Matthew Payne

Senior operator at the intersection of marketing and engineering.

I'm Matthew. Serial founder with one exit and 23 years running my own LLC. I write the code, run the campaigns, and ship the systems myself — local SEO, paid acquisition, lead flow infrastructure, and AI/AEO measurement systems under one roof. One operator on every engagement, no agency overhead.

23 years independent

Also open to senior full-time IC roles — say hi.

What I do

My 23-year career

SMB & B2B acquisition

Local SEO, paid acquisition, and lead flow infrastructure. Two decades of running this for dental, medical, and legal practices, local services, and B2B operators.

  • Local SEO & technical SEO
  • Google Ads & Meta Ads
  • Lead capture & intake routing
  • Email & SMS lifecycle
  • Conversion tracking & attribution
My recent edge

AI/AEO & growth engineering

Measurement infrastructure for AI search visibility, agentic workflows, and the engineering work that lives where marketing and code overlap.

  • AI search visibility (10 frontier LLMs)
  • Entity optimization & schema
  • Agentic pipelines & orchestration
  • Custom tracking & data systems
  • Speed-to-lead & pipeline hygiene

Stack

Languages
Python · Node.js · PHP · JavaScript · SQL · Bash · HTML
Databases
PostgreSQL · MySQL · Redis
AI
APIs · agentic workflows · entity resolution · prompt-class design · Claude Code · Cursor · Github Copilot
AI Models / LLM
ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini · Perplexity · Grok · Llama · DeepSeek · Copilot · Le Chat · You.com
SEO / AEO
Local SEO · technical SEO · schema.org · llms.txt · entity optimization · AI search measurement · Google Analytics
Paid & Lifecycle
Google Ads · Meta Ads · HubSpot · email & SMS automation · CRM integrations
Infrastructure
Cloudflare · AWS · GCP · Linux · Docker · self-managed deployments

How to work with me

Primary

Contract / project work

Local SEO & AEO, paid acquisition, lead flow infrastructure, AI/agentic builds. 10–30 hrs/week, scoped or hourly. This is what I do most of the time.

Also open to

Senior full-time IC roles

Senior SEO Engineer · Senior Growth Engineer · Senior Marketing Engineer · Senior AEO Engineer · Founding Engineer roles. At companies that want a builder, not a manager.

Based in Los Angeles 🌴 · Open to remote · US time zones