Available for new engagements

Hire a Senior Frontend Developer

I'm Abdelkader Settah, a Frontend Engineer and Team Lead based in Malta. I help product teams ship faster with React, Next.js, TypeScript, and design systems, without the cost of a wrong senior hire.

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When teams hire me

Most companies don't need another frontend developer. They need someone who can decide what to build, set the standards the rest of the team codes against, and ship the parts that determine whether the product feels professional. That's the work I'm hired for.

  • The senior hire is months out

    You have growth ahead of your hiring pipeline. I plug in as a contract senior, ship the next milestone, and document the standards so the eventual full-time hire ramps in days, not months.

  • The team has no frontend lead

    Strong individual contributors but no one owning architecture, review standards, or design-system direction. I take the fractional lead seat 1–3 days a week and turn a collection of engineers into a team.

  • Performance, accessibility, or DX is slipping

    Core Web Vitals failing, LCP creeping past 4s, build times in the minutes, type safety eroding. Time-boxed audit and remediation, with measurable before/after numbers.

  • A new product needs to ship

    Greenfield React or Next.js application. I bring the stack, the patterns, and the discipline so your first version doesn't become the technical debt of the second.

How I engage

Audit (1–2 weeks)

Fixed-fee deep dive on a specific problem like performance, architecture, design system, or hiring. You get a written report and a prioritized action list.

Contract (8–16 weeks)

Embedded senior frontend developer. I ship features, run code review, and leave the codebase better than I found it. Weekly demos, async-first.

Fractional Lead (ongoing)

1–3 days a week as your frontend technical lead. Architecture, hiring, design-system governance, mentoring. For teams not ready for a full-time head of frontend.

Stack I ship in production

Eight years of frontend work, the last several leading teams. These are the tools I reach for first, not the only tools I'll use.

Frameworks

React, Next.js, Astro, React Native

Languages

TypeScript (advanced types, codegen, strict mode)

UI & design systems

Tailwind, shadcn/ui, Radix, design tokens, component libraries

Data & APIs

GraphQL (Apollo, urql), REST, type-safe codegen, Directus CMS

Architecture

Nx monorepos, private npm packages, module boundaries

Quality

Jest, RTL, Playwright, Core Web Vitals, accessibility

Selected outcomes

  • Built a reusable UI npm package that reduced new-project setup time by 40% and became the foundation for every frontend at the company.
  • Shipped 15+ production applications across fintech, web3, K8s developer tools, and consumer.
  • Established frontend standards, code-review SOPs, and hiring rubrics that scaled a small team without losing quality.
  • Architected Directus + Next.js stacks that let non-engineers ship content changes without engineering involvement.
See full case studies →

Frequently asked

What does it cost to hire you as a frontend developer?
Engagements are priced by scope, not hours. Audits and short builds are fixed-fee. Longer contracts and fractional lead roles are monthly retainers. Reach out with your project and I'll send a written proposal within two business days.
Are you available for full-time or part-time work?
Both. I take on part-time fractional lead roles (1 to 3 days a week) and full-time contract engagements (typically 8 to 16 weeks). I don't take on more than two active clients at once so each engagement gets real attention.
Do you work with startups or only larger companies?
Both. I've shipped production frontends for Series A startups, scale-ups, and enterprise teams. The common thread is teams that need senior frontend judgment, not just hands.
What time zones do you work across?
I'm based in Malta (CET/CEST) and have overlap with EU, UK, and US East Coast teams. Async-first communication for everything outside of weekly syncs.