Backend
Production PHP systems with clear domain boundaries, predictable data flows and APIs built to be consumed for years.
- PHP
- Laravel
- Symfony
- REST APIs
- Domain-driven architecture
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- Redis
Available for selected freelance projects
Senior Full-Stack Engineer & AI Developer
I build production-grade web applications, scalable Laravel and Symfony platforms, and intelligent AI-powered systems for companies that need more than just another developer.
Laravel · Symfony · PHP · React · TypeScript · Docker · Microsoft AI Foundry · RAG · MCP
basmdev — session
$ php artisan architecture:review
→ domains: 14 · coverage: ok · queues: healthy
$ agent.run(tool: 'policy.lookup', mcp: true)
→ grounded answer · 3 sources · 412 ms
$ _
Capabilities
Engineering expertise
Four areas that usually have to work together in one system: a solid backend, a maintainable frontend, infrastructure that stays out of the way, and AI that is actually connected to something.
Frontend
Typed, maintainable interfaces on top of those systems — from admin dashboards to customer-facing apps.
- React
- Next.js
- Vue
- TypeScript
- Inertia.js
- Modern responsive interfaces
Infrastructure
Reproducible environments, automated pipelines and deployments that are boring on purpose.
- Docker
- CI/CD
- Linux
- Cloud infrastructure
- GitHub
- Deployment automation
AI & Intelligent Applications
AI wired into real business systems: agents with tools, retrieval over enterprise knowledge, structured workflows.
- Microsoft AI Foundry
- Azure OpenAI
- RAG
- MCP
- AI agents
- Tool calling
- AI-powered workflows
- LLM integrations
AI engineering
AI that actually does something
Most AI work stops at a chatbot bolted onto a website. The interesting part starts where the model has to reach into real systems: agents with tools, retrieval over enterprise knowledge, and workflows where the output has consequences.
The real value of AI isn't the model. It's what you connect the model to.
Agents with real tools
Models that can call your APIs, query your data and execute defined actions — with guardrails, validation and audit trails around every call.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Enterprise knowledge retrieval over documents, policies and internal data, with chunking, embeddings and ranking tuned to the domain rather than a demo.
Model Context Protocol
MCP servers that expose business systems to models in a standardised, permissioned way instead of one-off glue code per integration.
Enterprise AI architecture
Microsoft AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI deployed inside existing application landscapes, with clear boundaries between deterministic logic and model output.
Reference architecture
How a request actually flows
AI Agent
Reasoning layer that plans, selects tools and decides what context it still needs.
Portfolio
Selected work
A selection of platforms and systems I have worked on. Descriptions stay at architecture level where client details are confidential.
VIRPP
Music distribution platform
A music distribution and A&R platform connecting artists, labels and stores, with large-scale data flows between internal systems and third parties.
- Problem
- A growing platform with artist uploads, label workflows, payouts and dozens of external integrations needed a backend that stayed maintainable while feature scope kept expanding.
- Solution
- Laravel backend with clearly separated domains, administration and label dashboards, internal and public APIs, payment flows, queue-driven background processing and third-party integrations.
- Outcome
- A platform where new distribution features, payment methods and integrations can be added without rewriting the core.
- Laravel
- PHP
- Next.js
- MySQL
- Redis
- Docker
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- Google Play
- Mailgun
- Algolia
- Sentry
Enterprise Insurance AI Platform
Enterprise AI architecture
An insurance platform where AI agents operate on top of existing business systems and document knowledge.
- Problem
- Domain knowledge lived in policies, documents and legacy systems. Answers required both retrieval and live data — a plain chatbot could not be trusted with either.
- Solution
- Laravel application extended with AI agents on Microsoft AI Foundry: RAG over enterprise documents, MCP and tool calling to reach business systems, and structured workflows that keep deterministic logic out of the model.
- Outcome
- AI features grounded in real company data and system state, with explicit boundaries around what the model is allowed to do.
- Laravel
- PHP
- Microsoft AI Foundry
- Azure OpenAI
- RAG
- MCP
- Tool calling
- REST APIs
Custom SaaS & Business Platforms
Business applications
Custom business applications, dashboards, administration systems, automation platforms and integrations for a range of organisations.
- Problem
- Off-the-shelf tooling stops where a company's actual process begins — usually at integrations, reporting and edge cases.
- Solution
- Tailored Laravel and Symfony applications with API layers, admin interfaces, automation and integrations into the systems the business already relies on.
- Outcome
- Systems that fit the process instead of forcing the process to fit the tool.
- Laravel
- Symfony
- PHP
- Vue
- React
- TypeScript
- MySQL
- Docker
- CI/CD
How I work
From idea to production
I take ownership of a project rather than picking up isolated tickets: architecture, implementation, integrations, deployment and the iterations after go-live.
01
Understand the problem
Business context, constraints and the actual bottleneck — before any technology decision is made.
02
Design the architecture
Domain boundaries, data model, integrations and the failure modes that matter.
03
Build the foundation
Core domain, APIs and tests first, so later features do not fight the base.
04
Integrate systems and AI
External services, payment providers, enterprise systems, retrieval and agents with tool access.
05
Test and harden
Automated tests, error tracking, performance work and sane defaults under load.
06
Deploy
Dockerised environments and CI/CD pipelines that make releases uneventful.
07
Iterate
Measure, refactor and extend — with the architecture kept honest as scope grows.
Positioning
Why work with me
What you get when you hand over a difficult system instead of a small task.
Senior-level experience
Years of building and maintaining production software, working in complex codebases and systems that people depend on daily.
Backend depth
Deep expertise in PHP, Laravel and Symfony — architecture, data modelling, queues, APIs and performance.
Full-stack capability
Backend, frontend, APIs, infrastructure and deployment. No handover gaps between the parts of a system.
AI engineering
Hands-on integration of AI agents, RAG, MCP and Microsoft AI Foundry into real applications, not proofs of concept.
Business-oriented engineering
Technology choices are made to solve a business problem. Complexity has to earn its place.
Ownership
Comfortable owning a project end to end: talking to stakeholders, making decisions and delivering production-ready software.
Toolchain
Technical stack
The technologies I use daily. Tools are chosen per project, not the other way around.
Backend
- PHP
- Laravel
- Symfony
Frontend
- React
- Next.js
- Vue
- TypeScript
- Inertia.js
AI
- Microsoft AI Foundry
- Azure OpenAI
- RAG
- MCP
- AI Agents
Data
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- Redis
Infrastructure
- Docker
- Linux
- CI/CD
- GitHub
- Cloud
Integrations
- REST APIs
- Stripe
- Payment platforms
- SaaS APIs
- Enterprise systems
BMPortrait placeholder
About
Bas Mulder
Dutch software engineer with many years of experience building web applications, SaaS platforms, APIs, integrations and business-critical systems.
My background is backend-heavy: PHP, Laravel and Symfony, domain-driven architecture, relational data modelling, queues, caching and APIs that other teams depend on. Around that I work full-stack — React, Next.js, Vue and TypeScript on the front, Docker, CI/CD and cloud infrastructure underneath.
In recent years my focus has shifted towards AI-powered applications and enterprise AI architecture: agents with tool calling, Retrieval-Augmented Generation over company knowledge, MCP servers exposing business systems, and Microsoft AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI running inside existing application landscapes.
I work as Bas Mulder, operating under basmdev.nl, on selected freelance assignments where architecture and long-term maintainability matter as much as shipping the first version.
Contact
Have a complex project?
Let's talk about it.
I take on selected freelance assignments where architecture, integrations and long-term maintainability matter.
- Laravel
- Symfony
- Full-stack development
- Software architecture
- AI applications
- Microsoft AI Foundry
- AI agents
- Enterprise integrations