Paul Masek Contract Front-End Web Developer
I'm a London-based contract front-end web developer with over 10 years' commercial experience working on high quality website & webapp builds.
I bring specialist knowledge and reliability to every project, and am able to quickly and seamlessly slot into new teams.
I have a first-class degree in web-development, winning the British Computer Society student-of-the-year award for my course. After university, I spent five years working perm in London and Norwich. I then went freelance, meaning I've worked with a large number of clients, from startups to high-profile internationals.
When I'm not contracting, I'm travelling to places like Berlin, Porto and Zadar with my laptop – learning new skills, technologies and libraries.
Skills
Here is a selection of the languages, libraries and tools with which I've had the most experience. I'm always developing my skillset and love the challenge of working with new technologies.
Development
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React
Standalone or with Redux. Gatsby-powered static sites
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Vue.js
Standalone or with Vuex. Headless CMS projects with Nuxt.js
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JavaScript - Vanilla, ES6/7
Performant, linted and progressively enhanced wherever possible
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CSS / SASS
The latest techniques, cross-browser & device, maintainable & reusable with BEM
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HTML
Accessible, semantic & SEO friendly
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Templating - Handlebars / Twig
Used extensively for static front-end builds & style guides
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CMS
WordPress & WP-API, Kentico Cloud
Workflow
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Version Control
Git, SVN & processes like Gitflow
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Auomation
Webpack, Gulp, Yarn, etc.
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Project Management
JIRA & Trello, etc.
Design tools
- Sketch
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
Work
My work history, the experience I've gained and a few of my testimonials.
Need my CV? Download it here.
2019
Liminal Pages
Developed a Gatsby-powered static website with content sourced by WordPress, hosted on netlify. I built flexible React and GraphQL-driven components and templates, with netlify forms and MailChimp integrated as required.
Sophie Playle, DirectorPaul went above and beyond to build my website using the latest technologies and with the utmost attention to detail, resulting in a super-fast, responsive and highly functional site.
He provided me with periodic reviews to make sure the design was being interpreted to my satisfaction, and guidance on transferring my design to the web.
I was very impressed with his dedication to the details of the project and am incredibly grateful for all his hard work.
Matter Of Form
Worked with a team of developers to build a large Vue.js with Nuxt.js, server-side rendered website, powered by a Headless CMS, Kentico Cloud.
My main task was working on the data layer on the front-end and back-end, providing content from the CMS and other APIs. I also developed the structure and the dynamic functionality of components. I took responsibility for any complex JS that arose throughout the project.
I was responsible for the initial setup of the project, reviewing any JS pull requests across the team, and helping mentor the junior developers.
2018
Design Culture
Led the development of the front-end for a corporate website that included a React-powered event and news archive application. This allowed the user to explore a collection of content using various metrics, with a library of flexible UI components.
Worked with their other developers to help provide a grounding in React and to effectively handover the application for future development.Matter Of Form
Led the development of the front-end of a large, highly modular luxury hotel website.
Vue.js and Vuex were used as part of a Vanilla JS and BEM component library, to provide interactive functionality.
I was also responsible for front-end code reviews and helping to develop internal processes and internal tools, like the agency's boilerplate.
Hamzah Ghafoor, Creative Technology leadIt was a privilege working with Paul over the last 6 months. He is a very cool head under pressure and extremely knowledgeable in his field. His understanding of Vanilla JavaScript is second to none and this was proven time and again over the duration.
Paul helped me re-write the agency's bespoke boilerplate and taught me a lot regarding the latest standards for Javascript and the best ways to apply them. As well as this, he was tasked with leading a Front-end build that had to be re-written into Vue components - something he had not used before. This did not handicap him at all, he managed to pickup Vue and apply it effectively to a build with a tight deadline, on time.
His thorough understanding of UI and UX as well as his ability to impart that knowledge will make him a valuable asset to any company he goes to. Paul was a great guy to work with and generally hang out with. I look forward to working with him again in the future. His tea making skills could be improved though.
2017
Zone
Worked closely alongside their lead front-end developer to build reusable components for a large corporate site.
I then led the development of a Vanilla ES6 JS and Handlebars application within the site. This involved pulling data from an internal API and integrating with Google Maps to build a location search interface.
Gitflow was used throughout the project. In addition I was involved with regular
front-end code reviews.
Mike Simmonds, Lead Front-End DeveloperI worked with Paul on two large platform rebuilds featuring numerous technologies and methodologies. He took both projects in his stride, with ease.
Paul was always a key part of the team, he contributed to projects in ways you expect a permanent team member to. He was easy to manage, always willing, professional and reliable. He was greatly missed when his contract ended! I would recommend Paul without hesitation.
Design Culture
Led the development on the front-end of a large website build. This involved building the main site structure alongside a series of flexible and reusable components.
These were built with Twig and BEM then progressively enhanced with Vanilla ES6 JS.
I worked closely aside their design and management team to ensure the components could accommodate a large number of scenarios to reduce future development time.
Tamsin Radford, Project ManagerPaul handled the front end on one of the larger website builds in the studio and it was a real pleasure working with him.
Easy to talk to and totally unflappable, he accelerated the project when internal resources were stretched. An added bonus were his great tips along the way and software recommendations that I've applied to web projects since.
Radley Yeldar
Worked on a JS and animation-heavy single page site. ES6 was used throughout alongside Handlebars.
Also developed a large static build. I used Handlebars alongside BEM to create a number of reusable components to be integrated into Umbraco
by the back-end team.
Stacey Fenton, Software EngineerPaul is an excellent front-end developer. Whenever we needed to bring in freelancers to help cover extra work he would always be our first choice.
We'd often assign him to projects which involved complex JavaScript and animations, and be confident that he would deliver the work on time and to a high standard. He was well-liked within the team, by both developers and project managers. I can't recommend working with Paul enough, and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again in the future.
2016
Radley Yeldar
Developed a series of builds for large international clients. The contract was initially for one month for a single project, but I was asked on multiple occasions to extend and worked on four projects over three months.
The builds often included complex elements such as advanced Parallax and JS heavy interfaces. Whilst following the company's internal build processes, I was also able to gain further experience with Grunt, BEM and Susy.
Megan Willis, Project ManagerPaul is an excellent front end developer, and I would work with him again without hesitation.
A true professional, Paul is experienced, proactive, and consistently delivers quality on time.
I worked with Paul on a showcase piece for a new, major client, and he was crucial to the success of the project.
Chris Stanley, Digital and Technical Operations ManagerPaul is a very competent developer, we initially secured his services for a few weeks but after seeing his work ethic, quality of work and his team work we extended many times. The whole team loved working with Paul and I had many great comments about him, the main project that Paul worked on was loved by the client and we have used it as an example of standout communications.
I personally didn't want to lose Paul and once we have more work that our internal team can't service I will be calling on Paul and hope he is free, which is doubtful given his abilities.
Outside of his work he is a good guy to have a non work chat with and is very personable.
Zone
I worked on several large corporate websites and a webapp, adding additional responsive templates and functionality.
With these projects I gained exposure to ASP templates, Gitflow, ES6 and further experience building on top of large codebases with multiple team members. This involved writing modular SASS with the BEM methodology. Progressive enhancement was also very important within this role.
I was initially contracted for one month then was extended for another month.
Digirati
Worked on an internal project for Digirati, building a series of mobile-first static templates and a style guide powered by Handlebars & Assemble.
With this contract I gained exposure to Atomic Design and worked on a commercial project without jQuery, with minimal use of other JS libraries.
Accessibility and progressive enhancement were really important in this contract, with the use of ARIA within HTML and the following of web accessibility guidelines.
2014-2015
Remote freelancing
In 2014 & 2015 I worked remote for various small creative agencies and startups. This mostly involved building, from start to finish, medium-sized responsive websites powered by WordPress. For these, I would create custom themes from scratch with bespoke HTML/CSS/JS. Working as an external team member, it was crucial that the builds were as close to pixel-perfect as possible to the designs supplied.
Kelly Molson, Founder & Managing Director at Rubber CheesePaul is extremely hard working and has produced great results for us on a number of development projects. He works efficiently and quickly, and communication (which is key for us) has always been clear and concise.
He's easy to get on with and a really good guy. His understanding of the platforms he works on is exceptional.
Early 2014
Started Freelancing! 🎉
Contact Me
To get in touch with me about your contract, use the form below (the more detail the better!) or email me at hello@paulmasek.com.
