Hey, I'm James

70% engineering + 30% pretty boxes
Senior Design Engineer

The journey, so far...

My last seven years of experience have been built across multiple companies.

buildbox

Role: Lead Frontend / Designer (2022-Present)

Buildbox is a Web3 hackathon platform where I led the development of our greenfield frontend platform from the ground up. I was responsible for everything—from initial architecture and design to UX and performance optimization. Leading a team of frontend engineers, I’ve built more in the last two years than I had in my entire programming career before this. I’ve done all this while navigating a high-growth environment filled with reviews, planning, and respectful collaboration, which elevated my own abilities.

Hackathons have become a core part of my life. I’ve traveled globally to conferences where we hosted hackathons, supported developers in their 0-to-1 process, gathered sponsors, and even served as an MC for our events. Beyond hackathons, I represented Buildbox in various communities, helping bring valuable leads into our platform. This experience shaped my skills and my passion for the Web3 developer community.

Gitcoin

Role: Lead Frontend / Designer (2023)

My time at Gitcoin was very brief—shortly after I joined, I was told I’d be on a team building a hackathons platform that would compete directly with my own community. Despite this short stint, I’m proud of making it through their rigorous interview processes!

Freelancer

Role: Web3 Freelancing (2020-2022)

I began freelancing specifically for NFT projects and saw a lot of success during the NFT boom. Many people needed dApps designed and built, and I had both the frontend and design skills to make it happen. Around this time, I also forged relationships through hackathons in Buildbox’s early days. This experience deepened my love for Web3, regenerative finance (Regen), and hackathon communities.

PhotoShelter

Role: Senior Frontend (2019-2020)

PhotoShelter was a well-established Digital Asset Management platform serving multi-million-dollar organizations. As a senior frontend engineer, I merged various frontend libraries and approaches into a cohesive environment for our internal team. This role required careful incremental, stable upgrades to our architecture and significantly improved my ability to scale web apps without losing quality. My JavaScript skills grew dramatically as I learned to question assumptions and appreciate the custom logic behind everyday packages.

Financial Cloud

Role: Frontend (2017-2019)

My first role as a professional software engineer focused primarily on the frontend. However, working at a startup meant wearing many hats and contributing to internal apps across the stack. This experience prepared me for rapid iteration and adaptability.

This blog

Role: Developer / Content Writer (2024-Present)

Build is my blog! I have recently decided I want to help people learn about all the amazing stuff happening on the web. I want to cover design, UX, web development, and crypto. I’m really excited to see where this journey takes me!

University of Stirling

Degree: Software Engineering BEng (2012-2017)

During my time at university, I learned the fundamentals of computer science—algorithms, programming principles, and a wide array of technologies. I always knew my passion lay in web development.

My Tech Stack

The tools I use every day:

• AWS
• TypeScript
• JavaScript
• React
• Next.js
• Vue.js
• Angular
• Node.js
• Svelte
• Svelte kit
• CSS
• Tailwind
• Figma
• Rust
• Unity
• Go
• C#

I started programming 12 years ago, and have been programming professionally for 7 years.

I want to work with people who are curious about technology, passionate about what they do, open minded, willing to try new things and laugh along the way.

Contact

• Email: hello@jamesdawson.dev
• X (Twitter): @jamesdawsonx
• Website: jamesdawson.dev