XAN TORRES
Available

React · TypeScript · AI-native product UI

Senior Frontend Engineer & Agent Systems Architect.

Xan Torres. I take on messy frontend work: migrations, data-heavy UI, design systems, and AI-assisted delivery where engineering judgment still decides what ships.

  • 15+ years shipping production software
  • Toptal Verified Expert since 2017
  • Cyprus (EU) · Remote · CET/EET

Shipped for: MongoDB · Platform9 · FeatherShark · Sunflower Games

01Selected work

Case studies.

2018 / 2026
02AI-native work

AI-native engineering, with receipts.

AI work grounded in production delivery, shipped features, and tools I run daily.

  • 01

    Agent workflows

    Multi-step workflows where an agent reads context, proposes actions, calls tools, and waits for approval before changing anything that matters.

    Running in real client delivery and in RepoKernel review gates

  • 02

    Context engineering

    Project rules, reusable instructions, decision records, and memory structured so coding agents follow the codebase instead of guessing.

    Applied on live client work: rule files restructured, docs lazy-loaded

  • 03

    Human-in-the-loop UX

    Review, approval, fallback, and correction flows so AI output stays useful, traceable, and safe to ship.

    Shipped 2023: AI-assisted inspection drafting with human review before save

  • 04

    AI DevTools

    Local-first tools for agent orchestration, agent memory, and AI-assisted job search. Built for daily use, not for demos.

    RepoKernel, Engram, and Shrike, below

04Core strengths

What I'm good at.

  • 01

    Architecture that holds up

    I map data flow, state ownership, and failure paths before the first component lands. Boring on purpose: fewer rewrites, fewer surprises, and code the next engineer can navigate without a guide.

  • 02

    Frontend craft with receipts

    Interaction detail, Core Web Vitals, accessibility, loading states, and the edge cases users always find. On mongodb.com that meant a two-line fetchPriority change with a measurable LCP win.

  • 03

    Product judgment

    Comfortable with vague requirements, stakeholder pressure, and incomplete information. I argue for the version users need, cut scope honestly, and delete code that duplicates truth owned elsewhere.

  • 04

    Codebases teams can live with

    Typed boundaries, migrations that never freeze feature work, and CI that catches regressions before main. Six stack migrations on one live govtech product without a single release gap.

05How I work

How I work.

  1. 01

    Map the system first.

    Before touching components I want to know where data comes from, who owns state, and what breaks under failure. An hour of mapping saves a week of rework.

  2. 02

    Use AI without losing control.

    AI speeds up implementation, exploration, and refactors. Architecture, review, testing, and product decisions stay human-owned, so velocity never outruns judgment.

  3. 03

    Trust one source of truth.

    More than once, I have deleted a client-side recomputation of a backend value and made one endpoint authoritative instead. Each time, an entire class of drift bugs disappeared with it.

  4. 04

    Ship the useful version.

    I work async and remote by default. I make clear calls, write down the tradeoffs, and keep momentum when waiting for perfect consensus would stall the work.

06Stack

Stack, grouped by capability.

Strict TS
first

AI / Agentic Systems

Systems where agents do real work under human control.

  • LLM APIs
  • Structured outputs
  • Tool calling patterns
  • MCP
  • Agent memory
  • Context engineering
  • Spec-first implementation
  • Human-in-the-loop flows
  • Evaluation workflows
  • AI-assisted developer tooling

Frontend

The core craft: state, data, forms, and rendering at production scale.

  • React 17/18/19
  • TypeScript (strict)
  • Next.js 13+
  • Apollo Client
  • Redux Toolkit · RTK Query
  • TanStack Query · Table
  • React Hook Form · Zod
  • Storybook

Design Systems

Component libraries teams adopt instead of fork.

  • Component library architecture
  • Tailwind CSS
  • MUI · Radix UI · theme-ui
  • Design tokens
  • Module Federation
  • Style isolation
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • Rive · Lottie

Backend (supporting)

Enough backend to own features end to end.

  • Node.js · NestJS · Express
  • Prisma · Sequelize · TypeORM
  • PostgreSQL · Redis
  • WebSocket · REST · GraphQL
  • AWS (RDS, S3, EKS, SSO)
  • Docker · Kubernetes

Tooling & Testing

Fast feedback loops, regressions caught before main.

  • Vite · Rsbuild · Webpack
  • Turborepo · NX · pnpm workspaces
  • Biome · ESLint · Prettier
  • GitHub Actions
  • Jest · React Testing Library
  • Playwright · Cypress
07Contact

Work together.

Best fit: B2B SaaS, DevTools, AI-product, and internal-tool teams that need senior ownership of a React codebase. Send me the rough shape: a migration, an AI-native workflow, a design-system push, or a product that outgrew its frontend. I'm best where there is ambiguity, pressure, and real users waiting.

Typically replies within 48h · EU/EMEA time zones