Looking for a job

Max Hilland

@maxhilland

Senior frontend engineer. React, Next.js, TypeScript, design systems. Built the Canadian Olympic Committee's Games Portal. 18 years, US-based.

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

A senior frontend role where I own an area end to end and work directly with design and product, rather than picking up tickets someone else scoped. React, Next.js and TypeScript, ideally with design systems or data-heavy product work. Remote, US-based, full-time or contract, at an established company with real benefits. I do my best work on small teams where decisions happen fast.

I'm a senior frontend engineer with a design background, which is probably the thing that shapes how I work most. I care about how an interface feels to use, not just whether it functions.

For the past eleven years I was at Okam, a headless development agency in Montreal, as lead engineer on platforms for the Canadian Olympic Committee, Ivanhoé Cambridge, Arrow Transportation and Bell Media. The one I'm proudest of is the COC's Games Portal: equipment booking, travel and scheduling for athletes competing internationally, plus the internal tools staff run it from. 90% of athletes were using it within the first month.

I also built HiSports end to end, front end through back end, as Okam Labs' own product. It replaced paper game sheets for minor hockey, became BC Hockey's province-wide standard across 131 associations and 65,000 participants, and was acquired by Spordle. Earlier, I co-founded a startup and led development on ALDO Group's national e-commerce brand.

Day to day my stack is React, Next.js, TypeScript and Tailwind, with design systems in Storybook and headless CMS platforms like Directus behind them. I'm comfortable on the back end too: REST and GraphQL APIs, Node and Postgres. Claude Code and Cursor are part of my daily workflow, and I introduced them at Okam.

I'm looking for a senior frontend role where I own an area end to end and work closely with design and product. Remote, US-based, full-time or contract.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Founder & Principal Engineer

Current

HZM

Sep 2008 - Present (18 years 1 month)

Independent studio delivering web applications, internal tools and brand identity work, run alongside full-time engineering roles since 2008. Lead engineer for New Quest Consulting Group, building and launching their website, configuring Google Workspace, building email marketing tooling, and rebuilding SEO.

Web Development Google Workspace Email Marketing SEO

Software Engineer

Okam

May 2015 - Jul 2025 (10 years 2 months)

Lead engineer on flagship client platforms in React, Next.js and TypeScript, owning each from design system through deployment. Standardized front-end delivery across client projects with a Turborepo monorepo and Storybook design systems, and brought AI-assisted development into the team's workflow.

React Next.js TypeScript TurboRepo Storybook REST APIs GraphQL Directus Claude Code Cursor AI assisted Development

Co-Founder & Lead Developer

Sidekik

Feb 2014 - Apr 2015 (1 year 2 months)

Built the full stack of a proximity marketing platform reaching customers' phones in-store over Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, including architecture, REST API, Node.js services, MongoDB, and server administration.

NodeJS REST APIs MongoDB Bluetooth Low Energy Server Administration

Web Developer

ALDO Group

Feb 2014 - Jan 2015 (11 months)

Lead developer on Little Burgundy, ALDO Group's national footwear e-commerce brand, shipping daily seasonal redesigns, marketing promotions, and new features. Led development of a custom CMS that let the marketing team assemble web components and launch email campaigns without engineering involvement.

Ecommerce CMS Development Web Development

Web Developer

Kngfu

Jun 2012 - Feb 2014 (1 year 8 months)

Front-end developer at an internationally award-winning Montreal interactive studio, building web series, games, web documentaries, and installations for broadcasters including CBC/Radio-Canada. Built front ends as Backbone.js single-page applications and post-processed and optimized large-scale multimedia content for the web.

Backbone.Js Frontend Development Media Optimization

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Concordia University

Bachelor of Arts, English Literature

2007 - 2011

Activities and societies: Co-editor, Soliloquies Anthology — Concordia’s undergraduate literary journal.

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Concordia University, 2007–2011. Co-editor of the Soliloquies Anthology, the university's undergraduate literary journal.