Ed Henderson
- Edward Christian Henderson
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- ed@teamhendo.com
- +44 (0) 7415 124 053
- ed-henderson
- @edhenderson
- I'm seeking a role where I can apply my extensive experience in front end development to build scalable, design-led web products
- I value technical leadership, mentoring teams and delivering performant, maintainable solutions in modern web stacks
Experienced Web Developer & Front End Specialist
- Seasoned Front End Developer: Over two decades of hands-on experience delivering high-performance web applications
- Modern Stack: React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS; strong experience with Headless CMS integrations
- Global Experience: Played key roles in Agile teams across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia
- Proven Success: Track record of delivering results for startups and Fortune 500 clients
- Technical Leadership: Led the architecture and launch of award-winning applications
- Standards & Performance: Championed web standards, optimised performance metrics and enhanced user experiences
- Mentorship: Guided teams and individuals, successfully transitioning interns into full-time roles
- Industry Contributions: Authored and technically reviewed multiple industry publications
- Innovation-Driven: Eager to leverage vast experience to lead and innovate in dynamic environments
Experience
- Delivered Front End features and fixes in a large-scale SaaS application using React and TypeScript within an established design system
- Improved accessibility, semantic HTML and performance in complex UI flows, collaborating closely with Product and Backend teams
- Advised on Front End architecture, prototyping approach and GOV.UK design system alignment for an AI–generated simulator exploring housing data complexity
- Orchestrated the planning and development of a complex multi-language, digital platform, part of a multi-agency team including UX designers and content strategists, focused on global non-profit audiences
- Strategised and led the development of a user-friendly CMS, reducing content publishing time and increasing editor productivity
- Built on a modern JAMstack architecture with a Headless CMS (ButterCMS), Tailwind CSS, Eleventy, Alpine.js and Netlify for performant, scalable delivery
Senior Front End Developer
United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hybrid • FTC- Led a comprehensive Front End overhaul of data.unops.org, a twelve year old outdated web application
- Utilised advanced technologies such as Storybook, Figma, CSS Modules, Vite, React, Playwright, Flowbite and Tailwind CSS, ensuring a modern, scalable and maintainable codebase
- Boosted session duration by 25%, increased page views per session by 20% and reduced page load times by 15%
- Architected and developed My Trip Companion / Country Guides, automating the generation of 120 travel guides (each ~20 pages) in under 2 minutes, supporting 3 languages across 40 destinations
- Scalable system architecture designed to support the addition of many more destinations and languages without compromising performance
- White-label solution used by major players such as AXA, Visa, Mastercard, MetLife and Chubb for their customers
- Led and executed three major JavaScript-heavy, website builds using Eleventy, Sass and Tailwind CSS, expanding the site with over 100 new pages and developing 50+ reusable UI components, contributing to a 25% reduction in development time for new features
- Elevated Zello’s PageSpeed Insights scores from below 50 to 95+, enhancing load times by 40% and user retention by 20%
- Earned Contentful certification and led the migration to a fully localised Headless CMS, improving content manageability and localisation capabilities
- Led the Front End architecture of an award-winning SaaS application, enhancing employee wellbeing through innovative features
- Recruited and managed a high-performing web development team, improving team productivity by 30% through mentorship and strategic planning
- Delivered key features like Anonymous Flares, threaded Comments and Analytics, increasing user engagement by 25%
- Developed a responsive React web application aimed at enhancing employee engagement and wellbeing through real-time conversations and individual support
- Ensured cross-browser compatibility, supporting a range from Internet Explorer 11 to the latest versions
- Led the full lifecycle of feature development, from initial concept to design, UX, UI, prototyping, testing and final implementation
- Provided Front End consultancy for an InsurTech startup’s first release and collaborated with an international team on major launches
- Implemented key production features and optimised data flow between Front End and Back End systems
- Oversaw UX and UI design enhancements, including a new subscription feature and collaborated with Product and Design teams to refine the user experience
Senior Software Engineer
Neon Labs
San Francisco, CA, USA
On-site • Full-time- Architected, built and launched Neon Pro, a revenue-generating JAMstack web app, in 3 months and generating $200k+ in revenue within the first year
- Collaborated with Product, Marketing and Design teams to create a feature-rich demonstration of Neon’s Machine Learning, AI and Computer Vision capabilities
- Established coding standards, style guides and a Component Library, taking ownership of the Front End development and release process
- Mentored and transitioned two interns into full-time roles
Manager, Engineering & Technical Lead
POPSUGAR
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Shanghai, China
- Managed and led engineering teams in San Francisco and Shanghai, overseeing video and offshore operations
- Served as a Player / Coach, specialising in full-stack engineering with an emphasis on Front End development
- Delivered POPSUGAR TV on time and under budget, ensuring efficient use of resources and meeting critical deadlines.
- Led high-profile projects generating $2M+ in annual revenue, with a focus on Full-Stack and Front End development, enhancing site performance and user experience
- Pioneered improvements in semantic markup, performance and SEO through the integration of structured Microdata
- Initiated and led the organisational transition to Sass and Web Standards, reducing CSS file size by 30% and improving maintainability by 40% through the establishment of coding standards and style guides
Education
- Second Class Upper Division (2:1)
- Merit Award (2nd Year)
- Dissertation Topic: The Development of an Interactive Multimedia Fire Safety System for Primary Six Pupils
Publications
Author
- Jack Draws Anything — published in the UK (), Brazil () & Republic of Korea (), ISBN: 9781444907476
Licenses & Certifications
Freelance
- Human–AI Interaction Design @ Cornell — shipped a robust Jekyll site from provided designs, with reusable templates and fast, accessible pages
- JT Stonemasonry — simple Nunjucks based website for local stonemason
- A Little Space for Parents — added mobile-only features and set up analytics to guide content decisions
- Wavefinity — delivered a complete overhaul and rework of their Hugo site, improving structure, maintainability and performance
- Crash Override — developed three Hugo-based websites (Ocular, Chalk and H4X0R), ensuring consistent branding, optimised performance and responsive design
- Indebted — led the rebranding of corporate website, optimising 340+ multilingual pages for performance and responsiveness using Hugo and translating complex Figma designs into dynamic, interactive components with Tailwind CSS
- Make IT Simple — revitalised website performance, achieving 98–100 PageSpeed Insights scores by overhauling HTML, CSS and JavaScript; significantly improved SEO and accessibility while maintaining the existing design
- TM3 — optimised Core Web Vitals and enhanced performance for over 200 Hugo-powered pages
- The Edinburgh Royal Warrant Holders Association — managed end-to-end design and build, additionally serving as Webmaster
- FlipOut — developed responsive templates from Figma designs, focusing on SEO and cross-browser compatibility
- Diffblue — resolved template issues in Jekyll & CloudCannon, improved template functionality and streamlined form field collection and existing processes
- 0x4447 — implemented new design on their Jekyll site, notably improving PageSpeed Insights scores
- Goons of Balatroon — constructed a Hugo-based gallery featuring 10,000 NFT pages
- The Crypto Lawyers — enhanced Core Web Vitals for their Jekyll website, improving performance and user experience
- VoltPool — executed the Front End build in accordance with provided Figma designs
- Edinburgh Flooring Services — tailored design and build based on client’s specific requirements, with additional roles in SEO, IT support and as Webmaster
- Jack Draws Anything — led the design and build of a 600+ page Jekyll site, also serving as Webmaster
Skills
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- ES6
- VBScript
- PageSpeed Insights
- Core Web Vitals
- Powermapper
- Google Lighthouse
- Google Search Console
- Google Search Central
- Screaming Frog
- Ghost Inspector
- JAMstack
- Netlify
- Vercel
- AWS
- Webpack
- Vite
- Grunt
- CI / CD
- Node.js
- Yarn
- Chrome Extensions
- npm
- Gulp
- Bower
- RESTful Web Services
- Back End API integration
- Rest API
- JSON
- Stripe SDK
- UI / UX design
- Micro Frontends
- Figma
- Webflow
- Zeplin
- Wireframing
- Adobe XD
- Sketch
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Usability
- User Journeys
- HTML
- Cross–browser development
- Single Page Application (SPA)
- Responsive web design
- Web Components
- SVG
- Git & Github
- SEO
- Accessibility / A11Y
- W3C
- WCAG
- Haml
- Liquid
- Jekyll
- Eleventy
- Nunjucks
- Microdata
- Hugo
- Classic ASP
- XSLT
- XML
- Shopify
- Contentful
- CloudCannon
- ButterCMS
- Headless CMS
- WordPress
- CSS
- Tailwind CSS
- Styled Components
- CSS Modules
- Flowbite
- shadcn/ui
- CSS Modules
- CSS-in-JS
- Emotion
- GOV.UK design system
- Sass
- SCSS
- BEM / OOCSS
- Tachyons
- Bulma
- Semantic UI
- LESS
- CSS preprocessors
- Google Analytics
- Amplitude
- Mentoring
- Project Management
- Line Management
- SDLC
- I18N
- L10N
- Agile development
- Scrum
- Coding Standards
- Pull Requests
- Unit Testing
- E2E Testing
- ChatGPT
- Midjourney
- Markdown
- Charles
- MySQL
- SQL Server
- SQL
- PHP
- ASP
- GraphQL
- CircleCI
- R
- Email Newsletters
- Mailchimp
- Campaign Monitor
- Webhooks
- Github Actions
- Storybook
- Design Systems
- Component Libraries
- Chromatic
- Jest
- TDD
- Playwright
- Slack
- Discord
- Leadership
- Effective Communication
- Problem Solving
- Adaptability
- Team Collaboration
- Conflict Resolution
- Empathy
- Decision Making
- Time Management
- Continuous Learning
- Negotiation
- Attention to detail
- Cultural Awareness
- Mentorship
- Client Relations
- Innovative Thinking
Interests & Hobbies
- Solving complex technical problems
- Getting kids coding
- Speaking at local schools
- Static website generators
- Social Media
- Front End technologies
- Usability
- Rugby
- Golf
- Basketball
- Go Karting
- Paddleboarding
- Tennis
- Gym
- Movies
- Video Games
- Reading
- TV
Additional Information
- Scottish / British Citizen
- Full UK Driving License (no penalty points or endorsements)
- Basic proficiency in German
- Available immediately