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Kyle Nel

@kylenel

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Full-stack engineer at IGrow Group who rebuilt rentals.igrow.co.za, improving GTmetrix grades from E/F to A/B.

South Africa

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What I'm looking for

I want to build useful things that solve real business problems, in a team where I can help others do their best work. I'm open to remote or WFH-led hybrid work.

At IGrow Group of Companies, I rebuilt rentals.igrow.co.za on a custom theme, taking its GTmetrix grades from E/F to A/B while server load fell as traffic grew. I also integrated 200+ property listings and built a viewing-booking tool connected to Zoho CRM.

At WooCommerce.com, Automattic Inc., I co-led the React rebuild of the marketplace and architected its product-card components and interaction tracking. I also built an AI proxy integration used across WooCommerce.com, with prompt-level control, usage tracking and cost reporting.

Through devNel, I build WordPress/WooCommerce and modern web projects for mostly non-technical clients. I built two live Quiver Café sites using Astro, Sanity and Cloudflare Workers, with online ordering ready to enable through Yoco payments and Uber Direct delivery.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Trustee & Volunteer Team Lead

Current

Freedom Church

Dec 2019 - Present (6 years 11 months)

Trustee on the board of the non-profit arm, project-managed AV and network setup for a new building, and lead volunteer teams.

Project Management AV Installation Network Setup Volunteer coordination

Current

Founder & Full-Stack Developer

Current

devNel

Jan 2018 - Present (8 years 10 months)

Own consultancy building WordPress/WooCommerce and modern web projects, including Astro and Sanity, plus DevOps and AI work for non-technical clients. Built sites end to end with performance, accessibility, and SEO.

WordPress WooCommerce Astro Sanity Cloudflare Workers DevOps AI Auditing Yoco UberDirect

Senior Web Developer

IGrow Group of Companies

Mar 2026 - Oct 2026 (7 months)

Senior developer across four brands, rebuilding sites with custom themes and caching, integrating PropData, and building a viewing-booking tool with Zoho CRM. Mentored other developers and set up Linux servers with CI/CD pipelines.

WordPress WooCommerce PHP JavaScript Web Components PropData Zoho CRM Zoho Flow Sales Intelligence Zapier Google Maps APIs Linux Nginx GitHub Actions CI CD AI assisted Development Linear Jira

Software Engineer (Full Stack)

Automattic Inc.

Sep 2023 - Apr 2025 (1 year 7 months)

Product engineer on WooCommerce.com, co-led the React rebuild of the Marketplace, built AI proxy integration, and removed 40%+ of plugin-based redirects with a CLI tool. Automated SEO metadata syncing and planned Algolia Recommend integration.

React TypeScript NodeJS PHP WordPress WooCommerce AI Proxy Nginx CLI Tools Algolia SEO REST APIs

Senior Technical Support Engineer / Project Lead

Automattic Inc.

Jan 2018 - Dec 2023 (5 years 11 months)

Handled escalations for enterprise and VIP customers, led cross-team projects to improve self-service, and mentored new hires. Named a 'Distinguished HE' for customer experience.

WordPress VIP Technical Support Escalation Management Project Leadership Mentorship Customer Experience

Technical Director

Illustrate Digital

Feb 2014 - Dec 2017 (3 years 10 months)

Ran engineering, support, and project delivery for a WordPress agency, hired and led a distributed team, and set technical direction. Moved the team to remote-first working with Slack and Asana.

WordPress Team Leadership Project Management Client Relations Slack Asana Remote Work

Customer Support Manager

Freestart PLC

Apr 2013 - Feb 2014 (10 months)

Managed a team of 3 customer support staff serving web-hosting clients, reporting to senior leadership. Introduced training that improved resolution times and CSAT.

Customer Support Team Management Training CSAT Improvement