United Kingdom
Hi, I'm Alex — a frontend engineer with over 18 years of experience building and scaling high-quality, accessible web interfaces. I care deeply about clean, maintainable code and strong fundamentals, from pixel-perfect UI and accessibility through to performance and long-term maintainability. My background is heavily rooted in design systems, component libraries, and frontend architecture, where I've helped teams ship consistently high-quality UI at scale. I've worked across startups and scale-ups, often operating at a platform level — defining standards, improving developer experience, and making it easier for teams to move fast without compromising quality. I specialise in modern frontend technologies including JavaScript, TypeScript, Vue, React, and CSS, and I've spent much of my career working closely with design and product to turn complex requirements into simple, usable interfaces. I'm also comfortable mentoring engineers, reviewing code, and contributing to technical direction, even when I'm not in a formal leadership role.
As a Senior Frontend Engineer at Butternut Box, I work on rebuilding the main customer-facing website using React and Next.js, alongside a modern CMS setup with Storyblok. The focus of my role is delivering robust, scalable frontend solutions while improving performance, maintainability, and overall developer experience. While this is an individual contributor role, I regularly draw on my broader experience to help shape architecture decisions, identify potential issues early, and solve complex frontend problems pragmatically. I work closely with designers, product, and backend engineers to ensure the implementation aligns with both user needs and long-term technical goals. AI tooling (primarily Claude) is used day-to-day to support development, speed up iteration, and reduce cognitive load, while maintaining a strong focus on code quality and clarity.
As a Staff / Lead Frontend Engineer at Lyka, I led the development of a company-wide design system and component library in close collaboration with the Design Lead. The goal was to create a single, scalable foundation for all frontend work, ensuring consistency, accessibility, performance, and ease of use across teams. I built the component library from the ground up as a private NPM package, defining standards around responsiveness, theming, accessibility, testing, versioning, and contribution workflows. This significantly improved developer experience and enabled teams to move faster without sacrificing quality. Alongside the technical work, I supported and mentored frontend engineers across multiple squads through regular guidance, PR reviews, and an open-door approach to problem solving. I also set up and ran a Design System / Component Library guild to encourage adoption, shared ownership, and cross-team collaboration. At a leadership level, I worked closely with engineering leadership and stakeholders to help shape frontend direction, improve processes, and align technical decisions with broader business goals.
Worked as a freelance contributor creating bespoke virtual maps for global clients using Tiled and the Gather platform. Responsible for designing, building, and furnishing interactive environments tailored to client needs, handling feedback, and iterating on delivered work. Collaborated with distributed teams across time zones, primarily with US-based colleagues, to align on requirements and delivery.
As part of a fully remote, globally distributed team, I led frontend development across large parts of the mod.io platform, working closely with backend engineers and designers to deliver a responsive, accessible product used across web and embedded surfaces. I built the frontend architecture from the ground up, including an internal component library that enabled consistency, accessibility, and faster development across the team. A significant focus of my work was leading the frontend development of the monetisation area, coordinating with product and backend teams to deliver complex, state-heavy UI with a strong focus on performance and usability. Alongside hands-on development, I supported the wider frontend team through mentoring, PR reviews, and regular guild meetings, helping to maintain shared standards and improve overall code quality. I worked primarily on the Vue 3 and Tailwind-based v2 rebuild, contributing both to day-to-day delivery and longer-term frontend direction
Worked as a senior frontend engineer on large-scale, long-running client projects, with a strong focus on component reuse, consistency, and maintainability across teams and codebases. Led frontend development on a Vue.js-based component library for the Australian Department of Defence, used to rebuild and standardise over 150 websites. This involved defining component patterns, maintaining shared styles and behaviours, and supporting other developers adopting the library across multiple projects. Regularly collaborated with backend engineers, designers, and account managers to deliver complex client work, balancing technical constraints with design and delivery timelines. Took responsibility for code quality through pull request reviews, frontend guidance, and day-to-day technical decision-making. Delivered work for high-profile clients including the Australian Air Force and Maurice Blackburn, adapting frontend approaches and tooling depending on project needs while maintaining a consistent level of quality and accessibility.