About Me
I'm John, a highly experienced and award-winning freelance web developer, working within London and the South East, or remotely from sunny Brighton.
I am a versatile, innovative, and enthusiastic web development specialist with over twenty‑one years of hands‑on web development experience (fourteen as a contractor) and a strong background in computer science and software engineering.
First and foremost, I am a technologist specialising in web-based engineering; I advocate for fundamentally well-engineered, maintainable, testable and scalable front-end code.
I am a creative problem-solver and a tech leader who uses my expertise and experience to champion change and improve the web for my clients and their customers. I develop innovative and strategic solutions to online problems and design and implement beautiful, accessible websites.
![Headshot of John Kavanagh, smiling, in front of a blue background.](/static/d0a6017c86705264af0c3991471df4c3/03410/mugshot.jpg)
I enjoy what I do; I've been doing it for over twenty-one years, and I'm very good at it.
As a contractor, I have been afforded the opportunity to be involved in a wide selection of exciting and varied projects using any number of different approaches and technologies. As a result, I am adaptable and confident in my work, happy and able to pick up new SPA frameworks and integrate quickly into different working teams and environments.
My experience includes years of development within React, Angular, Polymer and Clojure ecosystems, integrating with JAVA, .NET, Python, alongside more traditional PHP and e‑commerce with Episerver or AEM. I've worked with a wide variety of different clients and within different businesses, from customer‑facing big‑name household brands and enterprise‑level software development, right the way down to much smaller greenfield projects.
I am an accomplished lead developer, confident in management‑focused roles, adept in meeting clients or stakeholders, and a level‑headed team mentor. As web development is an ever‑evolving field, I work hard to keep abreast of emerging technologies, and I'm always happy to share that knowledge with others.
As a freelancer, my preferred tech stack is ReactJS, with TypeScript, and SCSS. Usually combined with Webpack, GraphQL, and alongside either GatsbyJS or NextJS.
Away from my laptop, I watch disaster films and occasionally read sci‑fi. I am a Lego nerd and was thrilled when my six‑year‑old wanted to build spaceships with me. I was once part of a relatively successful band and toured alongside the sorts of indie and Britpop names you would recognise. I stared fleetingly in a popular music video. I'm a published author and a retired public speaker. I'm a qualified rally driver and an everyday petrolhead, although you will more likely find me driving my family around in a very sensible Volvo or a Volkswagen now. I enjoy the occasional meal out and have been known to turn my hand to cooking. However that can result in us getting a takeaway after I've burnt the dinner...
Above all, I am privileged to be a husband and father to two young girls. Since the arrival of our first daughter seven years ago, you will most likely find me rounding off the day exhausted, covered in glitter, and uncontrollably humming the soundtrack to the latest Trolls film.
Some of my work
![Screenshot of the Lego website, part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.](/static/1e218d2241221543e8db4d9140c89b66/7b3bd/lego-grid.jpg)
A new React‑based e‑commerce platform for Lego
![Screenshot of the Virgin Atlantic & Holidays website, part of John Kavanagh's development portfolio.](/static/f5cc39ad54bc78b52e44246d76367e33/7b3bd/virgin-atlantic-holidays-grid.jpg)