We hired Dan to work on an early product that was still in the discovery phase with customers. This can be a difficult stage of development because use-cases are still emerging and patterns are not well established. Dan proved to be very adaptable: from prototyping broad feature proof of concepts for user feedback, to fine detailed work on component accessibility and interactivity, to internal tooling and developer experience.
We found him to be diligent with a quality finish to his work. He was able to contribute and articulate technical recommendations and was pragmatic about trading off engineering practices against business needs. Although not part of his role with us I got the impression that he would be a good mentor to junior engineers. I would certainly recommend him for a team investing in their UI/UX practices.
Dan Cork · Folkestone, UK
Frontend Engineering
& Design Systems
Leading architecture for production applications and design systems at scale.
About
A bit about me
I've been building for the web for over 15 years, working with React since 2014 and React Native since 2017. I specialise in design systems, performance optimisation, UX design, and helping teams structure their frontend architecture for scale.
I'm a pragmatist at heart. I care about quality, but I also understand when to balance craft with business needs. I enjoy mentoring developers and designers on UX and UI, and I like solving hard problems: whether that's rescuing a struggling codebase, building a design system from scratch, or leading a team through a complex refactor.
I'm based in Folkestone on the Kent coast with my wife, two girls and our little maltipoo, Luna. Outside of work, I run a D&D campaign, watch far too much actual play, and sketch.
Services
How I can help
Trusted by teams at Birdie, Unit4, Orri, Foundational, and more.
Frontend Engineering
Production React and React Native applications built for performance and maintainability.
Design Systems
Scalable component libraries from strategy through adoption. Architecture, accessibility, and team enablement.
Technical Leadership
Team mentoring, architecture decisions, and modern workflows including AI-assisted development.
Testimonials
What others say
Dan took a high level mission statement (in our case, 'make our complex FE performant') and quickly built, led and executed on an end-to-end plan to make it happen quickly, working across multiple teams and services. He felt like a true owner from day one, demonstrating startup-level urgency and a genuine care for the product and impact being delivered.
I cannot recommend him highly enough as an extremely capable, personable and flexible Frontend leader / architect / developer.
I had the opportunity to work with Dan at Unit4, where he played an important role in building and scaling our design system across teams. He combined hands-on technical direction with strong cross-functional coordination, helping us move from a fragmented setup to a more efficient, reusable system adopted across products.
What I particularly value is his ability to connect strategy to delivery, setting direction, prioritising work and guiding teams across disciplines toward consistent, scalable outcomes. Dan is a reliable leader who brings structure, accountability and momentum to complex design-system initiatives.