I chase problems,not technologies.AI lets me solve more of them.

Twenty years across agencies, studios, fintech, and Fortune 500 engineering, frontend architecture, backend services, system design, and the judgment between them. Technologies expire. Thinking scales.

See the work How I think

System · v4.2 · shipping

tokens.ts

export const semantic = {
  color: {
    action:  { primary: 'brand.600' },
    surface: { raised:  'neutral.50' },
    text:    { primary: 'neutral.900' },
  },
  space:  { 1: 4, 2: 8, 3: 12, 4: 16 },
  motion: { ease: 'cubic-bezier(.22,1,.36,1)' },
} as const;

ID · 001

Est. 2001

AJ Barnett

Systems Engineer · Judgment

Problems · Judgment · Systems

What I carry into the room

Breadth,
with depth.

A staff engineer's job is holding the whole product in mind, frontend, backend, systems, the seams between them, and knowing which lever to pull first. Frameworks come and go. These disciplines compound.

How I think

01
Frontend Architecture
Interfaces designed for change, not for demos. Boundaries first, then components.
02
Backend & System Design
API contracts, data shape, service seams. The parts of the product no user sees, but every user feels.
03
Product Engineering
Ship the outcome, not the ticket. Own the surface area from problem to release.
04
Technical Leadership
Multiply teams. Lower ambiguity. Make the next decision cheaper than the last.
05
Design Systems
Tokens, primitives, motion, docs, accessibility, one chapter of the work, not the thesis.
06
Accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 as product quality, verified, never a compliance checkbox.
07
AI as Leverage
Claude, Copilot, MCP, and the rest, used to widen the surface I can hold. Execution accelerates. Judgment stays human.
08
Engineering Judgment
The compounding asset. Knowing which problems are worth solving, and which tradeoffs to refuse.

End of Chapter One

The next chapter
is being written.

If your team is building something worth showing up for, I'd love to hear about it.

Start a conversation Read field notes

I chase problems,not technologies.AI lets me solve more of them.

Breadth,with depth.

Frontend Architecture

Backend & System Design

Product Engineering

Technical Leadership

Design Systems

Accessibility

AI as Leverage

Engineering Judgment

The next chapteris being written.

Breadth,
with depth.

The next chapter
is being written.