Miles Wheeler-Smith

Worcester, United Kingdom

Summary

Bringing 15+ years of experience building scalable, user-centric web applications. My journey began as a full-stack PHP developer, and while I’ve spent much of my career specialising in front-end engineering, I’ve recently returned to more full-stack work, now using a modern JavaScript/TypeScript stack.

This page is available to view on GitHub.

Skills

Experience

Travel Chapter

May 2025 - Present

Senior Developer

Recently started at Travel Chapter in the Guest tribe, building and maintaining their customer-facing web applications, including the flagship holidaycottages.co.uk. This full-stack role takes me back to my roots, but now with a modern TypeScript stack.

Cisco

May 2023 - Dec 2024

Lead Front-End Engineer

Architected and built a multi-channel messaging application for the Cisco Webex suite, developing core front-end features and optimising performance with minimal guidance. Took ownership of complex UI development, ensuring scalability and accessibility while making critical technical decisions independently. Worked closely with product managers, designers and directors to translate business requirements into seamless user experiences. Reported to the Director of Software Engineering, aligning technical decisions with strategic goals in a fast-paced environment.

Key Contributions:

  • Assessed business requirements to evaluate and select a tech stack of Next.js, TypeScript and Tailwind, advocating its strategic advantages to senior management and securing buy-in.
  • Wrote secure, high-performance code that adhered to Cisco’s security policies and best practices, ensuring robustness and scalability across the application.
  • Developed a Next.js user authentication system that reverse-proxied requests to the back end, offloading JWT storage from the client side to enhance security and performance.
  • Developed a UI component library for Webex, built on Mantine and customised for consistency, accessibility and usability across teams and platforms.
  • Engineered an SMS campaign tool featuring a custom message composer with support for merge fields, short links and WhatsApp formatting, enhancing communication capabilities.

Cisco

Aug 2021 - May 2023

Senior Front-End Engineer

Played a key role in the full rebuild of a legacy product, transforming it from an SMS platform into a comprehensive multi-channel Webex solution. Reported to the Software Engineering Lead and was promoted to Lead Front-End Engineer to oversee its continued development and successful delivery.

Key Contributions:

  • Refactored the tech stack, transitioning from Java and FreeMarker to a streamlined React-based front-end.
  • Facilitated the merger of two teams to work collaboratively in a new capacity, establishing a balanced front-end and back-end divide.
  • Shaped the product roadmap by leveraging industry expertise, influencing product manager requirements and inspiring design solutions.
  • Introduced agile methodologies tailored to the needs of a new team and company structure, improving development efficiency.

Textlocal

Sep 2016 - Aug 2021

Lead UX/Front-End Engineer

Led a small front-end team, overseeing and contributing to the redesign and engineering of the user interface. Focused on aligning the design with modern UX best practices to enhance usability, visual coherence, and overall user experience. Reported to the Development Manager throughout the project.

Key Contributions:

  • Recruited and mentored a new front-end developer, providing hands-on support and training to strengthen the team’s capabilities and foster growth.
  • Worked closely with back-end engineers to design APIs that met business needs.
  • Designed and built a new SMS engine powered by WebSockets to enable real-time messaging.

Textlocal

Jan 2012 - Sep 2016

Full-Stack Engineer

Worked in a small, cross-functional team spanning UI design, front-end and back-end development, delivering new features and platform improvements for over 160,000 multinational users. Reported directly to the business founder.

Key Contributions:

  • Co-led the development and integration of two new products: a ticketing tool and a survey solution for businesses and individuals, both seamlessly integrated with the core SMS platform.
  • Earned two industry awards for product advancements, outperforming entries from major brands such as Audi and John Lewis.

Bluelinemedia

Nov 2009 - Jan 2012

Web Developer

Developed a diverse range of websites for clients at a small web agency, including brochure sites, e-commerce platforms and CMS-driven solutions. Gained hands-on experience in front-end and back-end development while managing client relationships to ensure their needs were met throughout the process.

Education

National Diploma for IT Practitioners

Worcester College of Technology