Hi, my name is
Ben Smith.
I design, build & ship software.
Senior Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience - owning products end to end, from architecture through to production. Outside of work I design and ship mobile games, developer tools, and client projects.
01.About Me
Senior Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience building high-quality, scalable web applications in fast-growing startup and scaleup environments.
Expert in React, TypeScript, and Next.js with a strong product mindset - I own features end-to-end, from discovery and design through implementation, deployment, and iteration. Focused on frontend architecture, web performance, and developer experience, and full-stack capable with solid backend and cloud experience.
Core Skills
- ▹ TypeScript
- ▹ React
- ▹ Next.js
- ▹ Node.js
- ▹ REST APIs
- ▹ AWS (Serverless, S3, Lambda)
- ▹ System Design
- ▹ SQL & NoSQL
- ▹ Jest & Testing
- ▹ CI/CD
- ▹ LLM API integration
- ▹ Git
Additional Experience
- ▹ AI-assisted development (Claude Code, Copilot)
- ▹ Docker
- ▹ Agile / Scrum
- ▹ Ember.js
- ▹ GameMaker (GML)
02.Career
Dec 2023 - Present
Senior Software Engineer / Technical Lead @ Medenterprises
- ▹Led the architecture and development of scalable frontend and backend web applications using TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, AWS and Postgres.
- ▹Acted as Technical Lead across multiple product areas, collaborating closely with product managers, designers, and backend engineers to deliver high-impact features.
- ▹Owned features end-to-end - from problem discovery and UI/UX design through implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration.
- ▹Designed and implemented AI-powered CV ingestion and processing pipelines using production LLM APIs, contributing to traffic growth from 735k → 1.06M users.
- ▹Improved developer velocity and code quality by enhancing CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and establishing frontend standards.
Nov 2021 - Jun 2023
Senior Software Developer @ Dave Clark Design
- ▹Developed high-performance web applications with Node.js and React using TypeScript.
- ▹Contributed to the relational database design by writing scripts and Stored Procedures with SQL.
- ▹Built a design system and reusable component library with Storybook and Tailwind.
- ▹Increased test coverage from 20% to 94% by writing unit, integration and end-to-end tests using Jest, Mocha and Cypress to be run during the CI process.
- ▹Improved code quality and collaboration by establishing coding standards, a code review process, and automated formatting.
Apr 2018 - Nov 2021
Agile Developer & Automation Specialist @ Discovery NZ (formerly MediaWorks)
- ▹Worked as a full stack developer specialising in Node.js, React and Amazon Web Services.
- ▹Automated processes across the SDLC, with a heavy focus on CI and automated testing.
- ▹Mentored a graduate and a junior developer.
- ▹Worked on projects delivering the video on-demand platform ThreeNow to 500,000+ users - including the API, website, CMS, video players and livestream projects.
- ▹ThreeNow API: The RESTful API driving all device endpoints (Android/iOS apps, web, smart TVs, Chromecast and Freeview).
- ▹Livestream Ad Insertion: Using AWS Elemental services and new video players to seamlessly stitch personalised digital advertising into broadcast livestreams.
- ▹ThreeNow CMS: A React-built site for content, marketing and advertising teams to publish content to the ThreeNow platform.
- ▹QMS Billboard Integration: A serverless solution that takes the 4pm news headlines and posts them to QMS billboards across the city with NewsHub branding.
03.Projects
Projects built from scratch and shipped end-to-end.
A production project, timesheet and client-database web app for an Auckland interior fit-out firm - designed, built and shipped solo in under a month, from requirements gathering and a written estimate through architecture, UI, and handover. Now live for the whole company: projects, weekly timesheets, hours projections, a client and building database with stacking plans, and admin-only costs and fees.
Privacy and business rules are enforced by the database rather than the app.
- ▹ Infrastructure chosen for the client, not the CV: near-zero running costs, nightly backups, every account client-owned
- ▹ Row Level Security keeps timesheets private - even admins see only aggregated totals
- ▹ Business rules in SQL: locked submitted weeks, append-only change logs, atomic multi-step operations
- ▹ Microsoft sign-in pinned to the client's tenant - deactivating someone revokes access instantly
- ▹ v1.0.0 live for the whole company four weeks after the estimate - under estimate on every milestone
"Ben delivered faster than we expected and under estimate - the whole company now uses STACK Cloud every day."
Stayne is an Australian beauty brand launching a peel-off lip liner stain. The founder came to me with a brand, product photos and a launch date - I designed and built the Shopify store that took it to market.
The launch was one publicised moment: a founder with around 300,000 followers, 8,400 people on the early-access list, and 17,000 visits on launch day - most arriving within minutes of the release time. The store ran as four switchable versions - coming soon, VIP early access, public launch and pre-order - each tested end-to-end against the real store before launch night.
- ▹ Tokenised early-access gate - a private link unlocked checkout for VIPs, then opened to everyone automatically
- ▹ Live-inventory pre-order - products flip from "add to cart" to "pre-order" the moment stock hits zero
- ▹ Klaviyo email capture - 8,400 early-access subscribers before launch
- ▹ 17,000 visits on launch day, 57,000 since launch
- ▹ Mobile-first - nearly all traffic comes from Instagram and TikTok
"I'd never worked with a developer before and Ben made it easy - he was there with me for every release including launch night, and anything we needed was fixed within minutes."
Astro Battle: Orbital Defense
Mobile app (iOS, Android)
A cross-platform mobile game released on iOS and Android - built entirely from scratch, including gameplay systems, backend services, graphics, testing, and store publishing.
- ▹ Upgradeable turrets, deployable support ships, handcrafted waves and boss battles, plus a creative mode
- ▹ Fully offline on both platforms - no ads, no in-app monetisation
- ▹ Persistent state and offline progression managed on-device
BenvKey
Desktop & web app
After EnvKey was discontinued, my team migrated to AWS Parameter Store + Chamber for secrets management. The workflow was better, but the day-to-day developer experience wasn't - so I built BenvKey (a play on EnvKey) to fix that.
A macOS desktop app for managing developer secrets via AWS Parameter Store - wrapping Chamber and aws-vault in a clean native UI, replacing verbose multi-part shell commands with a single window to inspect, write, and delete secrets across environments. Now adopted by the entire engineering team, and one of several internal tools I've built for the company.
- ▹ Browse projects and their variables across Local, Dev, Test, and Prod environments
- ▹ Change history for every variable - one of the features we'd always missed in EnvKey
- ▹ Confirmation prompts on writes, with extra warnings on Prod
- ▹ No backend, no cloud - credentials never leave the machine
- ▹ Distributed as a .dmg or .exe
- ▹ Additional features: Favourite projects, light/dark mode, production safety
ElectroBall
Mobile app (iOS, Android)
A cross-platform puzzle game released on iOS, Android, and Windows, with 120 handcrafted levels - built entirely from scratch, from gameplay systems to store publishing.
- ▹ Backend later rebuilt from PHP/SQL to a serverless JavaScript/NoSQL architecture
- ▹ Server/database integration for remote config, analytics, and in-app messaging
- ▹ AdMob integration and in-app purchases
Other Projects
Older projects and experiments
05. What's Next?
Get In Touch
Whether it's a new opportunity, a project, or just a question - my inbox is always open.