Brett Sanders

Builder · Engineer · Product Leader

I turn ideas — enterprise and creative — into real software, from strategy down to the last pixel. 8+ years leading platform development for an enterprise supply-chain company; a full-stack engineer with a product mind and UX taste. I'm both the idea person and the one who ships. Today I build across B2B, music, and creative tools — fast, with AI as leverage.

Experience

Founder & Builder · Independent
2026 – Current · San Diego, CA

Building a portfolio of real, shipped products across B2B, music, teaching, and creative tools — idea to live product, fast, with AI as leverage. Selected: ValueMySurplus (asset-valuation SaaS — web app, API & MCP), Tour Mode (tour app for touring artists), Fleet (AI project command center), Daily Frets (guitar practice), Signal Visualizer (audio-reactive music video), Sprightly (AI-native teaching platform), BLOC Audio (audio plugins — StepSampler, C++/JUCE).

Next.js · React · TypeScript · Supabase · AI/LLM integration · C++/JUCE
Head of Marketing & Sales · San Diego Design Pros
2026 – Current · San Diego, CA

Co-run a creative studio — design, photography, marketing & AI automation for San Diego businesses; lead marketing and sales.

Marketing · sales · brand · AI automation
Director of Engineering · Requis
2018 – Present

Founding engineer turned engineering leader for an enterprise supply-chain platform managing $2.56B in assets across 13,500+ companies (clients/investors including Worley).

  • Built the original marketplace (spun out of 6fusion) and grew it into a full enterprise platform; promoted from founding engineer to engineering leadership on the strength of leadership & communication.
  • Led a team that scaled from 5 to 8 engineers plus 3 senior consultants (UX, DevOps, Data/Analytics) — owning dev budgeting, hiring, and roadmap; partnered daily with product and coordinated with upper management (incl. the CFO) and Worley teams worldwide.
  • Led three platform generations: startup Rails MVP → enterprise-grade Elixir (SOC 2–ready; Sigma analytics + Workato iPaaS) → lean, AI-accelerated JavaScript full-stack.
  • Delivered the V3 rewrite in ~2 weeks against a 2-month estimate — cutting infrastructure cost ~80% and removing the need for a senior-architect hire — by simplifying to the essence and using AI to multiply team velocity; also steered the platform through a strategic pivot to a focused surplus marketplace.
Ruby/Rails · Elixir · JavaScript full-stack · AWS · Algolia · AI-accelerated development · team leadership & budgeting
Software Engineer · 6fusion
2014 – 2018 · Raleigh, NC

Full-stack developer building product features across the stack.

Ruby · Rails · React · Backbone · jQuery · CouchDB/MongoDB · RSpec · Docker · Kubernetes
Software Engineer · StageBloc
2013 – 2014 · Chicago, IL

Built full features for a music platform; refactored legacy code and drove performance optimizations.

PHP · Symfony · RabbitMQ · JavaScript · AWS
Cofounder · Gear of the Godz
2010 – 2011 · San Diego, CA

Cofounded a startup curating music gear based on what famous musicians used — built the product, the site, and the go-to-market.

WordPress · digital marketing · social · SEO
Web Designer & Developer · Self-employed
2009 – 2013 · San Diego, CA

Designed and built websites and web apps for clients; also ran SEO & web consulting (Loud Noises, LLC).

Ruby · Rails · JavaScript · PHP · WordPress · SEO

Selected Work

A curated set of live projects across B2B, music, art, teaching & games — including Requis, San Diego Design Pros, Daily Frets, Signal Visualizer, Sprightly, and BLOC Audio. Full portfolio: brettsanders.dev.

Skills

Engineering
Ruby/Rails · JavaScript/React · PHP/Symfony · HTML/CSS · REST APIs · SQL & NoSQL (MongoDB, CouchDB) · Git · TDD/RSpec · Docker/Kubernetes · AWS
Product & Design
UI/UX · product strategy · 0→1 development · communication & project leadership
AI
AI-assisted & agentic development · shipping real products with AI
Audio
C++/JUCE · VST/AU/CLAP plugin development

Education & Development

Education
B.A. in Comparative Literature — UC San Diego (2008).
UX & Product Design
DesignLab — UX design bootcamp; ongoing self-directed study in UX & product design.
Leadership & Craft
Fast learner across new stacks; immersed in the tech community while moving into management — hundreds of industry meetups (pre-2020).