Martin Burford
Front-End Developer
Curriculum Vitae
I started coding professionally in 1999, and have a deep passion for beautifully crafted web interfaces. My approach to work is always the same. I am driven by working with nice, smart people. I’m incredibly passionate about how the mechanics and visuals of a website work together in harmony, resulting in a stunning user experience. Yes, I code HTML, JavaScript (ES6), Node, React, SASS, TypeScript etc in every contract, but my true passion is in building the very best UI a website can have, with whatever technologies are required to do the job. Couple this with an obsessive side to my personality where I continually strive for the cleanest, most extendable and robust code possible. I work hard to ensure I only ever leave companies with code that I myself would be happy to inherit. If you wish to discuss potential contract roles with me, then please do get in touch:
- My personal email address is martin@martinburford.co.uk
Currently coding with (as of May 2025)
Other coding experience
- .net Core
- AG Grid
- AM charts
- Ant Design
- Apollo
- Async / Await
- Axios
- Azure Devops
- Babel
- BEM
- Bootstrap
- Browserify
- Chai
- Chromatic
- Cypress
- Enzyme
- ES6
- Escenic
- Express JS
- Fetch
- Flexbox
- Github
- Google Maps
- Grunt
- Gulp
- Heatmaps
- Icomoon
- Jade
- Jasmine
- Jest
- JQuery
- Karma
- Less
- Lottie JS
- Lo-dash
- Mermaid JS
- Mocha
- Next Auth
- NPM
- Phantom JS
- PHP
- Post CSS
- Pug
- Puppeteer
- Pusher JS
- Redux Toolkit
- Rollup
- Sharepoint
- Sinon
- Snapshot testing
- SPFX
- Styled components
- Styleguidist
- Vercel
- Webpack
- Websockets
- Yarn
Recent training courses taken
Whenever a role has required training prior to me starting, I have always enrolled on courses, so that I'm the very best I can be from my first day of work.
| Description | Completed | Url |
|---|
Lead React Developer
Frieze
- April 2024 - April 2025
- London, UK
Role overview
- I was hired to lead the re-architecture and subsequent re-building of the front-end of 3x Frieze sites.
- Due to the nature of shared (along with site-specific) components, Turborepo was the perfect tool for the job.
- An extremely comprehensive component library was created, consisting of around 100 React / TypeScript / Sass front-end components.
- The front-end pulled data from 3x unique Drupal instances, in order to allow a fully headless set of websites to be created.
- The websites were built in such a way whereby components, scripts, styles along with general configuration could be globally shared, along with local overrides wherever required.
- The sites were also coded to work with i18n, as 1x of the 3x sites had to support multi-lingual translations.
Technologies used
Recommendations
I had the pleasure of working closely with Martin during the development of three brand new content based websites at Frieze, and I can confidently say that he is one of the most skilled Frontend Developers I’ve worked with. As a Lead Frontend Developer, Martin bought a depth of knowledge and expertise in HTML, CSS and React to the team. His approach in building clean, scalable, and reusable components became the foundation for our shared component library across the three sites and a maintainable codebase. He approached problems with a proactive mindset, always thinking ahead and suggesting thoughtful improvements. He also brought a collaborative spirit to the table with his willingness to mentor others on the team, and sharing knowledge generously. Martin is a highly capable and detail-oriented Frontend Developer and any team would be lucky to have him. Highly recommended!
- Show all 2 recommendations received
Lead React Developer
Alex Howard Group
- July 2024 - September 2024
- London, UK
Role overview
- Alex Howard were wanting to bring the development of their suite of websites in-house, having out-sourced the work for the past few years.
- The long-term wishes of the business were to have permanent team members to work on this.
- I however had a past working relationship with one of the members of the leadership team, and was asked to build the foundations of a project re-platform whilst the permanent hires were sourced.
- I therefore spent 3 full months (albeit on a part-time basis) working on building a completely new front-end design system, with extensive documentation for the (yet to be hired) team members.
- As part of this work, a comprehensive mechanism was built to support light and dark modes across all sites in the Alex Howard group.
Technologies used
Recommendations
Martin is one of those rare developers who know and love their craft and is very, very good at it. He built us a front-end framework (from scratch) that is truly mobile friendly, incredibly performant, adaptable, and which will take us in to the next stages of our growth and beyond. One of the best developers I’ve worked with in 25 years. He also happens to be easy to work with and can lead a team with grace and ease. If you get a chance to hire Martin, you should hire Martin.
Lead React Developer
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- December 2023 - April 2024
- London, UK
Role overview
- I led all aspects of the front-end development of a project which required an existing Sharepoint instance (consisting of over 1,500 sites) to be completely re-skinned.
- I built a comprehensive set of React components, using Sass and TypeScript, which were then published as a component library to a privately scoped NPM package.
- This was then imported into Sharepoint, and via SPFX, was used to create custom Sharepoint Webparts, which ultimately led to having a largely headless Sharepoint instance to play with.
- The project was a huge success, as it allowed what had become an ageing (Sharepoint) intranet from the past few years to be given a new lease of life.
Technologies used
Recommendations
Martin is an exceptional Developer - I had the pleasure of working alongside him on an Intranet project, where we aimed to create a highly customized user interface for a client using React & SharePoint. Martins ingenious approach allowed us to seamlessly integrate custom React components with SharePoint graph data. Throughout the project, Martins attention to detail, professionalism and deep knowledge of Web Development played a pivotal role. Working with Martin was an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
- Show all 4 recommendations received
Front-End Developer
Personal portfolio
- September 2023 - December 2023
- London, UK
Role overview
- Whilst I was looking for work in late 2023, I decided to be productive alongside job-hunting, by re-writing my portfolio for the first time in 7 years. It's often the case that a Developers (particularly a Front-End Developers) website is never that representative of what they do for work. So I thought it was the perfect time to give things a refresh and a complete overhaul.
Technologies used
Code samples
Examples of code are available to view for this role. All code provided was 100% written by myself with no other Developers involved.
Recommendations
Other roles
Besides my most recent 4 roles (as above), I have worked in many other companies, on a contract basis more recently, but also in permanent positions at the start of my career:
| Type | Company | Role | From | To | Url |
|---|
Higher Education
BSc Hons (2:1) in Internet Technology - Staffordshire University, September 1997 - June 2001
A typical work day
Whilst every role I work in varies hugely in how I spend my time from one day to the next, there are a number of things I do which broadly are expected of me wherever I work. This diagram shows how these may typically be spread across a working day.
Please note that in addition to these, I am also often found working on all of the below when required:
- Building prototypes / concepts
- Documentation
- Mentoring Junior Developers
- Spiking new technologies / solutions
- Upskilling / cross-training
- Working closely with Visual Designers and UX to help fine tune project specifics
- Working with management to help plan projects