Xan Torres
Available

React · TypeScript · Next.js · End to end

Senior product engineer. AI-native products and agentic workflows.

Xan Torres. I take product work end to end: system design, deep React and TypeScript, enough backend to close the feature, and AI shipped under human review. Design-system work on mongodb.com, and RepoKernel, my agent orchestrator, on npm.

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

Shipped for: MongoDB · Platform9 · FeatherShark · Sunflower Games

01Selected work

What I shipped, and what it took.

2018 / 2026

02AI-native work

AI in the path that ships.

Where AI already sits inside shipped systems: client delivery, a production feature from 2023, and the tooling I maintain.

  • 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 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

04Core strengths

What you get in the first month.

  • 01

    Architecture before components

    I map data flow, state ownership, and failure paths before the first component lands. On the multi-team web platform of a listed multinational that meant a two-layer CSS isolation system, prefixed selectors plus design-token variables, which removed cross-microfrontend style leaks as a class of bug.

  • 02

    Frontend craft at production scale

    Interaction detail, Core Web Vitals, accessibility, loading states, and the edge cases users find first. On mongodb.com a two-line fetchPriority change produced an LCP win on the highest-traffic landing pages.

  • 03

    Product judgment

    I work from vague requirements and argue for the version users actually need. On a govtech product that meant moving tenant configuration out of build-time env files, so onboarding a new fire department became a settings change instead of a redeploy.

  • 04

    Codebases teams can live with

    Typed boundaries, migrations that never freeze feature work, and CI that catches regressions before main. 456 commits over 20 months as the sole frontend engineer on a two-person team, across five migrations on a product that never stopped shipping.

05Stack

Depth first, breadth where the product needs it.

Strict TypeScript first

AI / Agentic Systems

Systems where agents act under gates a human controls.

  • MCP
  • Agent memory
  • Context engineering
  • Structured outputs
  • Human-in-the-loop flows
  • Evaluation workflows

Frontend

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

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

Design Systems

Component libraries teams adopt instead of fork.

  • Component library architecture
  • Design tokens
  • Module Federation
  • Style isolation
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Accessibility (WCAG)

Backend (supporting)

Enough backend to close the loop on a feature.

  • Node.js · NestJS
  • PostgreSQL · Prisma
  • REST · GraphQL · WebSocket
  • AWS · Docker

06Approach

Decisions I make the same way every time.

  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. On a templating monorepo I scaffolded from zero, that meant Zod schemas emitting JSON Schema, so the shape one service sends and the shape another expects are the same generated artifact.

  2. 02

    Migration over rewrite.

    A rewrite freezes the roadmap and rarely lands. I move one layer at a time, runtime, then language, then data fetching, then forms, and the app stays shippable through every transition.

  3. 03

    One source of truth.

    More than once I have deleted a client-side recomputation of a backend value and made one endpoint authoritative instead. Backend-authoritative over client-recompute: each time, an entire class of drift bugs left with it.

  4. 04

    Use AI without losing control.

    AI speeds up implementation, exploration, and refactors. Architecture, review, and product decisions stay human-owned: in RepoKernel nothing merges without a recorded review verdict and a passing check command.

07Contact

Tell me what you are building.

Booking now

Best fit: dev-tools, AI-product, and B2B teams that want one senior engineer owning a product surface end to end. Send the rough shape: a migration that cannot pause, an AI feature that has to survive review, a design system teams keep forking, or a product that outgrew its frontend. I am booking new engagements now and I scope on the first call.

I read every message · Reply within 48h · CET/EET