I'm an independent software engineer and technical lead based in Brighton. I build and improve React, Next.js and TypeScript applications for businesses across the UK, from hands‑on development to complex digital transformations.
I am an enthusiastic senior software engineer and technical leader with over twenty‑three years of hands‑on experience.
I help teams and clients design, build and improve websites, applications and web platforms, pairing architecture, delivery judgement and hands‑on TypeScript, React, HTML, and CSS.
I also founded Kavanagh Digital, where I lead independent programme assurance, recovery, and web‑platform due diligence.
My portfolio is diverse; I work with global clients, solving real-world problems, including:
Principal engineer leading AI‑driven browser tooling within Microsoft Edge DevTools, including real‑time content simplification, integrated issue reporting, and developer feedback pipelines.
Lead front‑end developer within Selfridges' e‑commerce Customer Experience team, delivering new features, considerable refactoring, and platform performance improvements.
Lead engineer on Virgin Atlantic & Holidays' large‑scale replatforming programme, unifying twelve disparate applications within a new headless architecture built with React and Next.js.
Hands‑on Next.js development for new websites, applications, and headless front ends, with accessibility, performance, and publishing workflows included in the build.
Principal‑level support inside active delivery when architecture, standards, mentoring, documentation, ownership transfer, and implementation decisions need strengthening whilst the team keeps shipping.
Define Next.js platform boundaries when domains, routes, tenants, brands, content ownership, data ownership, deployment models, or team responsibilities are making change unsafe.
Headless architecture advice before CMS, content model, preview, revalidation, metadata, schema, media, localisation, and editorial ownership decisions become expensive to reverse.
A platform assessment with a dependency map, a record of the decisions to make, and a prioritised delivery plan for your existing React or Next.js estate.
Route‑level performance work for modern front ends where field data, Core Web Vitals, scripts, fonts, images, data loading, or templates are weakening important user journeys.
How to turn Lighthouse findings into a credible engineering roadmap, separating signal from noise and scores from real user impact teams can act on.
Reviewing Claude logs prompts a question: when AI helps us interpret ordinary situations and write personal messages, how much thinking are we handing over?
useTransition and useDeferredValue to Keep React Interfaces ResponsiveuseTransition and useDeferredValue explained with search, filtering, pending states, and how to keep React interfaces responsive under heavy work.
useMemoProfile React re‑renders before adding useMemo, using DevTools, render reasons, prop identity, state placement, context updates, and list strategies.
Stale closures in React explained through renders, handlers, effects, timers, refs, dependency arrays, why callbacks read old state, and how to fix them.
Debugging hydration mismatches in React and Next.js, including common causes, repeatable fixes, and how to stop server and client renders drifting apart.
AI search readiness starts with crawlable pages, rendered HTML, semantic structure, content quality, and safe action boundaries, not protocol‑first thinking.
Measure GEO with honest evidence from Search Console, analytics, query sets, AI‑assisted journeys, attribution patterns, and outcomes instead of fake scores.
Reduce headless CMS image bandwidth and quota risk with a storage mirror: sync changed assets, reuse originals, and keep Next.js image delivery off your CMS.
Lessons from running Next.js Pages Router at scale in 2026, including governance, performance discipline, and why older patterns sometimes still make sense.
How to de‑risk a CMS migration before the real move starts, by testing workflows, content assumptions, integrations, ownership, and technical contracts early.
Retention theatre explained through surveys, recognition schemes, pay, autonomy, trust, workload, management quality, and why strong engineers still leave.