Summary

Profile

Eleven years in interface work, the last six spent on systems rather than screens. I lead the design-system function: deciding what belongs in a shared library, designing component APIs that product teams can actually live with, and writing the documentation that stops the same question being asked in four channels.

I work in the open and in small increments. New primitives ship behind a version, with migration notes and a deprecation date, so adoption is a choice teams make rather than a migration they are handed. Accessibility sits inside that process — keyboard paths and contrast decisions are reviewed when a component is designed, not audited after release.

Comfortable as the only systems person in a product org, and comfortable leading a small team of two or three. I like the part of the job where a designer and an engineer stop needing a meeting to agree.

Focus
Design systems · component architecture · accessibility
Day-to-day stack
TypeScript, React, modern CSS, Figma variables, Storybook
Ways of working
RFCs, paired design reviews, versioned releases, office hours
Languages
English (native) · Portuguese (fluent) · Yoruba (conversational)

Case notes

Selected work

Loom — multi-brand token pipeline

2024–2026 · Kindling Interactive · Lead

Folded three drifting product UI kits into a single tokenised source of truth, published as a versioned library with a written contribution path. Shipped codemods alongside each release so teams could adopt one layer at a time instead of pausing roadmap work for a redesign.

Mercer Atlas — component documentation

2023 · Kindling Interactive · Design & build

A documentation site treated as a product: searchable prop tables generated from source, keyboard and screen-reader notes on every component page, and a short rationale explaining why each primitive exists and when not to reach for it.

Field Kit — accessibility review set

2021–2022 · Havenport Labs · Author

An internal review kit — keyboard path checklists, a contrast token table and screen-reader test scripts — built to be used during design critique rather than as a pre-launch audit. Adopted by the product design guild as part of standard review.

Last eleven years

Experience

2023 — present

Kindling Interactive

Design Systems Lead

  • Own the shared component library and token architecture used by four product teams; set the release cadence, versioning policy and deprecation process.
  • Run fortnightly design-system office hours and review RFCs for new primitives, with written decisions kept in the same repository as the code.
  • Mentor two engineers into system contributors and pair with product designers on component specification before build.

2020 — 2023

Havenport Labs

Senior Front-End Engineer

  • Built and maintained the core interface layer of a data-heavy analytics product, with a focus on keyboard navigation and predictable focus behaviour.
  • Introduced the accessibility review practice the design guild later adopted, including the Field Kit checklists.
  • Led the incremental move from bespoke stylesheets to a token-driven CSS architecture without a rewrite.

2017 — 2020

Quillmark Studio

Interface Engineer

  • Delivered editorial and commerce front-ends for publishing clients, working directly with art directors on type and layout systems.
  • Set the studio's baseline for semantic markup, responsive typography and performance budgets on client handover.

2015 — 2017

Northbank Digital

Front-End Developer

  • Built marketing and product pages across a mixed client roster; first exposure to shared pattern libraries and the maintenance cost of not having one.

What I'm fluent in

Capabilities

Design systems

  • Token architecture & theming
  • Component API design
  • Versioning and release notes
  • Contribution models
  • Deprecation and migration paths

Front-end

  • Semantic HTML
  • Modern CSS: grid, container queries, layers
  • TypeScript and React
  • Storybook and visual review
  • Performance budgets

Accessibility

  • WCAG 2.2 in practice
  • Keyboard and focus design
  • Screen-reader testing
  • Colour and contrast systems
  • Readable audit write-ups

Working with teams

  • Design and engineering pairing
  • Documentation writing
  • Workshop facilitation
  • Mentoring contributors
  • RFC and proposal review

Study & credentials

Education

2011 — 2015

BSc Interaction Design — University of Ostbrook

Final-year work on typographic systems for screen reading, which is still the reason I care about line length.

2023

Accessibility practitioner certification

Assessed on WCAG 2.2 application, assistive-technology testing and remediation reporting.

2024

Editorial typography — short course

Eight weeks on grid systems and hierarchy in print, taken to sharpen the layout side of system work.