Lead engineer building AI-powered products and generative UI systems.
I'm Steve Alden, a Lead Software Engineer with 6.5+ years shipping production software. I design and build scalable developer platforms, LLM-driven tooling, and the full stack underneath, end to end.
Selected work
- Generative UI platform
TurboUI
- Problem
- Turning a design intent into production React still meant hand-translating mockups into components, the slowest part of every build.
- What I built
- A generative UI system that turns text, images, or a Figma URL into production-ready React. LLM-driven generation on React, Tailwind and shadcn/ui, with iterative chat-based editing to refine output.
LLMs · Next.js · React · Tailwind · shadcn/ui
- Just for fun
Pokédex
Making sure my 10-year-old self would be proud. A Pokédex built with Next.js, Material UI, and the Pokémon API.
Next.js · Material UI · PokéAPI
Experience
SDE 3, RootQuotient
- Lead cross-functional teams delivering full-stack features on AWS and React.
- Own architecture decisions and mentor engineers on design and code quality.
Lead Software Engineer, Kerv Digital
- Led LLM-integrated developer tooling and schema-driven UI initiatives.
- Acted as primary technical liaison between engineering and stakeholders.
Senior Software Engineer, Kerv Digital
- Built a Next.js front-end framework for GOV.UK-compliant accessible sites.
- Automated CI/CD pipelines and raised engineering standards across teams.
Software Engineer, Kerv Digital
- Shipped React + GraphQL UIs for e-learning and supply-chain platforms.
- Refactored legacy codebases toward cloud-native patterns.
What I help teams build
AI-powered products
LLM features that ship: generative UI, prompt-to-output systems, retrieval and tool-using workflows wired into real product surfaces.
Developer platforms & tooling
Internal platforms, schema-driven rendering, and DX tooling that compounds, letting whole teams move faster.
Next.js / React architecture
Front-end frameworks and component systems built for scale, performance, and accessibility from the first commit.
Design systems
Token-driven, accessible component libraries that keep large products visually and structurally consistent.
Full-stack product builds
End-to-end ownership from data model to deploy: Node, PostgreSQL, Azure/AWS, CI/CD, and the UI on top.
Technical leadership
Architecture ownership, code review, mentoring, and the standards work that turns a codebase into an asset.
How I work
- Own the whole problem
- From data model to the pixel. I take features end to end rather than throwing work over a wall.
- Leverage over output
- The best engineering removes future work. Tooling, design systems, and clean architecture compound.
- Ship, then refine
- Production is the only real feedback. I get things in front of users, then iterate with intent.
- Raise the floor
- Code review, mentoring, and standards so the whole team ships better, not just me.
Working with·Next.js · React · TypeScript · Node.js · Tailwind · PostgreSQL · Azure · LLMs
Building something ambitious?
If you need senior engineering to design the architecture and ship the product, especially anything AI-powered, I'd like to hear about it.