Summary
Software Developer. Shifted from nearly a decade in customer service to a career in tech via Dev Academy. Server-side gives structure to the part of my brain that needs it; the front end gives an outlet to my artistic side. I found the home I did not know I was looking for. Neurodivergent, and I've learned this is not a weakness but is in fact a strength I can use. It comes with empathy, active listening, and years of practice giving and receiving feedback, pairing on hard problems, and working through conflict without making it personal. I plan and doc before I write code, gate accessibility up front (WCAG 2.2 AA) on my own projects, and start Dev Academy's AI Launchpad on 27 July 2026.
Experience
Dev Academy Aotearoa
Software Developer Apr 2026 to Present
- Shipped three solo projects: Moonlit Library (deployed on Render), Atlas (accessibility-first concept library reworked from the bootcamp brief), and vixenz.dev (portfolio site, Astro on Cloudflare Pages).
- Accessibility-first on every project: WCAG 2.2 AA audits before merge, keyboard navigation + ARIA + focus management wired in from the start. Gave cohort lightning talk on treating accessibility as a design decision, not decoration.
- Learned to work with Claude Code as a coding partner and code reviewer: how to direct AI, question its output, verify what it ships.
- Passed all 11 assessment credentials, several ahead of deadline.
Bachcare, The Holiday Home Company
Feedback and Owner Operations Specialist promoted through Booking Management and Reservations Specialist
- Owned guest feedback resolution across a 4.5-year progression, sitting between guest needs and owner constraints to land solutions that worked for both.
- Trained new team members on feedback methodology: what the role actually involves, and how to stay empathetic to guests who are frustrated.
- Supported the owner relations team day to day: maintenance escalations, guidance for owners, general problem-solving.
- Earlier in tenure: managed in-stay needs (maintenance, changes, cancellations) and complex bookings; ran pre-stay support and property matching.
TIC Group
Claims Coordinator
- Ran the warranty claims lifecycle for JB Hi-Fi's faulty products: raised claims, handled supplier paperwork, saw them through to settlement.
- Owned salvage operations for TIC's NZ division: ordered containers, built picklists, coordinated pickup and shipping to the Auckland port for hardware bound for AU parts resale.
JB Hi-Fi
Counter Coordinator promoted from Customer Service Representative, 4.5 years as Coordinator
- Led the counter team of 5 for 4.5 years at Botany: schedules, one-on-ones, escalation liaison between team and management.
- Joined Sylvia Park on opening day (2010) and transferred to Botany in 2012; travelled to Christchurch for a week to help open that store on the strength of Sylvia Park launch experience.
- Counter operations throughout: sales, POS, cash handling, finance applications, returns coordination with distributors.
Projects
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Moonlit Library
Stack: Express + Knex + SQLite on the server and React + Vite on the client
Role: Solo build
Outcome: Dev Academy challenge, earned three credentials. Personal library designed for how I read, deployed on Render.
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Atlas: a visual concept library
Stack: React + Vite + TypeScript, Express + Knex + SQLite, MDX
Role: Solo build (in progress)
Outcome: Reworked a Dev Academy art-gallery brief into an accessibility-first concept library with kind-based routing. WCAG 2.2 AA gated in Playwright tests. Four concept sheets and a Terminal reference sheet shipped.
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Kiwicom: a developer project discovery hub
Stack: React + Vite + TS + Tailwind, Node + Express + TS, PostgreSQL (Supabase auth), Knex
Role: My role in this project was the git keeper of a 4-person team. I reviewed every PR, ran merges to Dev, and Resolved conflicts when they came about (luckily there were not many). 79 commits by the end, highest on the team.
Outcome: Final Dev Academy group project. Community hub for devs to find open-source projects: GitHub pulls filtered by language/topic, bookmarks, profiles, create-project. Editorial design system (Lexend + JetBrains Mono, cream and deep-sky) from my aesthetic. Claude-powered summaries + deployment planned but did not land in time.
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Realmstack
Stack: Cloudflare Workers (planning to bind D1, KV, R2, Queues), TypeScript. Rest of the stack still to be decided.
Role: Co-built with my husband. Currently in doc-led planning phase.
Outcome: Long-term worldbuilding platform for writers, D&D masters, and game writers. Doc-led planning phase: north-star vision, user flows, and multi-source encryption architecture research (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi, Deepseek) locked before implementation. Client-side E2EE is the technical anchor.
Skills
- Core
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- React
- TypeScript / JavaScript
- Node + Express
- Knex + SQL (SQLite, Postgres)
- HTML + CSS
- WCAG 2.2 AA + W3C APG patterns
- Playwright + axe-core
- Git
- Astro
- Vite + Vitest
- Familiar
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- Tailwind CSS
- Cloudflare Pages
- Supabase (Auth + hosted Postgres)
- MDX
- Learning next
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- Cloudflare Workers (D1, KV, R2, Queues)
- Agentic workflows
- Anthropic + OpenAI APIs
- Client-side E2EE
Education
Dev Academy Aotearoa
Full-stack web development bootcamp + AI Launchpad.
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Foundations Program (1 year, not completed).
North Delta Senior Secondary
Interests
Painting, digital art, Diamond dots, resin. Writing and worldbuilding, D&D, Magic the Gathering. Gaming (Where Winds Meet), reading, Chinese and Korean Dramas.
References
Available upon request.