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DAN LUK
"I architect and own the whole system — building the interface, backend, databases, and the glue in between — and get them in front of real users fast."
//about

Some background on me.

I'm the marketing-technology and AI developer at YouVersion (the Bible App, 1 billion+ installs). When we started wondering what AI could actually do for our marketing, I didn't wait for a mandate — I just started building, exploring what was possible, and shipped two production systems (Next.js + TypeScript) on my own. One picks the best message for each user with bandit ML algorithms. The other lets anyone launch localized campaigns across 70+ languages. The work contributed to a 300% increase in campaign engagement and a 30% increase in a generosity campaign. I'm now the tech lead on our production applications.

//01

Nexus iconNexus

Architect & tech lead

Personalization at scale was a pipedream. The best anyone could do was slice users into broad audiences — and even that meant creatives and developers hand-building every campaign from scratch. Nexus turns it into an automated system where marketers define the goals and variants. The machine learning engine (Thompson Sampling) autonomously decides what, when, and how to message each of 50M+ users, learning continuously from real engagement. I built the pipeline end to end: user profiles and behavioral signals flow from a BigQuery warehouse through the Hightouch CDP into Nexus, which selects each message and sends it through Braze — and Braze's engagement events flow back in to keep the bandits learning.
TypeScriptNext.jsMachine LearningPrismaPostgres
Nexus AI decisioning loop diagram
//02

Beacon iconBeacon

Architect & tech lead

A self-service platform that took campaign creation off engineering's critical path: marketers design, localize, and launch cross-channel campaigns reaching 100M+ users. I designed the 24-component creative schema that renders consistently across email, push, in-app from a single source of truth, and the Draft → Approved → Sent governance layer that lets marketers ship safely while the org keeps control of what actually goes out. Impact: 24 campaigns/month now launch with zero engineering involvement, cutting typical launch time from 3 days to 3 hours.
Next.jsReactDrizzlePostgresBraze
//03

VerseCut iconVerseCut

Architect & tech lead

Turns a single reference into a polished image or video ad — composited, captioned, and voiced entirely in the browser. Rendering runs client-side via FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly with on-device text-to-speech and subtitles, keeping cost and infrastructure near zero.
Next.jsReactFFmpeg WASMKokoro TTS
//04

Wayfinder iconWayfinder

Tech Lead - built with a team

Generates deep links and QR codes that route people to the right content across platforms — built so marketing and growth teams can spin up, manage, and track campaign links from a single, fast interface. The API endpoints allow for pulling CMS data for smart and personalized communications.
Next.jsReacttRPCPostgresFirebase
//05

Captured iconCaptured

Built solo in a weekend.

A build dashboard and ingestion pipeline for capturing and structuring sites — a wizard-driven flow that scrapes, parses, and tracks builds end-to-end, with a clean operator view over the whole process.
Next.jsReactNextAuthDrizzlePostgres

Experience & Education

Now

Marketing Technology & AI Product Developer

YouVersion · Life.Church — 2023–Present

The AI builder and enabler for marketing teams on a 1 billion+ install product. Architected Nexus (agentic ML decisioning) and Beacon (a self-service campaign platform that ships launch-ready creative in 70+ languages), and contributed to a 200% increase in monthly campaign revenue

2023

Software Engineer

Technology Service Corporation (TSC)

Delivered architecture design, system integration, and code automation for DoD programs — high-voltage detonator and battery systems — with diagnostic problem-solving in mission-critical, cross-functional hardware environments.

2018–22

Church Planter & Pastor

Non-profit ministry — Bloomington, IN

I've started things from zero my whole career — churches, campus ministries, a $2M fundraising practice. Planted new churches from the ground up — pastoring congregations and discipling leaders. Cast vision, built community, and celebrated big wins.

2013–18

Campus Ministry Founder · Content & Web

Non-profit ministry — Columbus, OH

I started new campus ministries by planting small-group communities. Created content for small groups and sermons, and built and maintained the websites that deployed it — my first taste of shipping software to reach people at scale.

2008–13

Development & Fundraising

Non-profit organizations — Columbus, OH

Raised $2M for nonprofit organizations — owning the full cycle of relationship-building, storytelling, and follow-through that turns a mission into funded reality.

2008

M.S.E., Aeronautical & Aerospace Engineering

The Ohio State University

Graduate study in aerospace engineering — where systems thinking and reasoning under uncertainty became second nature. My master's thesis ↗ predicted turbine-blade heat transfer with a 3D compressible CFD solver built on the Navier–Stokes equationsReynolds-Averaged Navier–StokesNewton's second law for continuous materials — they calculate the velocity and pressure of a fluid by balancing forces like inertia, viscosity, and gravity.Mass∂ρ/∂t + ∂/∂xj[ρ(uj−Vj)] = 0
Momentum∂ρui/∂t + ∂/∂xj[ρ(uj−Vj)ui + pδij − τij] = Si
Energy∂Et/∂t + ∂/∂xj[(uj−Vj)(Et+p) − uiτij − qj] = 0
.

2006

B.S.E., Aeronautical & Aerospace Engineering

The Ohio State University

Bachelor's in aerospace engineering.

BUILDER
Dan Luk

Let's build something.

I'm looking for work where I build from scratch — taking something from a raw idea to a shipped product in users' hands. I'm at my best before the answer is obvious: choosing the architecture, pressure-testing it against real users, and cutting what shouldn't get built. Fastest way to reach me is email.

//off the clock

The best system I'm part of.

Eight years married to Maggie, dad to three kids. The systems I care about most don't run in production — they're at home. Same principles, though: show up every day, build for the long run, and sweat the details no one else sees.

Dan and Maggie
Date day, a few thousand feet up.
The Luk family — Dan, Maggie, and their three kids with number 4 on the wall
Eight years in, fourth kid on the way.
//nights & weekends

The structural engineer was wrong…

He signed off that the wall between the kitchen and dining room wasn't load-bearing — so the plan was a quick weekend of demo. I took him at his word right up until I cut a stud and heard a thump. I investigated and confirmed it was load-bearing — the second-floor joists were resting right on top of it. It was carrying the house. Everything pivoted overnight: engineer a beam to pick up the load, re-permit, and a timeline that more than doubled. Same lesson I keep relearning in software — the spec is just a hypothesis until you open it up. I trust what I can see and measure, not what the drawing says.

Kitchen before the remodel
Before — dated and closed-in.
Mid-construction after removing a load-bearing wall
Mid-build — load-bearing wall out, beam in.
The finished remodeled kitchen
After — open, bright, and ours.