Claire Wilgar

About

I am a senior frontend developer with a passion for accessibility, currently working for ESO in Belfast. I am an avid speaker at conferences & meetups, and have organised local events and groups - currently Women in Tech Belfast, and formerly Women Techmakers Belfast, Global Game Jam and BelfastJS. I have given talks at various events about accessibility, web development, roles in tech and my experiences as a woman in tech. In my spare time I enjoy gaming, reading, nail art and cross-stitch. I enjoy photography, and have been involved in volunteer photography at QCon and for various other Tech and Game industry events in NI.

Photo of Claire

Interests

  • Committee member and event organiser for Women Techmakers Conference Belfast and Women In Tech Lean In Group Belfast
  • Former organiser of BelfastJS meetup group
  • Founding member of Farset Labs in Belfast
  • Founder and organiser of Girl Geeks Belfast - social group for women in tech and engineering
  • Organiser of annual Global Game Jam events at Farset Labs, 2014 - 2019 (1 year attended then 5 years as organiser)
  • Global Game Jam Executive Committee member for 2018 event.
  • Occasional talks/presentations on previous work and on being a woman in tech, including at Women Techmakers Belfast and Django Girls Belfast events
  • Former mentor for Farset Labs Coder Dojo

Skills

  • Javascript architecture and programming, both vanilla and with frameworks, particularly React and Angular
  • Implementing accessibility practices and standards and educating both developers and designers on the techniques and considerations involved
  • Building and maintaining component libraries and design systems
  • Utilising Copilot or equivalent AI tools for code completion,refinement and templating of repeat or common tasks
  • CSS/SCSS, and using BEM methodology where appropriate
  • Progressive enhancement
  • Focusing on performance including Time to First Load and asset minification
  • Localisation (l10n) and internationalisation (i18n)
  • Build tools such as npm, webpack, gulp and make
  • Unit testing with libraries such as Jest, Jasmine, Sinon, Mocha and Karma
  • Project management and organisation with Jira/Trello and git
  • Following GitFlow and PR code reviewing

Speaking Engagements

Recent Experience

ESO | Senior Software Engineer (Web) | Oct 2021 – current
  • Led frontend development for a large-scale greenfield rewrite of the Patient Registry product and associated internal tools, making key architectural decisions and establishing development standards and best practices
  • Produced fast prototypes of internal applications, with daily iteration based on feedback from the future users and leadership, that were refined and used by teams inside the company
  • Architected and maintained a company-wide component library built on Angular and PrimeNG, ensuring consistency and reusability across all product teams
  • Served as lead developer on the company's accessibility team, delivering technical presentations, conducting VPAT assessments, and implementing accessibility improvements across multiple products
  • Provided technical guidance and mentorship to product teams company-wide as the most senior frontend developer, establishing coding standards and best practices organization-wide
  • Founded and led the Frontend Guild, organizing lunch-and-learn sessions and facilitating knowledge sharing initiatives across development teams
  • Involved in the DEI Engage group organising internal events for Pride, International Womens’ Day, and other diversity initiatives and celebratory dates
Novastone | Senior Software Engineer (Web) | Feb 2021 – Sept 2021
  • Lead frontend web developer working to rebuild an AngularJS app in React with React Router, with accessibility and localization built in from the start
  • Maintaining legacy angular app until React version is released
  • Scope out project for reusable components that could be consumed by third parties as well as used in the app
  • Taking lead on UX of the web app to compensate for lack of dedicated UX/design staff
Qarik | Senior UI Engineer | June 2020 – Feb 2021
  • Senior frontend developer working with Angular 10, RxJs, Sass
  • Building out an app for a client to enable them to deprecate legacy software
  • Taking the lead on large sections of the app and owning production of features within the app
  • Working with clients to ensure shared understanding and goals for the project
  • Working with the UX team and mentoring UX placement student in both UX and development
Bazaarvoice | Frontend Developer | March 2018 – now
  • Frontend developer working with primarily React
  • Worked across multiple client-facing applications on the UI and some UX work
  • Worked on creating, developing and maintaining a component library and design system for developers across a suite of client-facingg apps
  • Raising the profile and awareness of accessibility requirements across multiple dev and non-dev teams
  • Co-organise Belfast 'Frontend Lunch & Learn' for knowledge sharing across teams
AV Browne | Frontend Developer | November 2017 – January 2018
  • Working with Vue on frontend and Laravel or Drupal on backend of builds
  • Working with backend developers, designers and UX expert to implement projects
  • Introducing processes for pull requests/code reviews and working with project managers to improve issue tracking and project timing
Moola | Senior Frontend Developer | March 2017 – August 2017
  • Working on public and user facing website, primarily in React and Redux and using CSS modules
  • Working with backend developers and designer to implement best UX options
  • Reviewing PRs and participating in agile standups and sprint retrospectives
BBC NI | Senior Developer | October 2016 – March 2017
  • Worked on a large internal archive search and retrieval system for staff, including video playback and complex search and filtering.
  • Worked on a small interactive video based build for BBC Taster
  • Working with Angular and Sass for both projects
  • Working as part of project teams within BBC NI alongside journalists and creative teams
  • Revising and implementing accessibility to BBC standards across the projects
+rehabstudio | Frontend Developer | March 2015 – September 2016
  • Working on a number of projects from small landing pages to large multi-page Angular builds, as detailed further in the Projects section. All builds were fully responsive
  • Working both as part of project teams and as a solo developer on various projects
  • Learning and training others on accessibility standards and implementing them in projects
  • Interrogating creative wireframes and UX to spot potential implementation or UX issues
  • Scoping projects and building timeline and work effort estimates based on technical documentation and designs
  • Building services to send and receive data from back-end servers e.g. with CMS integration of API endpoints
  • Writing modularised, documented and unit-tested code following linting standards and test coverage requirements
  • Using tools such as JIRA to manage project tasks and timings
  • Participate in code reviews for all projects
  • Following scrum methodology within project teams

Projects

Screenshot of Your Ma site BBC Taster - Your Ma

A BBC Taster build for BBC NI, using interactive video to give the user an insight into what things were like when their mother was their age.

Screenshot of Digital Garage site The Digital Garage

A worldwide learning platform built with AngularJS and material design, currently available in 33 countries. Involves multiple pages and apps, and follows AA accessibility standards.

Screenshot of Politicons site Politicons

Backbone single-page build, designed and built within 1 week as part of a Hackweek series of work within +rehabstudio. Allows users to download political emojis based on the UK election.

Screenshot of Gradience project Gradience

Ludum Dare 32 entry, side project with colleagues built with Phaser. Keyboard-controlled space shooter game based on colour.

Other client-specific projects I have worked on, which cannot be individually identified:

LinkedIn
GitHub
CodePen
Instagram