Michael Daly.A personal note for Ali & the teamCompare the original

01 / Hello

Hi Ali,
I’d love to build
useful things
with your team.

I’m Michael, a full-stack engineer from Liverpool. I’ve spent 19 years building products and leading engineering teams. I’m also a dad and a golfer.

I enjoy building software that makes people’s working lives easier. At LBA, I’d put that into practice by helping coaches spend less time on admin and more time helping students build their businesses.

A little about me
Michael Daly smiling outdoors
Michael, Liverpool, UKFull stack engineer, turning messy workflows into simple, useful software.

02 / My story

Where I am now.
And the years behind it.

  1. 9 monthsDec 2025–present

    Laravel

    Senior Engineering Manager · Laravel Cloud

    At Laravel, I lead engineering for Laravel Cloud’s infrastructure platform while continuing to support Core Services across the ecosystem. My focus is making those services reliable, easier to maintain and better for developers to use.

    I help teams turn priorities into working software through strong testing, practical mentoring and reliable releases. Alongside that, I contribute code through an agentic workflow I’ve developed and refined both independently and with colleagues at Laravel.

  2. 8 years2018–2025

    SwingU

    Senior Engineer → VP → CTO
    CTO for 4 years · 2022–2025

    My work spanned web and mobile, including our first-party API and integrations. I helped the platform reach 7M+ users and led engineering through Golf Genius’s 2024 acquisition.

  3. 1 year2017–2018

    EcoOnline

    Senior Software Developer

    I developed health and safety software and its core services.

  4. 1 year2016–2017

    Interact Intranet

    Software Developer

    I built custom CMS features and real-time communication tools.

  5. 3 years2013–2016

    Columbus Global

    Software Developer

    I built ecommerce software for multichannel retailers.

  6. 6 years2007–2013

    City of Liverpool College

    Junior Developer → Application and Web Developer

    I built the in-house CMS and managed the staff intranet and website.

Tenures as of September 2026.

So, why this role?

I want to work directly with the people using the software and take responsibility for improving it. That’s what appeals to me about building for your coaches and students.

03 / How I build

How I build
with AI.

As an AI-native engineer, I use Claude and ChatGPT every day to work through ideas and direct implementation. I’m experimenting with Grokbot and have tried SoloTerm to coordinate collaboration across multiple agents and models.

  1. 1

    Get the problem out of my head.

    I use a “chief of staff” agent to turn what’s in my head into a clear problem and a manageable scope. I keep the plan proportionate to the work, using a small prototype to explore anything unclear.

  2. 2

    Let the specialists challenge it.

    Agents take on architecture, security, design and technical leadership roles. They challenge each other’s assumptions before implementation agents work through the plan in small pull requests.

  3. 3

    Keep responsibility with me.

    I review and test the code and decide what gets committed. At LBA, I’d put a small version in front of coaches early and use their feedback to guide what comes next.

I’d stay responsible after launch, investigating problems and keeping the tools reliable. The team should be able to see when data is out of date or a background job has failed.

04 / My toolkit

Experience across
the whole product.

I’ve worked with TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Next.js, and Node.js, alongside backend and infrastructure work.

Web & backend
PHP / Laravel · Vue / Inertia · Go · C# / .NET
Data & operations
SQL · Postgres · PlanetScale · MySQL · SQL Server · Redis · AWS · Docker · Linux · Windows Server · Datadog · Sentry · CloudWatch
Connecting systems
APIs & SDKs · webhooks · LLM APIs · Stripe · Airtable · authentication & permissions, including WorkOS · data pipelines & dashboards
Python & Supabase
I have a basic grounding in Python and some practical experience, which I’m keen to build on. Supabase would be new to me; I’ve used Postgres and PlanetScale.
Mobile
Experience across Swift iOS and Kotlin Android products at SwingU.

05 / Where I’d start

Give a coach
their time back.

A starting idea to explore together.

I’d start by talking with coaches about how they prepare for a student call. If finding context is taking too long, I’d test a simple brief that brings the relevant information together.

I’d check which APIs and data are available, build a small version and measure preparation time and corrections. Coaches would see the sources and any uncertainty, with sensitive information restricted to the right people.

If the brief helps, I’d explore call and scorecard summaries, plus flags that help people review student progress and coaching quality. Useful internal tools could then grow into products students use directly. I’d own the improvements and maintenance as the tools grow.

That’s me.
I’d love to hear what’s next.

I’m based in Liverpool and understand from your team that the role is fully remote. My notice period is four weeks.

Thanks for reading,
Michael

Say hello Download my CV