lloydrichards.dev

Curriculum Vitae / Developer Experience / Platform Engineer

Lloyd Richards

TypeScript engineer building developer tools, protocol adapters, and reusable application systems.

Executive Summary

Developer tooling and platform engineer with 6+ years building TypeScript products. I rebuilt Effect’s McpServer around versioned protocol adapters, including the stateless 2026-07-28 runtime. My open source work also includes Effect Boxes for terminal layouts and Stack Effect for application scaffolding.

  • Rebuilt Effect’s McpServer with versioned protocol adapters, including the stateless 2026-07-28 runtime
  • Built Effect Boxes, a composable terminal layout library, and Stack Effect, an application scaffolding CLI
  • Designed the IPEN WordPress content schema and a validated pipeline that reports actionable errors to editors

Technical Skills

TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, Effect, Developer Tooling, Design Systems, PostgreSQL, CI/CD, Docker, Terraform, Kubernetes, Vercel

Experience

Interactive Things – Professional Interaction Engineer

Feb 2023 → Present

Fullstack developer specializing in interactive, data-centric platforms for public sector and Fortune 500 clients. Responsible for technical architecture, data pipelines, and component libraries across 8 projects with 6 clients.

  • Sole developer on the OECD Competitiveness Outlook Data Hub (1100+ pages), winning Silver at Swiss Viz Awards 2025 and German Design Award 2026
  • Collaborated with a 3-person dev team on the Cancer Monitoring Dashboard (German Design Award 2026), mentoring an intern through pair programming and code reviews
  • Refactored a legacy Fortune 500 analytics platform, redefining the domain model with data science teams and building complex Snowflake queries across a data lake serving 50-100 daily users
  • Built a shared, themeable component library used across 3 OECD applications with Tailwind CSS
  • Designed TypeScript data pipelines to transform unstructured client documents into structured datasets for D3 visualizations and CMS-driven sites

Vatorex AG. – Data Visualization Specialist

Apr 2021 → Jan 2023

Owned design and development of digital products for an IoT beekeeping platform serving 500 users and 10,000 connected hives worldwide.

  • Built a cross-platform mobile app from scratch in Flutter, replacing separate Swift and Kotlin codebases and reducing feature delivery time from months to weeks
  • Migrated backend infrastructure from per-user AWS databases to a consolidated GCP architecture with Firebase/Firestore, improving monitoring and business intelligence
  • Designed read-heavy data pipelines for daily sensor transmissions and built dashboards for both beekeepers and internal R&D teams
  • Mentored a mobile developer on Flutter/Dart while iterating on UI and backend improvements
  • Supported pivot from hobby to commercial beekeeping (20-50 clients, thousands of hives each), adapting the platform for trial cohort management

Vatorex AG. – Data Visualization Intern

Oct 2020 → Mar 2021

First design-focused hire at the company. Consolidated inconsistent interfaces across web, Swift, and Kotlin apps into a unified design system and brand.

  • Audited existing applications and created the company's first design system, unifying UI patterns across three platforms
  • Coordinated with the development team to implement consistent components, replacing ad-hoc designs built by rotating interns

Interactive Things – Data Visualization Intern

Jan 2020 → Jul 2020

Design and development internship focused on data visualization. Created static and interactive visualizations for both internal and client-facing projects.

  • Prototyped data interactions and helped transform large datasets for client-facing dashboards
  • Collaborated with both design and engineering teams for iterative releases

Lloyd Richards Design – Regenerative Garden Designer

Apr 2016 → Oct 2018

Ran an independent design-build practice specializing in ecological and permaculture-based landscape design. Managed 26 projects end-to-end from client acquisition through to construction.

  • Designed residential gardens, food forests, and community spaces using AutoCAD, producing multi-year phased plans with succession planting timelines
  • Built and delivered projects personally, coordinating with carpenters and labourers for specialized work
  • Created client-facing documentation in InDesign combining technical plans, hand-drawn renders, and data-driven timelines to communicate long-term ecological development
  • Managed all business operations including sales, marketing, invoicing, and client relationships

Key Projects

  • Effect Boxes (2026)

    Built an open source library for composable terminal layouts, used in the Stack Effect scaffolding CLI.

  • IPEN Plastic Map (2024)

    Designed IPEN’s WordPress content schema and built a validated pipeline for the frontend with actionable errors for editors.

  • Competitiveness Outlook Data Hub (2024)

    Interactive data storytelling platform built using fullstack technologies. Created backend logic for scoring systems and visual data transitions.

  • SME Policy Index (2026)

    Multi-platform data visualization system extending the Competitiveness Outlook design language. Built unified theming architecture using design tokens and monorepo structure for backwards compatibility.

Education

  • Master of Architecture, Environmental Design (1 year), University of Calgary

    Sep 2012 → Apr 2013

  • Bachelor of Arts (Multidisciplinary), University of Calgary

    Sep 2006 → Apr 2011

Community & Volunteering

  • Organizer, Data Visualization Zurich MeetUp

    Oct 2023 → Present

  • Events Committee Member (2024), Outlier Conference

    Feb 2024 → Aug 2024