Description

Hi, I'm Michael Cook, a tech professional with 18 years experience based in Sheffield and working remotely.

As a Senior Product Design Engineer and various development roles I've worn many hats: from working with clients to spec projects, create designs, prototypes, all the way through to full builds often with the bleeding edge of tech.

All in all I've been in the industry a long time, building hundreds of websites and online software products. Some recent projects include:

Chatsworth House - the heavily visited site running on a full Umbraco content and events system, as well as their online store.

Amrita Nutrition - a Shopify store which has a uniquely complex account relationship system whereby they have healthcare practitioners that can prescribe, well, prescriptions to their own clients and gain commission from orders largely using React/Svelte for the many dynamic features.

Persi - a plugin, available on many stores, which is an AI clothing recommendation software. It runs on React with GraphQL to cleverly generate recommendations based on the users' inputs, preferences, uploaded images, viewed products and whatnot then tracks engagement to demonstrate usage.

This was designed and developed in a very rapid, agile style where I was given agency at all stages which was very enjoyable!

Vaccination Track - a system for the creation and management of Flu/Covid vaccinations sessions used widely within the NHS. It was handed over in a heaving mess of broken React but I led a full overhaul with TypeScript followed by many years fixing, adding and refining features.

Languages

English
Native or bilingual

Workplace preferences

Remote only

Primarily works remotely

The Tech Dept
Senior Product Design Engineer
January 2026 - May 2026 (4 months)
Leading product design engineering across complex digital platforms, bridging UX, frontend engineering, and product strategy. Collaborate closely with stakeholders, designers, and developers to deliver scalable, accessible, and high-performance user experiences. Focused on design systems, rapid prototyping, frontend architecture, and improving product usability across web applications.
Product design User Experience Design Shopify React.js Typescript
The Tech Dept
UX Engineering Lead
September 2023 - January 2026 (2 years and 4 months)
Led UX engineering initiatives across multiple client projects, combining frontend development with user-centred design practices. Responsible for design system implementation, accessibility standards, component architecture, and mentoring frontend teams. Worked closely with product and design stakeholders to translate UX requirements into robust, maintainable interfaces.
the tech dept
Frontend Engineer
September 2017 - September 2023 (6 years)
Sheffield, UK
Developed modern responsive web applications and frontend solutions for a range of clients and industries. Built reusable UI components, integrated APIs, and improved performance, accessibility, and maintainability across projects. Worked extensively with modern JavaScript frameworks, HTML, CSS, and collaborative agile workflows.