I'm Alexandra, a software engineer living in Barcelona, Spain, and currently working for Skyscanner.

Recent work

Predictive typing with T9

A 'just for fun' application built with React. The user types a text on an old Nokia cell; the app uses a (basic) English dictionary to suggest words as you type. Custom words are added to the dictionary and most used words are prioritized when showing the suggestions.

Stack used:

Marketplace App

An Angular 5 app that mocks an online marketplace with pagination, search, favourites and ordering items based on four different properties. The UI was buit with Bootstrap 4, mobile first (with polyfills for IE9) and SCSS as my CSS processor of choice.

Stack used:

Weather Forecast App

An AngularJS SPA built using three APIs (Google Geocoding, Google Timezones and DarkSky) to return the current, hourly or daily forecast. I used AngularJS and PHP to handle the API calls dinamically display the content, all wrapped in Boostrap 4.

Stack used:

About me

Hello! My name is Alexandra Haret and I live in Barcelona.

In my spare time, I work on various side projects, run, drink coffee, cook, fix things and explore new places.

After having worked for just over a decade as a digital marketing specialist, I decided to embrace a new career as a front end developer in order to make better use of my analytical and creative skills: I started off by studying the basics (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) and then moved on to jQuery, AngularJS, Bootstrap, Foundation, Gulp and more. Over the past years, I've applied my newly acquired knowledge and skills in various projects for external clients, as well as personal projects that challenged me to learn even more technologies.

At the moment I am a full-time frontend engineer with a fast-growing tech company in Barcelona, and also work on a few personal projects to further develop my skills and knowledge. My latest projects are listed in the 'Recent work' section above.

You can find out more about any of my projects on the following websites:

Skills and expertise

I am developing my skill set to focus on what's most suited to getting the job done quickly and effectively.

Front end development

I write code that follows the W3C's web standards and semantic best practices. I use technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery to transform static artwork into mobile first, pixel prefect, interactive and fully functional websites.

Responsive web development

I build websites and apps using responsive grid systems and with a mobile first approach. I use frontend frameworks such as Foundation and Bootstrap to ensure that layouts are standardised and future-proof.

Web applications

I use AngularJS to build dynamic Single Page Applications for enhanced user experience, and use unit testing tools such as Karma and Jasmine to test the proper operation of my code and to ensure my apps are robust and behave as expected.

Professional timeline

Software engineer

Skyscanner - market leader app and website for modern and sustainable travel
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
June 2019 - present

I had the opportunity to work on dozens of projects, from front-end focused to backend service, data processing pipelines, tracking and monitoring, running A/B feature tests and more.

Main technologies used: React, Redux, Jest, Webpack, NodeJS, Databricks, Pyspark, Docker, AWS, Python, Java

Software developer

Wallapop - hyper-local mobile marketplace for buying and selling secondhand goods
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
March 2018 - April 2019

As part of the chat team, my main responsibilities include the development of the web chat system, a large real time client/server architecture. I'm also contributing to the re-architecture of the chat functionality, switching from using XMPP protocol to a HTTP implementation.

Main web development technologies used: Angular 5, Jasmine, Karma, XMPP, Docker, jQuery, SCSS, Git, Yarn

Web developer

Realise - full service digital agency
Edinburgh, UK
Oct 2017 - Jan 2018

As part of the web development team, I have worked on projects for Expedia and Standard Life, my main responsibilities including: creating responsive, dynamic sites and microsites; developing customisable email templates for integration with popular email marketing tools such as Marketo

Main web development technologies used: HTML, CSS, Foundation Emails, SCSS, Less, JavaScript, Angular, Angular 4, VueJS, Gulp

Web developer

The ID Co - real-time financial data reporting
Edinburgh, UK
Feb 2017 - Oct 2017

As part of the front end development team, my main responsibilities include: creating responsive, on-brand microsites for our B2B customers, developing a customizable WordPress themes using the WP Customizer API and contributing to the development of the company's core product, the Angular SPA (Single Page Application). I have also implemented a pattern library (Atomic design) to be used as the foundation for revamping the company's commercial site.

Main web development technologies used: HTML, CSS, WordPress, Foundation, SCSS, Less, JavaScript, AngularJS, Jasmine, Karma, Gulp, PatternLab

Front end development

Freelance work on various projects
Edinburgh, UK
Feb 2016 - Feb 2017

My front end career started as a part-time hobby, from building simple HTML-based 'tabs' for corporate Facebook pages to developing HTML email templates and customised website widgets using HTML and JavaScript. Finding this domain very appealing, I decided to make a career change and I'm currently honing my new-found front end coding skills (in particular CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and AngularJS) delivering projects for various external clients - Trofeo Verduci being one of the most recent ones.

Marketing and website management

Onestop IT - IT solutions for businesses
Edinburgh, UK
Aug 2015 - Dec 2016

My work spanned across all areas of digital marketing, from strategy and PR to email campaigns and reporting.

I took the initiative to maintain and improve the corporate Joomla-based website. This work piqued my interest in the underlying code that drives websites so I gradually started to 'look under the hood' and improve the look and behaviour of the website by creating modules and landing pages, editing and adding new CSS to improve responsiveness, implementing schema structured data markup to improve presence on search engines, etc.

I also built several HTML email templates following PSD mock-ups provided and optimised them to render appropriately on common email clients on both desktop and mobile devices.

Main web development technologies used: HTML, CSS/CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery

Digital marketing (contract)

Moody Monday - luxury interior design
Edinburgh, UK
Apr 2015 - July 2015

My work with the brand included marketing, social media and PR tasks: refining and implementing the social media marketing strategy across various relevant platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn), creating, delivering and reporting on the e-mail newsletter campaigns, setting up, managing and optimizing the brand's paid ads campaigns. I also updated the WordPress website and honed the MailChimp email newsletter template.

Social media marketing (contract)

Skyscanner - travel metasearch engine
Edinburgh, UK
June 2014 - Dec 2014

During my collaboration with Skyscanner, I worked on a number of tasks mostly in the social media and online marketing domain: market research, social media strategy and content creation, social ads management, etc.

This role marked my first experience in a large tech company with a mobile first mentality and it was my first encounter with the Agile methodology which I have come to appreciate and subsequently managed to partially implement in my subsequent role with Onestop IT.

Communications specialist

NobelGlobe - B2B and consumer telecom solutions
Bucharest, Romania
Jun 2008 - Aug 2013

My role involved creating the external and internal communication materials. I have set up and successfully developed the company's social media presence on multiple channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) to meet the business goals to the point of generating over $10,000 in monthly sales from social media channels alone. This work also involved building custom 'page tabs' using simple HTML and doing design work to develop the imagery needed for these channels.

My role also included working on SEO-related tasks: link building, promoting the company blogs on social media, improving the semantic usage of HTML markup for web pages.

"Alexandra is the kind of professional that always has a 'can do' attitude and that constantly delivers great results. She is very consumer oriented, analytical, but also creative and these proved to be key factors in shaping a successful project."

- Lucian Abrudan, NobelGlobe

Get in touch

The fastest way to get a response from me is to send me an email - I will try my best to respond in less than 24 hours:

yellow@alexandraharet.com

About this website

This website was built responsively using HTML5, CSS, jQuery and a slightly customised instance of the Foundation Flex Grid. Fonts are served through Google Fonts and I used the ScrollMagic JavaScript library to animate the timeline.