Kenneth Lai, Developer in New York, NY, United States
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Kenneth Lai

Front-end Developer

New York, NY, United States

Toptal member since May 24, 2022

Expertise
Front EndFull-stackJavaScriptReact.jsTypeScriptNode.jsSlack DevelopmentVisual Studio DevelopmentDatabaseGitReact NativeCSSGitHub
Bio

Kenneth is an experienced professional who prides himself on transparency. His work ethic comes from startups where deadlines and ownership are essential to mid-size teams where documentation and consistency are critical. Having had a taste of developing projects from the ground up, he thrives in converting designs to deployable React and React Native front-end code. Communication and his passion for learning and inspiration are why Kenneth works well in any team structure.

Portfolio

1Fort Inc.
React, CSS, HTML, Tailwind CSS, Next.js, TypeScript, Redux, Claude Code
Topology Invest Corporation
React, Chatbots, Python, Azure, Socket.IO, Vue, Sockets, ChatGPT...
The Odds
React, React Native, Expo, Supabase, Prisma, Vercel, Tailwind CSS, Next.js...

Experience

  • Front-end Development - 6 years
  • Visual Studio Code (VS Code) - 6 years
  • JavaScript - 6 years
  • React - 6 years
  • Slack - 6 years
  • React Native - 4 years
  • TypeScript - 4 years
  • Firebase - 2 years

Preferred Environment

Slack, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Trello, Jira, Git, CircleCI, CSS, Web Components, Front-end, Front-end Build Tools

The most amazing...

...product I’ve built was a natural language processing (NLP) AI networking app in React Native, taking a paragraph into data-enriched intents to a chat interface.

Work Experience

Front-end Developer

2024 - 2025
1Fort Inc.
  • Led major UI/UX design overhauls, modernizing large sections of the platform using Figma and implementing refined, production-ready interfaces in React/Next.js.
  • Built interactive, responsive UI components, including multi-step navigations, dynamic tables, complex forms, and dashboard elements.
  • Delivered features rapidly, consistently clearing ~8 tickets per day in a fast-paced, full-time engineering environment.
  • Implemented server-side rendering (SSR) and integrated APIs to create seamless, performant user flows.
  • Utilized Tailwind CSS to maintain UI consistency and accelerate development.
Technologies: React, CSS, HTML, Tailwind CSS, Next.js, TypeScript, Redux, Claude Code

Full-stack Chatbot Developer

2024 - 2024
Topology Invest Corporation
  • Developed a full-featured chat interface for the client's LLM model to demo and showcase.
  • Deployed a dashboard fully integrated with Stripe to handle API usage and payments.
  • Implemented a public-facing API endpoint that was encrypted utilizing Supabase's JWT token exchange and their SDKs with privately scoped user policies on the database.
Technologies: React, Chatbots, Python, Azure, Socket.IO, Vue, Sockets, ChatGPT, Authentication, Large Language Models (LLMs), Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Supabase, Vercel, ChatGPT API, Responsive UI, Databases, UX Design, API Integration, Claude Code

Full-stack Engineer

2023 - 2024
The Odds
  • Led the development and deployment of the mobile application through Expo.
  • Converted Figma designs to React Native screens and iterated through use case changes and best practices.
  • Led and documented full-stack features while enforcing scalable concerns and efficient querying.
Technologies: React, React Native, Expo, Supabase, Prisma, Vercel, Tailwind CSS, Next.js, Responsive UI, Databases, UX Design

Next.js and Supabase Developer

2023 - 2024
SonderCo Projects LLC.
  • Refactored and optimized the dashboard to handle complex requirements. These range from having live data subscriptions and admin views to handling editing all fields.
  • Integrated AI features to grab client details when submitting client names. Integrated multiple API services to handle upstream and downstream data.
  • Deployed server-sided pages to handle dynamic routing for multiple client views.
Technologies: Next.js, React, APIs, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, Supabase, ChatGPT API, Databases

Next.js Engineer

2023 - 2023
Singularity Capital LLC
  • Integrated the Material UI Next.js project with their custom Auth0 back-end API.
  • Created File Explorer screens where users can successfully upload files and view the live changes in their knowledge base.
  • Bridged their FastAPI back end with the Next.js app through custom hooks and types.
Technologies: JavaScript, Next.js, React, HTML, CSS, TypeScript, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chatbots, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), Front-end, REST APIs, Material UI, GitHub, React Router, APIs, Single Sign-on (SSO), Server-side Rendering (SSR), Google Sign-in, Tailwind CSS, Vercel, Supabase, Responsive UI, Databases

React Developer

2022 - 2023
RNWBL, LLC
  • Rebuilt and revamped table filters with custom and complex filter options.
  • Converted Figma designs to dashboard pages and iterated through use case changes and best practices.
  • Filled in missing design mocks for out-of-scope edge cases as the project evolved through internal feedback.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, GraphQL, Redux, Prisma, Material UI, GitHub, React Router, APIs, Full-stack, Vercel, Supabase, Databases, UX Design

Software Engineer II

2020 - 2023
Hired
  • Tackled over 10,000 A11Y audited tasks as requested from our major client.
  • Developed diversity-inclusive tools used by over 2,000 recruiters.
  • Designed and implemented complex queries through GraphQL for clients to filter candidates.
  • Worked closely with multiple departments per project requiring cross-team collaboration.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, GraphQL, Ruby, Ruby on Rails API, CSS, HTML, Web Components, Front-end, Front-end Build Tools, Front-end Development, Prisma, Figma, Material UI, GitHub, APIs, Full-stack, Styled-components, UX Design

Front-end Software Engineer

2022 - 2022
Holo Health
  • Worked with Figma designs to develop the next version of the website using Next.js.
  • Adapted to the Monorepo and project structure required to maintain consistency and efficiency across teams and shared assets.
  • Coordinated meetings and standups to sync across European time zones.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, HTML, CSS, Next.js, Figma, TypeScript, Front-end Development, Material UI, GitHub, React Router

Mobile Software Engineer

2021 - 2021
Rock It Relationships
  • Created the MVP with React Native. Handled deployment and internal beta distribution on both Google Play store and Testflight.
  • Onboarded and managed a small team for the React Native project with the use of a Jira project board.
  • Implemented an automated deployment pipeline that handled specs and lint enforcement.
Technologies: React Native, JavaScript, TypeScript, Firebase, Front-end Development, GitHub

Mobile Software Engineer

2018 - 2020
Grapevine Solutions
  • Developed an entire mobile app in AngularJS, Cordova, and React Native from the ground up.
  • Deployed and distributed the React Native iOS and Android apps with bug, feedback, and key performance indicators (KPIs) user tracking SDKs.
  • Collaborated with our product designer and our small team of engineers and founders to iterate our product effectively.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, React Native, Firebase, AngularJS, Cordova, CSS, HTML, Web Components, Front-end, Front-end Build Tools, Front-end Development, Figma, GitHub, Full-stack

Experience

Venture | A Card-based DnD Campaign Tool

https://github.com/knthslai/venture-DEMO
Venture is an app to help seamlessly run Dungeons and Dragons campaigns with a card-based interface. A web platform to create a live interactive experience between players and the dungeon master. With an intuitive and user-friendly display to help spark curiosity about solving in-game puzzles and battles.

YouPoll Mobile App

https://github.com/knthslai/YouPoll
A React native app where a user can sign up and create/vote on polls. Full with three-page navigation: poll feed, create oll, settings. Using supabase for the back-end storage/auth and React hook queries to handle cache management.

Clique-On

https://github.com/knthslai/clique-on
A hackathon project based around live subscription of user locations through the web browser. It was all hosted on a TDD and continuous integration through Travis CI and deployed on Heroku to demo. I created it with React, Redux Pubnub, and Google Maps API.

Certifications

AUGUST 2018 - PRESENT

Computer Software Engineering

Fullstack Academy

Skills

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, REST APIs, React Router, Ruby on Rails API, Google API, Socket.IO, Vue, Sockets

Tools

Claude Code, Slack, Trello, Jira, Git, Front-end Build Tools, Figma, Prisma, GitHub, CircleCI, Expo, ChatGPT

Languages

JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, GraphQL, Ruby, Python

Frameworks

React Native, Next.js, Material UI, AngularJS, Redux, Tailwind CSS

Paradigms

UX Design, MEAN Stack

Platforms

Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Firebase, Vercel, Azure

Storage

PostgreSQL, Databases

Other

Front-end, Front-end Development, Full-stack, Responsive UI, Web Components, Server-side Rendering (SSR), APIs, Styled-components, ChatGPT API, API Integration, Cordova, CSS5, Chakra UI, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chatbots, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), Supabase, Google Sign-in, Single Sign-on (SSO), Authentication, Large Language Models (LLMs)

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