Matthew
Hudson

Strategic Engineering Leader with 15+ years of experience building high-performance platforms and newsroom technology. Proven track record of directing large-scale digital transformations for world-class brands including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the Minnesota Star Tribune. Former betaworks leader with a unique blend of startup agility and enterprise-scale operational excellence.
New York, USA | matthud@gmail.com | +1 (321) 655-9102 | linkedin.com/in/thematthewhudson | hudson.dev

Experience

Code & Theory

Sep 2023 - Dec 2025
Engineering Director
  • Partnered with internal R&D teams to integrate Context Lens, an AI-driven contextual graphics system, into RealClearMedia’s platform to automate data narrativization for newsrooms.
  • Minnesota Star Tribune: Directed a cross-functional team of 30+ engineers and designers to execute a full migration to Next.js and Vercel, resulting in a 35% YoY increase in digital subscriptions.
  • RealClearMedia Modernization: Steered a company-wide transition to a modern stack (Next.js/PayloadCMS) to unify fragmented developer workflows and enhance editorial velocity.
  • RealClear Polling Migration: Oversaw the transition from legacy PHP to a headless architecture (Contentful/Next.js), implementing automated Lighthouse and SpeedCurve gates to elevate Core Web Vitals to the 80-90+ range.

Pager

Nov 2021 - Jun 2023
Engineering Manager
  • Led Next.js/React platform for patient care navigation on a >$100M-funded company (investors include NEA, Lux, Goodwater, Horizon Blue Cross, Susquehanna).
  • Implemented design system + CI quality gates (Storybook, ESLint, Sonar). Outcome: cut UI delivery cycle ~40% and lifted patient engagement ~25%.

Condé Nast

Oct 2015 - Jul 2018
Engineering Manager -> Engineering Director
  • Led a mission-critical technical response during a record-breaking traffic event; leveraged performance engineering to maintain site stability and sub-second checkout speeds, resulting in 13,000 new subscribers within a 24-hour window.
  • Managed managers, led a geographically dispersed team of 25-30 engineers responsible for: Bon Appétit, Traveler, Epicurious, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.
  • Spearheaded a performance initiative that drove Vanity Fair PageSpeed scores from ~25 to 90; coordinated paywall and speed optimizations to triple YoY paid-subscription growth across the brand portfolio.
  • Orchestrated a department-wide web performance program, institutionalizing best practices and achieving a 25% efficiency improvement across all Condé Nast brands.

Betaworks

Oct 2013 - Jun 2015
Senior Engineer -> Engineering Director -> Interim CTO
  • Kandu (kids app creator): Led eng through $2.4M betaworks-led seed round; shipped iPad no-code creation experience.
  • AlphaWorks (equity crowdfunding): Stabilized engineering through leadership transition; platform launched with co-investment from Founder Collective, OATV, Box Group and early syndication with SV Angel, Lerer Ventures.

SeatGeek

Jan 2013 - Jul 2013
Senior Frontend Engineer
  • Early engineer at a startup that scaled into a unicorn (>$1B valuation, IPO via SPAC in 2022); joined at ~10 employees and built core features as the company grew rapidly.
  • Developed major front-end systems for seat maps, event discovery, and checkout UX, directly impacting conversion during high-traffic events.
  • Co-developed Sixpack, an open-source A/B testing framework that became widely adopted beyond SeatGeek and remains a well-known experimentation tool in the developer community.

Skills

Core
JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, PHP, Python
Platform
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Vercel, Heroku, Docker
Performance
Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse CI, SpeedCurve
Security & Compliance
OAuth/JWT, SOX, GDPR, PCI, COPPA, HIPAA, WCAG
Content Management
Optimizely/Episerver, WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, ArcXP, Payload
Data & Databases
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, GraphQL, Neon, ChromaDB, MongoDB, CouchDB

Awards

Shorty Awards
Star Tribune ‘25, RealClearPolling ‘25, RealClearMedia ‘25
People's Voice Webby
The New Yorker ‘17 & ‘19, Epicurious ‘18
Magazine Websites Webby
The New Yorker ‘17 & ‘19, Epicurious ‘18, VF ‘18

Selected Press & Case Studies

Vanity Fair’s 13,000 new subscribers in 24 hours

RealClearPolling modernization (Next.js, Contentful)

Star Tribune digital subscriptions +35% YoY

How Condé Nast Used Node.js to Unify Brands, Create Customer Faith