James Wilson
Senior Frontend Engineer. Graphic Designer for 9 years, then 10+ building interfaces.
james [--design-systems] [--css-architecture] [--accessibility] [--performance] [--react]
Available now for permanent, contract or freelance roles.
DESCRIPTION
Graphic Designer (9 years) turned Frontend Engineer (10+), with two decades of combined experience across SaaS, eCommerce, CRM, CMS and enterprise platforms. I specialise in CSS Architecture, Design Systems, Accessibility and Performance. I've led frontend standards and mentored developers across several teams.
My design-thinking mindset carries over into my code - I'm always striving to make sure the quality of delivery isn't just skin deep, but is reflected in the thinking, structure and maintainability of the code.
- based
- Cape Town, South Africa
- timezone
- SAST, UTC+2
- works with
- UK, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa
- status
- Available now
RECOMMENDATIONS
The words colleagues used when they recommended me on LinkedIn
Words used in recommendations
EXPERIENCE
- Sep 2024 – nowIndependent Senior Frontend EngineerSelf-employed · Remote
- ├─ Dwela · furniture manufacturerfreelance, current
- ├─ Lalandi Conclusion · Dutch consultancycontract
- ├─ Fuse.cx · Braze CRM specialists, Scotland10-month contract
- ├─ Rocketseed · Londoncontract, under NDA
- └─ FRASER · Berlinfreelance
- Apr 2023 – Aug 2024Mid-level Frontend DeveloperGumtree South Africa
- Apr 2022 – Mar 2023Frontend DeveloperStruto
- Oct 2019 – Mar 2022Frontend DeveloperPlatinum Seed
- Jun 2019 – Oct 2019Mid-level Frontend DeveloperPublicis Groupe · seconded
- May 2018 – Oct 2019Mid-level Frontend DeveloperDigitas SA
- Nov 2015 – Mar 2018UI DeveloperZaiLab
- Aug 2006 – Oct 2015Graphic DesignerDurban & Cape Town
- ├─ MapStudioGraphic Designer
- ├─ CompulutionsCreative Director
- ├─ Yesman MarketingDTP Assistant Manager
- ├─ Hillcrest SignsGraphic Designer, DTP Operator
- └─ Anupi Clothing DistributorsGraphic Designer
SKILLS
- frontend
- HTML, Semantic HTML, CSS, Sass, Tailwind CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, TanStack (Start, Router), Vue, Nuxt, GSAP
- architecture
- Design Systems, CSS Architecture, Accessibility (WCAG), Performance Optimisation, Responsive Design, Component Libraries
- testing
- Vitest, Playwright, ESLint
- ai-native
- Agentic workflows, multi-agent orchestration, context engineering, agent governance
CERTIFICATIONS · FRONTENDMASTERS
- 2025
- Intermediate React v5 and v6, React Performance, React and TypeScript v2
- 2024
- JavaScript: The Hard Parts v2, Full Stack for Front-End Engineers v3
CONTACT
Available now for permanent, contract or freelance roles.
jamesjw01@gmail.com