Austin Texas Drupal Developer, Consultant, and Architect

I'm JD Leonard, a freelance Drupal development consultant in Austin, Texas. I live in central Austin in Travis county. I provide services globally either directly (W-2) or through my firm, Modern Biz Consulting LLC (1099).

Drupal Association Organizational Member badge Drupal Association Individual Member badgeI'm an expert Drupal web developer and Drupal technical architect who focuses on the planning and development of complex web applications. I'm in an ideal position to build your next web application because I have:

  • Formal training - a computer science degree from Rice University
  • Drupal experience - I've been building sites with Drupal since 2006
  • Business acumen - I'll help you make decisions that positively impact your business
  • Project management and planning skills - I previously worked for Microsoft as a Program Manager in Redmond
  • A knack for planning and developing complex systems that last

Send me an email to discuss your project.

Specialties

With over 17 years of Drupal experience, I am a generalist Drupaler, but some areas for which I have in-depth experience include:

  • Information architecture design
  • Complex web applications e.g. mywater.veolia.us, GilderLehrman.org, and UMDearborn.edu
  • Low code Drupal 10 site building
  • Custom Drupal module development and upgrades
  • Functional specifications
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Custom integrations including use of third party APIs (e.g. Salesforce, FormAssembly, Facebook, Sendgrid, Twilio, and line of business applications including vie middleware such as Mulesoft Anypoint)
  • Drupal major version upgrades
  • Data migration including Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 using Drupal's Migrate API
  • Business process / workflow development (including digitization of paper processes)
  • Membership management
  • Document management
  • Best practices for deployment workflows, patch management, Composer, CI/CD, and other DevOps processes
  • Page load / performance optimization
  • Single sign-on (SSO) integrations including using the simpleSAMLphp Authentication or SAML Authentication Drupal modules
  • Custom views handler/plugin development
  • Database design
  • Drupal training and coaching
  • User experience (UX) design
  • Object oriented programming (OOP)
  • Google Workspace (GSuite) and Jira administration
  • Being a part-time CTO
  • Clear and concise written and oral communication
  • Directing and supporting distributed and offshore development teams

Technologies

Drupal is the workhorse behind the sites I develop. It's a versatile framework and content management system that can do almost anything you can imagine - as long as you have a good plan and a great Drupal developer. Read more at Drupal.org about Drupal.

I am intimately familiar with Drupal 5, Drupal 6, Drupal 7, Drupal 8, Drupal 9, and Drupal 10 as well as critical technologies that enable your Drupal web application to perform well, such as:

Working with JD

From my home office in Austin, Texas, I meet the needs of clients including tech startups, universities, non-profits, businesses of all sizes, and creative agencies. I'm extremely flexible and will make sure your website has an excellent foundation for future development, whether it be with me or another professional. I generally work remotely, but I am open to occasional in-person engagements.

I work exclusively on an hourly basis. This provides you, the client, with the most flexibility and best value.

Why Hourly?

In an ideal world, you know exactly what you want and that doesn't change. Realistically, requirements change frequently (or aren't well defined to begin with); as your web application takes shape, you realize that feature X isn't as important as you initially thought, and feature Y is suddenly a must-have.

Fixed price contracts create a negative dynamic between client and consultant because, at some point, the consultant has to say no to stay on budget, to the detriment of the project. Working hourly affords you the opportunity to change your mind when needed without the unnecessary overhead and awkward back-and-forth of renegotiating the contract.

Much of the value of Drupal comes from its default functionality and behavior, which makes it relatively easy to build a complex website without spending a ton of time. Of course, you won't always want that default functionality. Fortunately, Drupal is infinitely customizable; it can do exactly what you want. However, customization takes time and time is money. I strive to help you efficiently prioritize the customizations you really need to save you time and money. This is easiest on an hourly basis because I can quickly estimate the time it takes to complete a task without the overhead of a formal, budget-altering change request process.

Think of me as a raw efficient resource at your disposal for your planning, technical architecture, and/or development needs. I work great in an agile environment and I'm more than happy to work with you, your team, other vendors, and your changing requirements!

I track my time and invoice to the minute. The clock is on when I'm doing work for you; it's off when my attention is elsewhere. I strive to only do work that is useful to you. I typically invoice every two weeks.

Pricing

I provide consulting and development services to clients who expect the highest quality and most efficient work. You get what you pay for. If you're looking for bargain basement pricing and shoddy quality, please look elsewhere!

Phone Consultation
Free
  • Get to know each other
  • Discuss your needs
  • Discuss timeline
  • Discuss budget
Contact me
W-2 (Part-Time)
$260 / hr
  • Extremely flexible resource
  • Directed independently or by you
  • Exceptional communication
  • Billed by the minute
Contact me
1099 / Corp-to-Corp
$280 / hr
  • Extremely flexible resource
  • Directed independently or by you
  • Exceptional communication
  • Billed by the minute
Contact me

The difference in price between my W-2 and 1099 (contractor) rates approximates the difference in employer payroll taxes between the two options.

Lower Pricing & Additional Resources

While I work exclusively at my published rates, I realize that my rates are not within reach for every client and that my skillset may not be exactly what you need. I am happy to help you find the most appropriate resource; just shoot me an email with a description of what you need and I can put you in touch with my "guild" of developers, which can help you find the right fit within a matter of days.

Drupal Community

I proudly support Drupal through my paid membership in the Drupal Association, past sponsorship of the Bay Area Drupal Camp, and participation in the Bay Area, New York City, Austin, and greater Drupal communities. I appreciate the opportunity to contribute code back to the Drupal project and I encourage my clients to permit me to do so whenever it would be valuable to the community. I contribute bug reports and patches to the issues queues on Drupal.org to make Drupal and Drupal modules better for everyone and I have made many educational presentations. I was an organizer of DrupalCampNYC 2020 and lead organizer of the monthly Drupal NYC meetup and of DrupalCampNYC 2021. I was a Director and Secretary of the nonprofit DrupalNYC Incorporated.

Some of the presentations I have given include:

I have frequently attended meetings of the following community groups:

I have also had the pleasure of attending Drupal user group meetings in the following cities:

  • Santa Clara
  • Seattle
  • Taipei
  • Stuttgart

And I have/will attend the following Drupal conferences:

More JD

Check out my LinkedIn profile.