Iain van der Wiel Curriculum vitae

My core principles

• Semantic HTML - Use the right HTML elements for the right purpose
• Accessibility - The web should be usable by anyone, anywhere
• Extensibility - Easily extendable code is great to work with
• Code quality - Express complex problems in clear and simple code
• Performance - People don't like slow websites and apps
• Diversity - Equal opportunities for everyone, remove obstacles that impose boundaries
• Collaboration - Work together to achieve goals, make use of each other's experience
• Mentoring and coaching - Stimulate growth in people by motivation
• Move fast - Quick increments give results and valuable feedback sooner

Professional experience

• Senior engineer and consultant at Foreside IT Consultancy in Eindhoven, from December 2024 until present. Worked for the following clients:

  • Rabobank in Utrecht - from Dec 2024 until present.

    Joined the engineering team working on Backstage, creating a self-service portal for engineers and other roles at Rabobank to offer and consume IT services within Rabobank. Focused on building new plugins and improving existing plugins to enhance the developer experience for engineers using the platform. One important goal was to grow the development team to a more mature development team and help onboard new team members onto the project.

    Several aspects of the plugins of Backstage the team work on were in need of improvement:

    • Improving performance to offer a snappier experience
    • Improving code quality and test coverage
    • Improving documentation both for users and for developers
    • Redesign and redevelopment of core features of the plugins, as the existing solutions didn't fit new requirements any longer. Some of this work included decoupling the frontend from a Backstage plugin to offer better functionality through an improved user experience with an API-driven approach.
    • Architected, designed and developed a decoupled API solution for managing the services offered within Backstage, to better serve the needs of various teams using Backstage and data requirements within the bank.

    Stack: Backstage, Node.JS, TypeScript, React, MaterialUI, RJSF, React Hook Form, Jest, React Testing Library, Storybook, Azure, AWS, DocumentDB

• Senior frontend engineer and consultant at iO Consultancy in Eindhoven, from November 2018 until Nov 2024. Worked for the following clients:

  • Luminus in Brussels - from Jan 2023 until present.

    Started up a new team to build a new website application for Luminus in NextJS. At the start, I was part of a team researching the various options for the CMS to replace the existing Sitecore CMS, providing the team with insights from a technical perspective and comparing it to the existing setup. During the RFP phase for CMS vendor selection, I was part of the team that evaluated the proposals and gave input for selecting a vendor.

    As a member of the frontend team, I was also involved in developing and maintaining the existing comonent library, which was built in MUI. For the CMS we decided to update our design system and implement the new version into the component library through the use of design tokens. These design tokens would be synchronized to development tokens through the use of the Tokens Studio Figma plugin and Style Dictionary.

    As the project advanced from the RFP phase, I also started onboarding new team members onto the CMS and Design System project to help speed up the development of the new website.

    Stack: TypeScript, React, NextJS, Jest, React Testing Library, MUI, Storybook, Chromatic, Figma, Tokens Studio, Style Dictionary, Azure DevOps, BitBucket

  • PortXchange in Rotterdam - from July 2019 until Dec 2022.

    Continued development of main Synchronizer application for optimising ship port calls in various ports around the world. Large focus on data clarity and quality, presenting a lot of valuable information to a large user base. Expanded several existing features and developed entirely new features in a large code base.

    Did a complete redevelopment of the UI of the Vessel Planner application to improve UX, accessibility and code quality. Wrote an integration test suite to improve upon an untested code base, covering the most crucial parts of the application. This brought the code coverage to ~60% in the first iteration.

    Through Q4 2021 until Q1 2022 I led the effort in creating the PilotTracker application for the Port of Houston to deprecate an older unmaintained piece of software they used before. Keeping an eye on performance, accessibility and user experience, we created an optimised product to track vessel movements and pilots within the port.

    Stack: TypeScript, fp-ts, React, Redux, React Router, Jest, React Testing Library, Enzyme, Auth0, CircleCI, Netlify, Trello, GraphQL, Lerna, Jotai

  • VONQ in Rotterdam - from November 2018 until July 2019.

    Continued development of a React application where companies can order job marketing campaigns and view campaign analytics to track (potential) candidates viewing their vacancies.

    Started as the only frontender as their two previous frontend developers left in quick succession shortly before I started. Helped VONQ with selecting and interviewing candidates to rebuild their frontend development team. Onboarded, coached and mentored the new hires to get up to speed quickly.

    Stack: React, Redux, React Router, Recharts, Webpack, Jest, Enzyme, Docker, Jenkins, Jira

• Senior frontend developer at E-sites in Breda, from March 2013 until October 2018.

  Worked on websites and applications for smaller and larger clients with greatly varying requirements per project.

  Took the lead in improving and automating a lot of the developer workflow. Organized periodic frontend meetings to discuss projects, improve collaboration and share knowledge. Gave several trainings and presented at several meetups on various topics.

  Coached and mentored several interns. Showed them the ropes in the world of frontend development, team processes and collaboration. Also coached them in areas of frontend development that interested them the most.

  Stack: PHP, Symfony, Twig, React, Redux, React Router, Gatsby, GraphQL, Jest, Mocha, Chai, Istanbul, Angular.js, jQuery, Jenkins, Jira

• Frontend developer at Estate (now iO Digital) in Tilburg, from March 2011 until February 2013

  Stack: ASP.Net, Sitecore, Sitefinity, jQuery

• Web developer and designer at Tirato (now NoBears) in Drunen, from August 2008 until February 2011

  Stack: PHP, Silverstripe, WordPress, jQuery

• Print and web designer at Reach Strategische Communicatie, from February 2008 until August 2008

Languages, tools, libraries and frameworks

I consider myself to be (very) familiar with:

• The basics: HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• TypeScript
• Functional programming
• Unit/integration/end-to-end testing
• React and its ecosystem
• Jest, React Testing Library, Enzyme
• Webpack
• Node.js
• Gulp.js
• jQuery
• Twig, Handlebars and Mustache template engines
• Scrum/agile
• Jira, Trello

To some extent, I have experience in the following:

• PHP 5.6/7
• Symfony PHP framework
• Kunstmaan, Symfony-based CMS
• WordPress
• Silverstripe CMS
• Angular
• Vue
• Angular.js

Courses and trainings

• CSS Grid course by Wes Bos
• ES6.io course by Wes Bos
• Learn Node course by Wes Bos
• Scrum Master Essentials training by Agile Works
• Workshop ES2015+ from Fronteers
• React for beginners course by Wes Bos
• Effective communication by MXF Bedrijfspsychologie

Education

• MBO Multimedia and Design at ROC Zoomvliet College Roosendaal, from 2004 to 2007. Acquired diploma.
• HBO ICT at Hogeschool 's Hertogenbosch, from 2003 to 2004.
• HBO ICT at Hogeschool Breda, from 2002 to 2003.
• HAVO Natuur & Techniek at KSE Etten-Leur, from 1997 to 2002