Ben Wells
Full-Stack React / Next.js Developer
Brighton, UK
A bit about me!
Senior React / Next.js developer with 6+ years of experience across agency, product, and remote-first environments. I specialise in architectural modernisation, full-stack feature delivery (GraphQL, Node/Express, PostgreSQL), and high-performance UI development with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS.
Track record of measurable impact: 10x growth in monthly active users, leading a frontend team from 1 to 6 developers, and migrating a legacy platform to a Vite-based headless architecture serving 100,000+ users. Currently expanding into full-stack development with Next.js App Router, Drizzle ORM, and Neon PostgreSQL.
When I'm not writing software, I'm either at the pub with my friends, being dragged to the beach by the dog, or playing the drums!
Technical Skills
Frontend: React, Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, JavaScript (ES2022+), HTML5, CSS/SCSS, Tailwind CSS, Redux Toolkit, Zustand
Backend & Data: Node.js, Express, GraphQL (resolvers & schema design), PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, Neon, REST APIs
Tooling & Testing: Vite, Vitest, Storybook, Chromatic, React Hook Form, Zod, Git/GitHub, CI/CD pipelines
Design & Workflow: Figma, Adobe XD, Agile / Scrum, WCAG accessibility, AI-assisted development
Experience
Front-End Developer — Cognito Education (Jan 2024 – Present)
EdTech platform serving 100,000+ international students. Led architectural modernisation and full-stack feature delivery in a remote-first engineering team.
- Architecture migration: Spearheaded the greenfield migration of a legacy monolithic platform to a Vite + React + TypeScript headless architecture, dramatically increasing development velocity and unblocking critical features such as SSO.
- Full-stack delivery: Developed new GraphQL resolvers and enhanced Node/Express API endpoints to support complex frontend data requirements, enabling efficient querying and mutation of high-traffic user data at scale.
- Quality engineering: Reduced bug regressions and accelerated PR review cycles by introducing Vitest unit testing across the React component library; established a Storybook + Chromatic visual regression workflow that standardised QA and streamlined stakeholder sign-off.
- Platform reliability: Independently triaged and resolved critical production incidents, maintaining 99.9%+ uptime for 100,000+ international students; proactively identified and remediated critical infrastructure security vulnerabilities.
- Component engineering: Engineered accessible, pixel-perfect React components from Figma specs to WCAG standards; modernised data-intensive forms using React Hook Form and Zod.
- AI & performance: Contributed to a generative AI content-creation pipeline; optimised application performance through lazy loading and memoisation.
Front-End Developer — Wild Dog Design (Mar 2023 – Sep 2023)
Brighton-based digital agency delivering bespoke websites and React SPAs for a diverse client portfolio.
- Delivered UX improvements and stability fixes for a client-facing React SPA, and responded to incoming support requests to implement hotfixes and design tweaks promptly.
- Acted as a bridge between development and design: advised the UX team on feasibility of design decisions relative to time and budget constraints.
- Managed workload across multiple concurrent projects using JIRA in an Agile sprint environment, consistently delivering ahead of client-estimated timeframes.
- Proactively produced missing Figma and Adobe XD assets in response to last-minute change requests, and contributed reusable code conforming to the team's existing design patterns.
Front-End Developer — GuyKat (Sep 2019 – Mar 2023)
Full-service digital agency. Progressed from sole frontend developer to leading a team of six across high-complexity client projects.
- 10x user growth: Applied UX consultancy insights to rebuild core features of a client LMS, driving a 10x increase in monthly active users — from 1,000 to 10,000+.
- Team leadership (1→6): Grew the frontend team from 1 to 6 developers using Agile methodologies, increasing the department's delivery capacity by 500%; mentored junior developers and established collaborative code-review processes.
- Client delivery: Prototyped and delivered bespoke learning platforms, ecommerce integrations (Docebo API), and custom admin dashboards for a portfolio of enterprise clients.
Education
BA (Hons) History, First Class — University of Worcester, 2015–2018