James Power
Senior Frontend Engineer Design Systems · Accessibility
13 years building scalable, accessible component systems
Key Achievements
- Built a 56-component design system serving 3 brands with 100% WCAG AA compliance, unifying frontend development across ~30 engineers
- Reduced application startup time by 80% (45s to 9s) and established test infrastructure reaching 60% coverage
- Delivered WCAG AA-compliant staff profile system for 500+ academics with a bespoke 20+ component library
Projects
Design System Transformation →
Zuno's frontend teams needed a shared component library to support consistent development across 3 brands.
eVTOL Flight-Test UI Performance Overhaul →
Vertical Aerospace's flight-test engineering team needed to modernise a legacy Meteor.js frontend that was limiting development velocity.
Consumer-Scale Subscription Platform →
Pret A Manger needed to scale their Coffee Subscription management platform for a mass consumer audience.
Experience
- Jan 2025 — Present
Senior Front-End Engineer at Zuno
B2B SaaS platform powering home energy installations for 15,000+ installers and 1M+ consumers annually
- Built a 56-component design system (37 core components, 6 primitives, 13 patterns) using React, TypeScript, and Storybook, giving ~30 engineers a shared, documented source of truth across 540 files and 214k+ lines of code
- Achieved 100% WCAG AA compliance across all non-colour-contrast criteria by embedding accessibility checks into every component from day one, covering keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and focus management
- Designed a simplified three-tier component architecture inspired by atomic design, making the system intuitive enough for the whole frontend team to adopt without a steep learning curve
- Delivered a multi-tenant theming system using Tailwind CSS design tokens, enabling 3 brand variants (BOXT, E.ON Next, Zuno) to launch with brand-consistent UI across all customer touchpoints
- Educated the design team on accessibility requirements and component composability, bridging the gap between Figma designs and production-ready, accessible implementations
- Dec 2022 — Jun 2024
Full-Stack Developer at Vertical Aerospace
UK aerospace startup developing the world's first certified eVTOL aircraft
- Reduced application startup time by 80% by profiling and optimising the Meteor.js build pipeline, cutting developer feedback loops from 45s to 9s across the engineering team
- Migrated the core flight-test UI from Blaze to React, improving rendering performance and enabling component reuse across the flight-test engineering team
- Established a comprehensive test infrastructure using Jest and React Testing Library, growing code coverage to 60% and catching regressions before deployment
- Mar 2022 — Jul 2022
Full-Stack Engineer at Emrit
- Sept 2021 — Mar 2022
Full-Stack Developer at PA Consulting
Global innovation and transformation consultancy
- Delivered the Pret A Manger Coffee Subscription gifting feature using React and Next.js, enabling customers to gift subscriptions and contributing to a product serving 160,000+ monthly active users with GBP 3M+ MRR
- Built new account management features for the Pret Perks loyalty programme, improving user retention metrics and simplifying the subscription self-service flow for hundreds of thousands of customers
- Jul 2020 — May 2021
Full-Stack Developer at GoRank
- Feb 2020 — Mar 2020
Senior Front-End Developer at Prophecy Unlimited
- Jun 2019 — Jan 2020
Full-Stack Developer at University of Bristol
Russell Group research university, staff web profiles project
- Delivered a WCAG AA-compliant staff profile system using Gatsby and React, providing mobile-first public-facing profiles for 500+ academics to present their research and expertise
- Created a bespoke, accessible UI component library with 20+ components, enabling the development team to build consistent interfaces across the university's web properties
- Championed accessibility awareness across the project team by running workshops on WCAG AA standards, resulting in the team adopting accessibility-first development practices
- Sept 2017 — Mar 2019
Software Engineer, UI at Royal Bank of Scotland
Major UK high street bank, corporate and private banking division
- Led the responsive redesign of Bankline, the corporate and private business banking web app, using React and CSS Grid, significantly increasing mobile engagement across the platform's user base
- Championed accessibility as the team's designated Accessibility Champion, embedding WCAG AA compliance into the development workflow and educating team members on inclusive design patterns
- Achieved BCS Foundation Certificate in Agile and RBS Scrum Master certification, applying agile practices to improve sprint delivery and team coordination over 6 months
- Sept 2016 — Sept 2017
Lead UI Developer at Olice Productions
- Jun 2013 — Sept 2016
Digital Developer and Designer at Olice Productions
About
I am a senior frontend engineer with 13 years of commercial experience specialising in design systems and accessibility. I build component libraries in React and TypeScript that scale across teams and products, with WCAG AA compliance baked in from the first commit. My work covers the full component lifecycle: Storybook-driven development, design token architecture, keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and focus management. I do not just build interfaces to spec. I question design decisions, push back when patterns create usability problems, and make sure what ships is genuinely accessible. Most recently I built a 56-component design system serving 3 brands and roughly 30 engineers, spanning 540 files with 100% WCAG AA compliance across all non-colour-contrast criteria. I treat a component library the same way I treat a product: well-tested, well-documented, and built for the people who use it every day.
I have worked across startups, agencies, banks, and consultancies, adapting fast regardless of team shape or domain. I cut an aerospace startup's application startup time by 80%, delivered a subscription gifting feature to 160,000+ monthly active users, and led a responsive redesign of a major bank's business banking platform that significantly improved mobile engagement. Accessibility has been core to my work since 2016, when I first started auditing deliverables against WCAG guidelines and embedding compliance into every project. I have built accessible component libraries for agencies, universities, and energy platforms, always ensuring components meet real user needs rather than just passing automated checks. Whether I am building a multi-tenant theming system with Tailwind CSS or bridging the gap between Figma designs and production-ready components, I focus on shipping systems that are fast, consistent, and usable by everyone.
Skills
Frontend
- React
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- HTML/CSS
- Accessibility (WCAG)
Backend
- Node.js
- GraphQL
- REST APIs
Testing
- Jest
- Cypress
- Storybook
Tools
- Git
- Docker
- AWS
Education
- 2012 - 2016
BSc (Hons) Digital Media (First Class)
University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
- Web Development, User Experience, Mobile Development (Swift, Java), 3D Technologies (Unity)
- Final year project: Nebula, a mobile-first CMS and e-learning authoring tool
- 2009 - 2011
A-Levels
Droitwich Spa High School, Droitwich Spa, UK
- A2: Maths, Physics, Chemistry
- AS: Biology, Critical Thinking
- 2005 - 2009
GCSEs
Droitwich Spa High School, Droitwich Spa, UK
- 13 GCSEs (A*-A)
Get in Touch
Interested in working together? I am always happy to discuss new opportunities, whether contract or permanent.
Available from May 2026 · Contract or Permanent