Johan Steenkamp
Summary
An experienced and forward-thinking engineer with over a decade of experience in designing and building full-stack applications, with a strong focus on modern frontend technologies. Proven ability to lead and shape engineering practices, deliver complex solutions, and align technical strategy with business goals. Adept at full-stack development using React, Next.js, TanStack, and TypeScript, with recent experience building AI-powered applications, agents, and automations.
Experience
AI Application Engineer
Orbital | Self-employed Apr 2025 – Present
- Building AI-powered applications, agents, and automations that accelerate product delivery and drive meaningful outcomes.
- Focused on Agentic UI and bringing AI into applications.
- Integrate APIs, data models, and eval harnesses for reliable document intelligence, workflow augmentation, and autonomous agents.
Principal Frontend Engineer
Darwinium | Full-time Sep 2022 – Apr 2025
- Led development of the fraud detection frontend, UI, dashboards, and data visualization.
- Shaped engineering practices for modern React state management, UI and data visualization libraries, and CSS modules.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver business-critical solutions.
Digital Architect & Head of Software
Syft Technologies | Full-time May 2018 – Sep 2022
- Responsible for the end-to-end process of driving, building, and improving Syft’s Digital Infrastructure and Digital Strategy.
- Led the development and implementation of the software strategy, building and growing strong teams.
- Architected and re-architected monolithic products into layered architectures using modern application approaches (cloud, services, messaging).
- Established core Data and Instrument platform teams and delivered a production-ready Data Platform on AWS.
- Active developer in full-stack applications using React, GraphQL, AWS Amplify, and Next.js.
Principal Engineer
Wynyard, Cognevo, & Telstra | Full-time Aug 2014 – Apr 2018
- Served as Principal Engineer and Application Architect for multiple technology companies, focusing on frontend and UI architecture.
- Led the development of data visualization frontends for security products using a modern stack, including React, Redux, and GraphQL.
- Developed reusable UI components and designed application APIs to allow end-user configuration of the frontend.
- Actively drove the adoption of GraphQL as a core part of the tech stack.
- Provided technical expertise and consulting services to internal product development teams, including code reviews and architecture design.
Skills
- Frontend: React, Next.js, TypeScript, CSS, GraphQL, TanStack, AntD, AntV (G2, G6)
- Backend: Node.js, AWS, DynamoDB, Postgres
- AI: AI SDK, Mastra, LangGraph, Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Education
BSc Eng (Electronics) University of Cape Town
Example Projects
Examples of the applications I've built:
- Deep Search: Production-grade search app with evals, observability, and prompt management.
- Darwinium Frontend: Fraud detection UI with interactive dashboards and network graphs.
- Syft Instrument Health: Mass Spectrometry instrument performance monitoring.
- Mersen R-TOOLS MAXX: Heat sink design and thermal simulation tool.