Clayton Collie

AI Lead and Applied AI EngineerAmsterdam, The Netherlands

clayton.collie@gmail.com+31 6 48 46 35 84

About Me

I am the AI Lead for back-end engineering at Fueled (formerly 10up), a full-service agency that builds for clients like the Nobel Prize, Google, the State of California, TIME, and ESPN. I am part of the team building Relay, our internal Claude Code plugin marketplace with MCP integrations and department-specific command sets, and I lead a multi-department AI enablement program, pairing with each department’s AI Lead to move teams from experimenting with AI to shipping with it.

The work behind that program is the work behind real AI adoption: building MCP servers, sub-agents, and agent skills that run in production engineering workflows, building evaluation and error analysis into those workflows so they are reliable enough to deploy, and wiring LLM tooling into enterprise platforms and existing pipelines.

That work builds on almost two decades as a self-taught engineer shipping enterprise WordPress, React, Next.js, and TypeScript, and I am a WordPress Core Contributor to the platform behind over 40% of the web. Most of that time has been spent embedded with project stakeholders, translating messy requirements into systems that ship and keep working. The AI work depends on that same skill: understanding how a team operates before trying to improve it with AI.

I am a US citizen, currently living and working in Amsterdam.

Experience

  1. AI Lead, Back End Engineering

    –Present

    Fueled (formerly 10up)Remote

    • AI Lead for back-end engineering, driving multi-department AI adoption alongside each department’s AI Lead
    • Help build Relay, an internal Claude Code plugin marketplace with MCP integrations and department-specific command sets
    • Build and ship MCP servers, sub-agents, and agent skills used in production engineering workflows
    • Build evaluation and error analysis into agentic workflows so they are reliable enough to deploy
    • Contributed to WordPress’s native AI direction, including the MCP Adapter and the Abilities API in WordPress 7.0
    • Work with various departments as an embedded engineer to help them improve their workflows with AI

  2. Engineering Manager

    –

    Fueled (formerly 10up)Remote

    • Manage team of engineers to deliver multiple concurrent projects
    • Work with stakeholders to estimate features and create timelines
    • Use Cursor and Claude Code to increase productivity and code velocity

  3. Senior Web Engineer

    –

    10upRemote

    • Technical lead for multiple enterprise-level governmental websites including the California DMV
    • Manage, monitor, and contribute to site with over 1 million requests per day
    • Manage team of engineers to deliver multiple concurrent projects
    • Utilize React, PHP, HTML5, CSS3, Cloudfront, WebSeal, F5, Java, Jenkins, Sass, Gulp, Webpack, DataDog, New Relic, Gitlab, GitHub, Jira
    • Build third-party integrations with external APIs
    • Deploy weekly and monthly WordPress Core, theme, and plugin updates
    • Work with stakeholders to estimate feature requirements and timelines

  4. Senior Web Engineer

    –

    Content PilotDallas, TX

    • Lead architect of plugin and theme suite used on 30+ websites
    • Mentor and train developers to use company tools and workflow
    • Present, sell, plan, and execute the quarterly product roadmap
    • Build responsive, accessible, performant websites on WordPress
    • Utilize PHP, HTML5, CSS3, Sass, Gulp, Webpack, React
    • Build third-party integrations with REST API and GraphQL
    • Explore and decide on new technologies like serverless, Gatsby, Next.js
    • Create headless sites using WordPress, GraphQL, and Gatsby
    • Establish coding standards with PHPCS, ESLint, Prettier, Stylelint
    • Establish testing suite with PHPUnit, Codeception, PHPStan
    • Develop company-specific CLI using TypeScript and Oclif
    • Create GitHub Actions to streamline CI/CD pipeline
    • Audit and fix WCAG A/AA/AAA accessibility issues using SiteImprove

  5. Web Engineer

    –

    Sheley MarketingDallas, TX

    • Lead architect of plugin and theme suite used on 30+ websites
    • Design and develop websites using WordPress, Genesis, WP Engine
    • Utilize HTML5, CSS3, Sass, PHP, jQuery, VS Code, Local by Flywheel
    • Respond to and perform change requests from clients
    • Manage monthly updates for 30+ websites
    • Work with direct report to generate leads and fill the pipeline
    • Respond to RFPs with robust proposals
    • Pitch and close business owners

    In 2018, Sheila and I merged Sheley Marketing with Content Pilot so that the themes, plugins, and workflow that I built over the previous four years could replace their out-dated and overly complicated content management system. I am proud of this accomplishment and it shows what a long term dedication to a specific technology, WordPress, and to a specific niche, law firms, can accomplish.

  6. Web Engineer

    –

    Self-employedDallas, TX

    • 100% Self-taught developer
    • Pitch and close business owners to build websites
    • Strategize, design, and develop responsive websites
    • Utilize industry-leading content management system
    • WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento

Skills

  • Claude Code
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)
  • AI agents, sub-agents, and agent skills
  • Evals and error analysis
  • Prompt engineering
  • RAG and LLM application development
  • AWS Bedrock
  • Cursor
  • TypeScript
  • PHP
  • WordPress
  • Next.js
  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • Java
  • React
  • Node.js
  • GraphQL
  • Docker
  • Cloudflare
  • CloudFront
  • Nginx
  • GitHub Actions
  • CI/CD
  • PHPUnit, Codeception, PHPStan
  • Datadog, New Relic
  • Git, GitHub, GitLab

Education

  1. Southern Methodist University

    –

    Bachelor of Fine ArtsDallas, TX

  2. Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas

    –

    High SchoolDallas, TX