AboutProjectsContact

Alicia Sykes

[email protected]

github.com/lissy93

London, UK

I help organisations turn complex technical challenges into simple, scalable solutions that make a real difference for users and teams. I've led multi-team organisations, modernised large-scale systems, and built high-performance cultures grounded in openness, inclusion, and technical excellence. I'm passionate about open source, user privacy, and leaving a lasting impact at both company and community level.

Experience

loveholidays

Staff Software Engineer Nov 2024 - Present

  • Spearheaded accessibility strategy ahead of European Accessibility Act, building site-wide scanning and reporting platform, and then coordinating remediation across 6 teams.
  • Strengthened infrastructure and reliability through Kubernetes/Terraform and vendor collaboration (Fastly, DataDome).
  • Served as learning champion, establishing resources, learning pathways and fostering continuous upskilling and mentorship across the engineering department.

AND Digital

Principal Engineer Aug 2022 - Oct 2024

  • Led architecture and development for a high-scale white-labelled mobile app for Frasers Group, achieving 1M+ downloads and a 4.8/5 rating on app stores (React Native).
  • Delivered strategic technical leadership across multiple client projects including Lloyds Bank and International SOS, driving large-scale migrations to modern, maintainable stacks.
  • Mentored and upskilled a team of 8–12 engineers through structured mini-projects, paired programming, and technical coaching, fostering a high-growth culture.
  • Established and hosted a bi-weekly engineering guild attended by 40+ engineers, sharing best practices in performance, accessibility, testing, and architecture.
  • Acted as a bridge between delivery and engineering excellence, ensuring long-term code quality and platform resilience without compromising speed.

Galaxy

VP of Frontend Engineering Jun 2020 - May 2022

  • Directed frontend engineering for Galaxy's flagship OTC trading platform, enabling over $1B in trading volume with enterprise-grade performance and reliability.
  • Architected and led a full-stack modernization of legacy codebases, improving app load times by 50% and significantly reducing tech debt.
  • Oversaw and scaled frontend engineering strategy, standards, and execution across multiple teams, including hiring, mentoring, and tech governance.
  • Shipped high-quality features rapidly through close cross-functional collaboration. Increasing team velocity by 30% through improved CI/CD processes and tooling.
  • Advocated for open standards, accessibility, and performance as core pillars of engineering success.

Freelance

Contract Software Engineer Lead Jan 2018 - Jun 2020

  • Acted as engineering lead on high-impact React Native projects including Shell Recharge, driving delivery from design to deployment across platforms.
  • Built a performant, scalable component library from scratch for a UK fintech startup, establishing strong frontend architecture and design consistency.
  • Delivered a full-stack IoT dashboard for Machine Max, visualizing real-time CO2 and idling metrics from edge devices (Raspberry Pi + cloud stack).
  • Consistently embedded in client teams as a trusted lead, providing architecture reviews, CI/CD pipeline improvements, and technical mentorship.

Accenture

Developer May 2014 - Jan 2019

  • Took lead on the 3D/AR work for the B&Q bathroom planner (Angular, A-Frame)
  • Lead a team of apprentices on the Accenture UKI Innovation Programme (Google Glass, React, D3.js)
  • Ran sessions on coding best practices, testing and observability for engineers across the business
  • Headed up the pair programming initiative within Accenture Digital and their clients
  • Also supported with the roll-out of Universal Credit (Java), Boots NHS Prescriptions integration (Node.js), E.ON Next Smart Meter portal (React) and the Post Office Kiosk Terminal

Education

Oxford Brookes

Computer Science (BSc)

1st Class Honors. Winner of Best Final Year Project Prize. President of Computing Society.

Skills

  • Frontend: React, Svelte, TypeScript
  • Backend: Go, Rust, Node.js, Python, Java, PHP
  • Mobile: Kotlin, Swift, React Native, Flutter
  • DevOps: Ansible, Kubernetes, Terraform
  • Obs/Mon: Prometheus, ELK stack, OpenTelemetry, Grafana
  • CI/CD: Argo CD, GitHub Actions
  • Cloud: Vercel, Netlify, GCP, Azure
  • Databases: PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, MySQL, MongoDB

Achievements

  • Top female developer on GitHub worldwide (out of 100m users)
  • 10M+ Docker downloads across my open-source projects
  • 10+ global hackathon wins, demonstrating rapid innovation
  • 1M+ lines of code authored, maintainer of 100+ repos, powering 1M+ annual unique users
  • 10k+ subscribers on DEV.to blog demonstrating community impact and reach
  • Top 1% contributor on StackOverflow

Awards

  • Open UK Honours List (2025) - Recognised for outstanding contributions to the tech and open-source sector
  • GitHub Accelerator Alumni - Selected among 10 developers (Microsoft M12 partnership) to launch AI-security tooling
  • Open UK Honours List (2024) - Honoured for leadership and impact in open-source communities
  • Best Comp Sci Project - Awarded by Oxford British Computer Society