Bart Budak

Hello, I'm

Technologist

Self-taught from first principles — I found my foundation in web accessibility, fell in love with design systems, and never stopped asking why things work the way they do. 8+ years building the web with a deep focus on UI/UX, developer experience, and the humans behind the code.

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JavaScript✦TypeScript✦React✦Next.js✦Design Systems✦Accessibility✦GraphQL✦Node.js✦AWS✦Figma✦Developer Experience✦Shopify✦Gatsby✦GSAP✦JavaScript✦TypeScript✦React✦Next.js✦Design Systems✦Accessibility✦GraphQL✦Node.js✦AWS✦Figma✦Developer Experience✦Shopify✦Gatsby✦GSAP✦

About

I was born in Rzeszów, Poland and spent my first five years there before moving to the US with my family. The first website I ever visited was pokemon.com — sometime around 2001 — and something clicked. I've been paying close attention to how I interact with technology ever since.

I'm self-taught. I initially flunked out of computer science — briefly considered studying Buddhist philosophy and spending a few years at a monastery, which remains one of my favorite career detours. I found my way back through curiosity and stubbornness. My first engineering role was at Optum, where I fell into web accessibility almost by accident. Understanding it meant going back to fundamentals — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at their core — and that foundation changed how I build everything. At one point I convinced my project manager to rethink our entire color palette, armed with nothing but a lot of opinions and genuine passion.

From there I moved to McKinsey, where I learned to operate at scale — shipping an internal design system serving 1,000+ engineers, building developer tooling, and deploying more npm packages than I can count. I became a go-to mentor for junior engineers. Because I learned everything the hard way, I try to keep that experience close when working with someone earlier in their journey.

Outside of tech I nerd out about philosophy, language, and the deeper questions — the ones without clean answers. When I'm not coding, I'm probably thinking about design tokens.

Languages

English· NativePolish· NativeJapanese· ElementaryGerman· Elementary

8+

Years of experience

10+

Engineers mentored

1k+

Design system users

Experience

  1. Director of IT & eCommerce

    ·Seattle Chocolate Company

    Dec 2024 — Present ·Seattle, WA

    • Lead all internal IT operations, overseeing infrastructure, tooling, and end-user support across the organization.
    • Own and operate two Shopify storefronts — maevechocolate.com and jcocochocolate.com — driving eCommerce strategy, performance, and UX.

  2. Senior Software Engineer

    ·McKinsey & Company

    Apr 2021 — Dec 2024 ·Boston, MA

    • Engineering lead for an internal design system serving 1,000+ users across the organization.
    • Led front-end initiatives using React and Next.js, driving adoption of modern patterns and tooling.
    • Advocated for and implemented accessibility best practices (WCAG 2.1) across the product suite.
    • Mentored junior engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and internal tech talks.

  3. Software Engineer

    ·McKinsey & Company

    Nov 2019 — Apr 2021 ·New York City, NY

    • Developed a Gatsby.js-based static site generator that streamlined content publishing across teams.
    • Reduced technical debt and improved engineering velocity by standardizing build and deployment pipelines.
    • Created CLI tooling to automate developer onboarding and enforce consistent coding standards.

  4. Software Engineer

    ·Optum (UnitedHealth Group)

    Jan 2017 — Nov 2019 ·Basking Ridge, NJ

    • Led technical decision-making and established coding standards across the front-end engineering team.
    • Optimized application performance, achieving a 20% reduction in page load time.
    • Maintained and evolved large-scale React and AngularJS applications serving millions of users.

Skills

Languages

JavaScriptTypeScriptHTMLCSS / Sass

Frameworks & Libraries

ReactNext.jsGatsbyNode.jsAngularJSGraphQL / ApolloStyled Components

Tools

GitJest / EnzymeJenkinsJiraFigma

Cloud & DevOps

AWS (Amplify, S3, Lambda, CloudFront)Google FirebaseGitHub ActionsDynatrace / Heap

Projects

Enterprise Design System
Engineering lead for an internal design system serving 1,000+ users at McKinsey & Company. Drove adoption of accessibility best practices and mentored junior engineers across distributed teams.
ReactNext.jsTypeScriptStorybookJest
Static Site Generator
Developed a Gatsby.js-based static site generator at McKinsey to streamline content publishing, reduce technical debt, and accelerate delivery across engineering teams.
GatsbyReactGraphQLNode.jsAWS
Developer Onboarding CLI
Built command-line tooling to automate developer onboarding workflows at McKinsey, cutting setup time and enforcing consistent coding standards across the engineering org.
Node.jsTypeScriptShell
Portfolio (this site)
Personal portfolio PWA built with Next.js 16, shadcn/ui, and deployed to Firebase Hosting at bartbudak.io.
Next.jsTypeScriptTailwind CSSFirebase
SourceLive

Contact

Have a project in mind, want to talk design systems, or just want to say hello? My inbox is always open.

Emailbartosz.budak@gmail.comGitHubgithub.com/divs-are-alignedLinkedInlinkedin.com/in/bartbudak