process. I direct the work, make the design and architecture decisions, review the changes, and own what ships.

  • Codex
  • Claude
  • Coding agents
  • Human review
How I approach it

Give the agent useful context and a bounded task. Inspect the output, test the behavior, refine the result, and keep a person responsible for the release.

Will Call Agent Review Software TOOLS IN MY PRACTICE

03 / Forward-deployed agents

Agent systems for trades shops

Voice AI receptionists and back-office agent teams (Hermes, OpenClaw, Grok Bot) wired into Housecall Pro, Jobber, Go High Level, QuickBooks, and Stripe: after-hours calls, missed-call text-back, open-invoice follow-up, payment links. A reviewer agent gates every PR before merge.

  • Grok Bot
  • OpenClaw
  • Hermes
  • Human review

Evidence: running in production at The Greatful Plumber, iterated weekly.

How I approach it

Start with the work that needs doing. Choose the tools around it, make the handoffs explicit, and keep the result open to human review and refinement.

Run Context Tools Agent Evaluate CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

04 / Around the model

MCP servers & agent tooling

A stdio MCP bridge on the official SDK, a Go High Level MCP integration with scoped tokens, Cursor plugins, and Claude Code skills. The surrounding system matters as much as the model when agents need to do useful work.

  • MCP
  • Cursor plugins
  • Claude Code skills
  • Scoped tokens

Evidence: built at Lovable Gazelle.

How I approach it

Define the task boundary, available tools, and review checkpoints. Use feedback from real runs to improve the instructions and the system around the agent.

Agent Instructions Memory Tools Task CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

05 / Agent continuity

Context systems & agent memory

I build the context around agents: instructions, working knowledge, memory, and the information a task actually needs. The system should help an agent pick up the work with its bearings intact.

  • Context engineering
  • Agent memory
  • Instructions
  • Knowledge systems
How I approach it

Decide what belongs in persistent memory, what is specific to the current task, and what needs to be refreshed. Structure the handoff so the next run can recover the decisions and constraints that matter.

Work People Context Agents Together CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

06 / Building together

Multiplayer team tooling

People and agents working from shared context. Clear ownership and useful handoffs make the work easier to follow, review, and build on together.

  • Shared context
  • Team workflows
  • Handoffs
  • Review
How I approach it

Make it clear who owns the next decision, what has changed, and what is ready for review. Team tooling should help people participate in the work.

Sources Retrieve Context Answer CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

07 / Useful context

RAG & retrieval

Retrieval-augmented generation: bringing relevant information into the model’s context. I understand the connection between the source material, retrieval, and the answer.

  • RAG
  • Retrieval
  • Knowledge
  • Context
How I approach it

Start with the information people need to use. Consider how it is found, what reaches the model, and how someone can check the resulting answer against its sources.

Problem People Decisions Delivery CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

08 / Through the finish

Engineering leadership & delivery

I have been the engineering manager, delivery lead, and person in the code. I can help shape the product, bring people together, and carry the work through launch.

  • Product thinking
  • Team leadership
  • Delivery
  • Operations
How I approach it

Understand the problem and the people affected. Set priorities, surface the tradeoffs, and keep responsibility for the work as it moves from an idea into production.

Wapuu hugging the WordPress logo

09 / Platforms & integration

Enterprise-level full-site-editing conversion

Led the conversion of a 200+ page site for an Arizona plumbing company to a WordPress block theme built for full-site editing: hundreds of section designs and patterns on custom blocks, native blocks and ACF, with theme.json design tokens.

  • Gutenberg
  • Full Site Editing
  • ACF
  • theme.json

Evidence: 200+ pages converted to a block theme, live in English and Spanish.

How I approach it

Make the editing experience usable and the integration maintainable. Keep the direction of data flow, access rules, and import behavior explicit so the systems can work together reliably.

Pelican Upload Zone with drag-and-drop media intake and a gallery of job-site photos

10 / From upload to publishing

Media processing pipelines

Pelican takes client photos from upload through team review, image processing, and publishing: format conversion, metadata removal, and image variants for different uses.

  • Media intake
  • HEIC
  • Image optimization
  • Publishing workflows

Evidence: I built Pelican.

Identity Policy Data Access CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

11 / Access by design

Authentication & data access

Sign-in, private storage, and rules around who can see or change data. My application work includes Supabase authentication, Postgres row-level security, and signed file URLs.

  • Supabase
  • Postgres
  • Row-level security
  • Signed URLs
How I approach it

Connect the user-facing sign-in experience to server-side access checks and database policies. Keep private assets private and make each operation follow the caller’s permissions.

Source JSON Layout tree Blocks Report CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

12 / Modernization tooling

Content transformation & migration

I am developing a converter for page-builder content: parse the source, normalize the layout tree, and produce editable native blocks. Unsupported content gets an explicit warning and fallback.

  • Parsing
  • Layout trees
  • Block serialization
  • Experimental tooling
How I approach it

Preserve the meaning of the content as its representation changes. The current work is experimental, with explicit warnings and fallbacks for content the converter cannot safely translate.

FITFO website and infrastructure discovery tool homepage

13 / Know what exists

Infrastructure discovery

FITFO gathers domain, DNS, hosting, email, and website signals into an onboarding brief. I turn technical findings into useful questions, access needs, and next steps for the team.

  • DNS
  • Hosting
  • CLI tooling
  • Technical discovery
How I approach it

Work from observable evidence and show the limits of each finding. A useful discovery report makes uncertainty and missing access visible before a handoff or rebuild.

Triage Contain Remediate Harden CONCEPTUAL WORKFLOW

14 / When production needs you

Platform security & incident response

Led the security response across 350 production environments, traced the root cause to lapsed plugin updates, and put a centralized update process in place. I stay responsible when production needs more than a routine fix.

  • Incident response
  • Malware analysis
  • Remediation
  • Hardening

Evidence: removed 254 compromised accounts from 138 environments; helped retain 95% of agency hosting clients.

How I approach it

Understand what is affected, prioritize the response, and carry the work through remediation and hardening. Production ownership includes what happens when a system needs experienced hands.

Experience

Experience

One pattern: build the platform, understand the operation, keep responsibility through launch.

Current · 2021 to Present

Founder & Forward Deployed Engineer

Lovable Gazelle - Jacksonville, FL (Remote)

  • Deploy voice AI receptionists and back-office agent teams (Hermes, OpenClaw, Grok Bot) for trades shops, wired into Housecall Pro, Jobber, Go High Level, QuickBooks, and Stripe: after-hours calls, missed-call text-back, open-invoice follow-up, payment links.
  • Each agent gets one role, a defined job, and its own persona (a “soul”), so it works like human staff. A reviewer agent gates every PR before merge.
  • Embed with owners, customer service reps (CSRs), and dispatchers at plumbing, HVAC, and electrical shops to map call, dispatch, and finance workflows, then deploy agents that run the shop’s software.
  • Now moving The Greatful Plumber from Housecall Pro to PLMBR, rolling out customer service and dispatch in stages.
  • Migrated two other plumbing shops’ live operations from Housecall Pro to Jobber.
  • Built the client portal (Next.js, Postgres, Clerk, Stripe, Sentry; 95 merged PRs, 436 passing tests) and the Agent-Ready Site Grader (grader.lovablegazelle.com; 78 merged PRs).
  • Built MCP servers (a stdio MCP bridge on the official SDK; a Go High Level MCP integration with scoped tokens), Cursor plugins, and Claude Code skills.
Aug 2025 to Sep 2026

Web Platform & Digital Operations Lead

Plumber Marketing Firm - Charlotte, NC (Remote)

  • Cut site delivery from 2-3 months to under a week, onboarding to launch-ready, by deploying OpenClaw cloud agents that ran small, testable build tasks behind human review gates, now a repeatable delivery pattern I run at Lovable Gazelle.
  • Held web on pace as onboarding grew from a few clients a month to several a week, covering the work of two developers, a project manager, and two marketing-ops specialists.
  • Led the security response across 350 production environments, removing 254 compromised accounts from 138 of them. Traced the root cause to lapsed plugin updates and put a centralized update process in place. Resolved compromises their hosting and security providers had been unable to fix, and helped retain 95% of agency hosting clients.
2014 to 2021

Engineering Manager

WebDevStudios - Jacksonville, FL (Remote)

  • Led 100+ engineers across time zones over seven years. Built a mentorship framework that supported 96% retention and 15 promotions to senior and lead roles.
  • Managed 15 concurrent enterprise platforms with project values of $500K-$8M each, delivered on time and on budget.
  • Built the client-management playbook that cut escalations 95% and secured 20+ renewals worth $10M+ annually.
  • Built a front-end editor for Microsoft News (2014-2015) before page builders, multilingual multisites in 16 languages, International Living membership sites, and Love Is Respect interactive quizzes.
Show full background
Jan 2025 to Present

Service and Commercial Plumber (Apprentice)

The Greatful Plumber - Jacksonville, FL

  • Run the Grok Bot agent team in production for the shop, iterated weekly.
  • Work on fixtures, water heaters, drains, and sewer conversions; support project coordination, permits, and inspections.
  • Build service menus, pricing, marketing, review workflows, and AI voice-agent automation.
From 2022

Founder, Survivor Science

Metro Jacksonville

  • Founded and ran a 50+ member community for stroke and chronic illness survivors.
  • Multi-channel content delivery, podcast collaborations, peer support
  • From "Good Enough" to "Unstoppable AF". Navigating recovery together
2013 to 2016

Co-Founder & Developer

Ox Nest Studios, LLC

  • WordPress-focused digital marketing agency. Design, development, SEO.
  • Overlapped with early WebDevStudios years, bridging agency and enterprise.
2009 to 2014

Founder, Designer & Developer

Think Dynasty LLC, Williamsburg, VA

  • Boutique WordPress agency serving clients across North America.
  • First real agency. Learned how to run a shop from zero.
2011 to 2012

WordPress Design & Dev Lead

Smellycat Productions, Williamsburg, VA

  • Design and development lead building exclusively on WordPress.
  • Planning, designing, and developing for diverse client types and industries.
2007 to 2011

Project Manager & Junior Architect

Zubillaga Design, Florida

  • Design drawings, construction documents, interior design for high-end residential and commercial projects
  • Projects across Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean
  • Managed daily office operations, reviewed contractor shop drawings

This page has a layer built for AI agents. Point yours at llms.txt (full text at llms-full.txt, JSON Resume at resume.json, agent card at agent-card.json), or connect the read-only MCP server at https://resume.willschmierer.com/mcp. Setup for ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and more →

Current Focus

The work I want more of.

Forward-deployed or senior IC. Available now. Based in Jacksonville / St. Augustine, FL; remote, open to travel to customers. AI agents and developer tools are where I want to work. I like complex problems, direct collaboration, and enough trust to help shape the approach.

Forward Deployed Engineer

Discovery, scoping, build, production rollout

Embed with the customer, learn how the operation really runs, and deploy agents into the systems they already use. I own it through rollout, and bring 100+ engineers’ worth of leadership experience to the room. I work alongside the team to understand the problem, shape what gets built, and carry it through delivery, moving between the technical detail and the people who need to make it happen.

AI Agents & Developer Tools

Agents, automation, internal tooling, quality gates

Where I want to sit. Agent workflows, automation, and the internal tools that make engineers faster, with review checkpoints and test handoffs so the output is something you'd actually ship.

Senior IC: Full-Stack

APIs, data, interfaces, product delivery

Build an experience people want to use and the systems that make it work. Backend discipline, frontend judgment, and AI-assisted development from the first idea through a working product.

About

Deployment first. I put agent teams to work inside real trades shops.

Forward-deployed at the core

I embed with owners, CSRs, and dispatchers, map how the shop actually runs, and deploy agent teams into the software they already use. Discovery, scoping, build, and production rollout stay with me.

Shape it. Build it. Carry it through.

I have been an engineering manager, delivery lead, agency founder, and the person doing the build. I can help shape the product, understand the people involved, and keep the work moving through delivery.

AI is how I work

I build AI systems that ship. I direct agents, make the architecture calls, review the work, and own the result. AI should amplify people, not replace judgment. I work AI-first with a human in the loop, and I’m accountable for what ships.

Jacksonville / St. Augustine, FL

Remote, open to travel. I know how to stay visible, reachable, and accountable without sharing an office.

The Arc

I've never done just one thing. That's the point.

Miami

Architect first. Always.

University of Miami, School of Architecture. A five-year professional program I finished in four and a half. Years of critiques taught me how to take hard feedback, iterate in public, and pull a room together around a single idea. That's where I learned to lead. Then Zubillaga Design back in Florida. High-end residential and commercial work across Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Agency Years

From blueprints to browsers

Certificates at Miami Dade. Founded and ran a boutique WordPress agency. Learned how to ship client work, manage delivery, and build systems from zero. Agency life taught me how to deploy under real constraints before I ever touched enterprise scale.

Enterprise

Enterprise platforms, Microsoft to the NBA.

Career client work includes Microsoft, NBA, NFL, Campbell’s, Waste Management, Viacom, Care.com, International Living, Love Is Respect, News Corp, Nickelodeon, Paramount, MTV, and Comedy Central. At WebDevStudios, I led 100+ engineers across time zones and built the delivery and mentorship systems behind 96% retention and 15 promotions.

The Rebuild

Back at full speed.

A stroke in December 2019, then almost two years before I could walk again. Back at full speed.

  1. 2018 Lost both my parents, suddenly.
  2. December 2019 Stroke. Two days before Christmas.
  3. February 2020 Diagnosed with MS.
  4. 2020 to 2021 Almost two years before I could walk again.
  5. Now Back on my feet.Lost 300 lbs. Down from 530.I build. I run. I don't stop. Relentless.

Now I'm back. You can try to knock me down, but you're going to have to hit harder because I keep surviving.

The Network

Bringing people with you

Founded Survivor Science in 2022, a survivor-focused recovery community. 50+ members, stroke and chronic illness survivors, building back together. Multi-channel content, podcast collaborations, peer support. The rebuild does not end. You just start bringing other people with you.

Now

Building better ways to work

Building Lovable Gazelle: AI transformations for the trades. Foundation first, not tools slapped on chaos. I also build tools like FITFO, which gathers the missing pieces of a client website handoff before the first call.

Trades

Back to building with my hands (plumbing)

Plumbing apprentice through the Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA), working toward a master license. Same systems thinking from architecture school, now applied to physical infrastructure. When I deploy something, it has to work in the real world, not just in theory.

Twenty years in. Still building. The next chapter is wide open.

Principles & Values

How I Operate

Leadership, not hierarchy

Firm, collaborative, transparent. I lead with people, not above them. Anti-top-down, anti-bureaucratic.

Build first, talk second

Make something people can use. Learn from what happens when they do. Keep improving it.

Strong opinions, loosely held

Curious and evolving. Confident enough to change my mind the second someone has a better idea.

Translator, not a gatekeeper

Fluent in both dev and client. Spent twenty years in the middle, turning requirements into code and code into answers. That's the job.

Underpromise. Be real.

The opposite of how most shops run. Tell clients the hard thing before the bill goes sideways. Set expectations you can beat, then beat them.

Answer the phone

Real check-ins, clear updates, no dodging. If something breaks, you should know who is handling it and what happens next.

Where I'm Headed

Built Different

Always thinking, always exploring, always questioning, always building.

Architecture school taught me to see how the pieces fit. Agency work taught me what happens when they don’t. Seven years at WebDevStudios gave me the chance to lead teams and build for clients like Microsoft and the NBA. I still use that experience every day, even when the business is a plumbing shop with a handful of trucks.

I build with AI every single day. I can also tell you why a layout is broken before dev tools open. The tools help me get more done, but I’m still responsible for the decisions, the details, and what reaches the client.

I am always building, and I want to join a team that keeps pushing what is possible. Deployment leads: I embed with the people doing the work and carry agent systems into production, with full-stack depth behind it. Bring a clear goal, people ready to make decisions, and room to experiment. I want to help shape what comes next and get it into people’s hands.

Three kids and a wife in Jacksonville. That's the whole why. The work. The rebuild. The relentless. Everything else is just how. Build something they can stand on. Build something that holds.

Community

Giving Back

WordPress Ecosystem

Active in the WordPress community since 2008. Regular WordCamp attendee and contributor. Shipping real work on WordPress, cleaning up other people's WordPress, and teaching other developers how to do both.

Founder, Survivor Science

Founded and ran Survivor Science, a 50+ member community for stroke and chronic illness survivors. From "Good Enough" to "Unstoppable AF". Navigating recovery together since 2022.

Leadership Development

Separate from the WebDevStudios team: coached 35+ technical professionals into project leaders and managers through structured coaching programs. That group: 100% retention, 5 senior role promotions.

Education & Certifications

Credentials

Bachelor of Architecture

University of Miami

2001 to 2005

Five-year professional program, finished in four and a half.

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Southern New Hampshire University

Expected May 2027

Concentration in management and operations.

Certifications

  • Generative AI for Business Leaders
  • ICAgile: Agility in the Enterprise
  • ICAgile: Agile Coaching
  • Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Languages

  • English (native)
  • French (conversational)
  • American Sign Language
  • Spanish (basic, family)
Let's Talk

Building something that moves things forward?

Twenty years of shipping, forward deployments in the field, and AI systems I own end to end. Tell me what you’re building and I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person for it.

How I work best

  • I direct the agents, review the output, and stay accountable for the decisions and the result.
  • I move fast when the goal is clear, and I help make it clear when it isn’t.
  • I work close to the people the system affects, and I improve what exists before rebuilding it.

or grab a slot directly

Using an AI to screen? Hand it this

Read https://resume.willschmierer.com/llms.txt and tell me whether Will Schmierer fits this role: [paste the role or job description]

LinkedIn has the career history. BuiltWTF has the field notes. Email is fastest.

Jacksonville / St. Augustine, FL · Remote, open to travel

Looking for the right full-time role with a team that can move something forward.