Vetted on a call by a Wave consultant, not scraped. £85,000 to £100,000.
Owns the whole path from wireframe to production at a 30 person insurtech, because there is no dedicated designer. That means Figma prototypes, UI design, the React build and the design system itself, all on one pair of hands. Accessibility is a genuine strength rather than a checkbox, WCAG work runs through the component library, and the interfaces are data dense AI products rather than marketing pages.
Looking forWants to keep the span of design and frontend but go deeper into product direction and strategy, with direct contact with the people using the thing. Startup environment, autonomy, ability to ship.
How they came acrossSits closer to the engineering end of the design engineering spectrum but holds strong design opinions and defends them. Not actively looking until a recent round of layoffs made them think about security, so receptive rather than hungry.
TypeScript, React, Vue.js, JavaScript · Figma, Storybook, shadcn/ui, ChakraUI, Tailwind · Node.js, Python, MongoDB, Jest, Vite
Ten employers over five years including internships and placements, moving from UX research and design into frontend engineering. 10 employers, average tenure 1 year 1 month.
Not actively on the market, prompted only by layoffs at their employer a fortnight before we spoke, so expect a slower and more considered process.
Masters in user experience engineering from a globally ranked university, on top of a computer science degree.
Led the rebuild of a quote and buy journey in React, Next.js and TypeScript at a pet insurance business, then the medical declaration journey after it. The standout is a refactor that consolidated roughly ten white label brand codebases into one component and styling system. Sole author of the full Playwright suite covering end to end, snapshot and functional tests, which they started themselves rather than being asked to.
Looking forProgression is the driver. Five years in and the ceiling is visible, so they want genuine architecture ownership and a chance to shape features from zero. Hybrid, and they actively miss the office. Tech for good or health tech would be a bonus.
How they came acrossEarly in the search with a couple of first conversations lined up, so not yet committed anywhere. Wants to be part of a team rather than the person everything routes through, which is worth hearing given how much they have owned alone.
React, TypeScript, Next.js, JavaScript · Redux, Context API, Playwright, Cypress, Jest · Node.js, Express, Optimizely, Figma
Seven employers over twelve years, starting in agency and web work before five years building white label insurance journeys, having converted from contract to permanent. 7 employers, average tenure 1 year 11 months.
Hit a progression ceiling where they are, so the role needs real architecture ownership and a team around them rather than another sole developer seat.
Degree in computer software engineering.
Owns the core front-end flows at a luxury consumer goods brand, roughly 80% front-end and 20% back-end, reporting to the CTO. Migrated the site from Gatsby to Next.js, built the e-commerce functionality and the Sanity CMS implementation, and added AI tooling for ticket processing and admin dashboards. TypeScript and React throughout with Node behind it, after consultancy work for international clients.
Looking forRestructuring has stalled their promotion since April and the pay rise is still a rumour. They hold £150,000 to £200,000 of equity they cannot touch until an exit nobody can date. Wants early-stage, product-led work and won't commute more than 50 minutes each way.
How they came acrossProduct-minded rather than framework-minded. Said plainly that they want technology serving the business rather than the reverse, and named 30 engineers as the size of team they would not go beyond.
TypeScript, React, Next.js, Gatsby, Tailwind · Node.js, GraphQL, PostgreSQL · Sanity CMS, Docker, serverless · React Native
3 employers over 4 years, starting at a UK digital consultancy and moving into venture backed consumer goods e-commerce. Average tenure 1 year 5 months, longest stint 2 years 4 months.
Rejects anything over a 50-minute commute and wants to stay near Old Street or King's Cross. Three month notice, and £150,000 to £200,000 of locked equity they would be walking away from.
Studied computer science at a Russell Group university.
Tell me which came closest and I recalibrate, then come back with 10 to 15 more inside 24 hours.
Show me the wider bank