Alex Farley

About Me

I am a UI engineer with 10+ years of experience. My background is broad and diverse—I’ve worked as:

• Team lead, mentor, and manager, guiding engineers and shaping teams.
• Consultant for the UK government and large private companies, advising on UI strategies.
• Web engineer, hands-on with large-scale retail platforms, focusing on localization, performance, latency, and analytics.
• Web accessibility lead, both implementing solutions hands-on and establishing accessibility directions for engineering teams.
• Indie engineer, working on small, meaningful projects.
• UX and UI designer, involved in UX processes and wireframing.

Experience

• Amazon.com (2020-2025) – UI Engineer at Amazon Advertising
• Consultant, UK Ministry of Justice (2019-2020)
• ASOS.com (2017-2019) – Core Web Team
• Oxford Computer Consultants (2015-2017) – UI Team Lead

Mentorship & Influence

From the beginning of my career, I have been passionate about mentoring junior engineers. Early on, I was an active coach and later became a co-organizer of Codebar in Oxford, UK. While working as a consultant, I mentored colleagues on UI-related technologies and helped establish design guidelines and reusable patterns for teams across multiple projects.

At Amazon, I took this further by supervising AI faculty students on human-machine UX/UI and speaking at internal conferences.

Front-End Philosophy

I became an engineer because I loved logic, predictability, and patterns. But soon, I was drawn to the artistic side of the web—UX, UI, and creating experiences that feel seamless and intuitive.

To me, every web project is like building a house. The facade might be beautiful, but what about the door handle—does it feel intuitive? Are the windows in the right place? Is it comfortable to navigate? And if someone is on skates, should there be a ramp instead of stairs to ensure everyone can access it?

That’s the metaphor in my mind when I build. Web accessibility, UX, and performance are not afterthoughts—they are core to a well-built system.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked on both massive platforms and small projects, but my focus is always the same:

• Me booking tickets with one hand while holding a sleeping baby.
• My mom, who needs intuitive design and clear form labels to know what’s required.
• All of us, closing a site the second we see a never-ending loading spinner—because, honestly, we should.

UX & UI Approach

From the moment I started as a front-end engineer, I loved working closely with designers. I admired their ability to imagine a beautiful UI, and I saw my role as making that vision accessible, functional, and real.

I never stopped learning and studying design, and at Amazon, I personally designed the visual layouts for three major projects.

Leadership Skills

I love working with people, and I have strong organizational skills. I’ve led projects and managed teams, ensuring both technical excellence and a positive team culture.

Hobbies & Side Projects

I love reading—both for work and for fun. When I dive into something new, I go all in.

For example, when I became a mom, I deep-dived into books on childhood brain development. This led me to start my side project, Calliope Threads—where I create gratitude journals for toddlers and kids (Calliope was the muse of writing and yes, gratitude journaling is a great mental exercise even for children!).

Contact Me

Let's connect! Feel free to reach out via email or LinkedIn.

Send Message

Email: o.farley.mail@gmail.com

LinkedIn: Linkedin