About
Human-centric full-stack dev
using modern principles.
I'm Michael Andrew, currently Team Lead & Principal Engineer at Company X. I've been working with digital agencies, AI and 3D technology startups for the past 10 years in lead and individual contributor roles. I've worked across a broad spectrum of projects and products for startups and agencies, spanning from mobile apps, to chatbots, ad campaigns, as well as 3D and AR/VR apps for the latest XR headsets. Utilising technology to impact people in a meaningful, human way is the cornerstone of my ethos, working effectively with both sides in teams large or small.
I also have a strong background in backend development, moving from historical projects in Laravel (PHP) and MySQL into modern Node.js and TypeScript stacks using NoSQL databases. To support my frontend work I've built and maintained RESTful APIs hosted on cloud services such as AWS, Heroku and DigitalOcean. I have a strong focus on performance, scalability and security, ensuring that the applications I build are robust and reliable.
In recent years I've integrated generative AI into my workflows to rapidly prototype features, test assumptions with end-users sooner, and to build novel interactions that were not previously possible to achieve with legacy technologies. It seems like there's a new AI model releasing every month, and I'm excited to try them all.
Background
The original UXVirtual website was built from scratch using Angular and deployed in a DevOps pipeline via GitHub and DigitalOcean's droplet service.
I've been using AI technologies, frameworks and tools in commercial products since 2017. More recently, using GenAI and large-language models since 2023. In early 2025 as a workflow test, I built the Digital Fitness Friends demo using a combination of Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and traditional software and game development techniques. For future experiments and weekend projects I'm looking to use more end-to-end IDEs such as Cursor and take advantage of agentic workflows to maximise my available time and achieve overarching technical goals.
I'm excited to see what the future holds with recent advances in spatial computing and generative AI. We are now in the midst of an accelerating social and technological revolution, deeply affecting our work and personal lives, as well as how we communicate with each other. Today, developments in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the way we work and play. I continue to be on the pulse of these, combining them in novel ways, bringing strong traditional development skills into this new world, while inventing new killer-applications for the computing platforms of today and tomorrow.
Skills & tools
React · Angular · TypeScript · Node.js · Adobe Creative Cloud · VS Code
Unity · Three.js · Blender · iClone · Character Creator
AWS · CloudFormation · DigitalOcean · Cloudflare · Docker · Raspberry Pi
System architecture · Technical writing · Scoping & research · Product management
OpenAI · Gemini · Copilot · Suno · ComfyUI · Llama · SDXL · Hunyuan · FLUX
Awards
2021 — AI Excellence Awards: UneeQ Creator / Digital Einstein.
2020 — Reseller News Innovation Awards: UneeQ Creator & Inteso.
2018 — BEST Awards finalist: David Iraia’s Flask.
2016 — BEST Awards bronze: NZ Olympic Team App; finalist: Auckland Airport App.
2016 — W3 Awards silver: Auckland Airport App.
2014 — W3 Awards silver & Communicator Awards excellence: Angutec by Manfred Frank.
Reading list
Clean Code — An excellent and timeless approach to software development that can be applied to many software stacks.
Segmind Blog — Articles on GenAI tools and custom workflows.