Hi, Neil here!
I have over 9 years of experience as a software engineer in Ireland working on design systems, release strategies, and performant web applications
I'm always interested in growing my network and talking shop!
Connect with me on LinkedIn and I can tell you everything I know about JavaScript
I have extensive experience building component design systems for SaaS frontends on the web. In both FieldAware and valid8me, I have worked closely with the product owners and the UX leads to introduce a custom StorybookJS component library to the frontend architecture using ReactJS and VueJS, respectfully.
In both cases, the rollout of the component library to our production applications resulted in ~80% fewer frontend bugs in new features and a 50% decrease in the development time for tickets.
In my experience, there is no other single enhancement that a feature delivery team can make to their process that can impact the whole organistion.
Over the past 18 months, I've focused on making feature releases at valid8Me faster, safer, and simpler. Fewer bugs, less stress, near-zero rollbacks, and happier product owners are the metrics that have defined success for this effort.
Achieving these goals meant digging into every aspect of the SDLC: from improving ticket structures and refining Git workflows to fine-tuning AWS permissions and setting up GitHub automations. Such wide-reaching challenges can feel overwhelming, but the payoff has been worth it.
As a team, we've transformed "release hell" into "release heaven." Along the way, I picked up just enough DevOps know-how to make that team nervous when I open a PR. 😉
Is there anything more satisfying than spotting an unused nested object in a JSON payload and promptly removing it? Of course there isn't!
I love tackling tough web performance challenges with my team. From optimizing network requests and perfecting FCP/LCP benchmarks to implementing lazy loading, virtualization, debouncing, memoization, code splitting, and tree shaking—I'm always pushing for faster and lighter web UIs.
On each performance increment, I enjoy sharing learnings from these efforts among the team with docs, demos, or pairing sessions to guide junior developers to take on the same challenges in our applications.
I live and work in beautiful Cork City in Ireland, having previously spent a number of years in Dublin.
My journey into IT took a non-traditional path, shaped by a diverse educational background. Along the way, I studied language, film, music, and multimedia; skills I now apply in surprising and practical ways in the software industry!
Outside of work, I spend a lot of my free time playing music and I categorise myself as a hardworking hobbyist! I recently took some time off to play guitar on a short tour in Germany.
For 2025, I'm focussing on expanding my influence in the development community—writing, contributing to open source, and connecting beyond my current network.