Resume | Dani Akash

About

I am a passionate software engineer dedicated to creating exceptional products. With a track record as a founding engineer for two successful products, I have contributed to multiple open-source libraries, delivered talks at various conferences, and continuously explored new languages, libraries, and frameworks to stay at the forefront of software development.

Skills

Front-End Development: Extensive experience with React and its ecosystem, including tools like Next.js, Expo, React Router, shadcn/UI, TanStack libraries, and Radix UI.
Styling: Skilled in building products using Tailwind CSS and CSS-in-JS tools such as Linaria and Styled Components.
Build Tools: Proficient in managing complex bundler configurations using Webpack and Vite, with hands-on experience in other bundlers like Rollup, Parcel, and Rspack.
Mobile Development: Developed a cross-platform Android and iOS app using React Native (Pickyourtrail), which has garnered over 100k downloads.
State Management: In-depth knowledge of state management using Redux, Zustand, and React Query, with experience experimenting with alternatives like Signals, XState, and Nano Stores.
Rendering Techniques: Familiar with diverse rendering methods like SSR, SSG, ISR, Server Components, and Streaming SSR. Actively experimenting with these methods on Vercel. (Check out my talk on rendering patterns)
Microservices & Serverless Architecture: Built microservices deployed on AWS Lambda via Serverless Stack, and developed smart edge middleware using Cloudflare Workers. Experienced with Vercel’s API Routes and Edge Middleware.
Framework Experimentation: Enthusiastic about exploring new frameworks and tools, with hands-on experience using Svelte, Solid, Astro, Remix, Qwik, and more.
JavaScript Runtimes: Knowledgeable in alternative JavaScript runtimes like Deno and Bun, and closely tracking updates from WinterCG.
API Design: Strong understanding of REST and GraphQL, with experience using libraries such as Relay, urql, and tools from The Guild.

Work Experience

Clarifai — Senior Frontend Engineer, Remote

OCT 2023 - present (1 year)

Clarifai is an AI platform that helps users build complex AI workflows by combining various models.

Key Contributions:

Developed Clarifai Node.js SDK: Created a fully tested, typesafe SDK for integrating Clarifai into Node.js backends. Used Typedoc to generate API documentation from source code, ensuring the docs stay in sync with the latest updates on source code.
Building AI Workflow Builder: Spearheaded the development of a drag-and-drop workflow builder using React Flow and shadcn/UI, one of Clarifai’s core features.
Managed API Documentation: Set up Swagger-based API documentation for gRPC APIs using grpc-gateway, making it easier for developers to navigate. Created detailed code snippets for core SDK functionalities like dataset management.
Optimized Release and Documentation Processes: Established an automated release process with changelog updates, implemented SEO best practices, and integrated analytics for our docs website.

Wundergraph — Senior Software Engineer, Remote

Apr 2023 - Sep 2023 (6 months)

Wundergraph provides a GraphQL gateway for managing federated GraphQL, positioned as an alternative to Apollo Federation. Despite a brief tenure due to financial difficulties in the company, I made significant contributions.

Key Contributions:

Developed Client SDKs: Created client SDKs for Svelte, Relay, and Expo, which were well-documented, tested, and widely adopted by customers.
Open Previews: Built an internal tool similar to Vercel’s preview comments feature. It used GitHub PR comments as a key-value store to manage comment positions, which we later open-sourced.
Community Engagement: Participated in Show & Tell videos on YouTube to demo my work and actively engaged with the community on Discord.

OSlash — Lead Frontend Engineer, Bangalore, India

DEC 2020 - MAR 2023 (2 years and 3 months)

Started as the founding lead engineer for the OSlash Chrome extension, later promoted to Engineering Manager after the successful delivery of v1.

Key Contributions:

Chrome Extension Development: Led the development of OSlash’s Chrome extension from inception to launch.
Full-Stack Development: Used Next.js as a full-stack framework (React & Node) for the main dashboard and implemented Astro for performance-critical micro frontends using Islands Architecture.
Design System: Developed and maintained a custom design system using Tailwind CSS.
GraphQL Federation: Designed a serverless GraphQL federation with features like edge caching, authorization, rate limiting, and comprehensive error/metrics visibility.

Pickyourtrail — Software Engineer, Chennai, India

OCT 2017 - DEC 2020 (3 years)

Pickyourtrail is a digital travel assistant. I played a key role in building its mobile app and advancing the tech stack.

Key Contributions:

Mobile App Development: Built the Pickyourtrail mobile app for both Android and iOS using React Native, earning a 5-star rating on Google Play with over 25k downloads. (currently 100k downloads)
TypeScript Integration: Led the successful integration of TypeScript into the existing web app, improving code quality and maintainability.
Open Source Contributions: Actively contributed to the tech community by open-sourcing modules created for the app in React Native Toolkit.

Redblacktree — Software Engineer, Chennai, India

NOV 2016 - OCT 2017 (1 year)

Key Contributions:

Cross-Platform App Development: Developed two cross-platform mobile apps using React Native with full offline functionality.
Windows App Development: Built a Windows app for the Universal Windows Platform, published on the Windows Store, using a custom React.js-based framework.
Collaboration & Research: Assisted teams on projects built with Node.js and Vue.js while researching JavaScript development improvements.

doodleblue — Web Developer, Chennai, India

FEB 2016 - NOV 2016 (10 months)

Key Contributions:

Full-Stack Development: Led the development of full-stack applications using Laravel and built APIs for web and mobile apps. Also managed complex databases with MySQL.
Team Leadership: Promoted to team lead for a company-wide initiative to adopt React.js, React Native, Laravel, and Node.js across multiple projects.

Contribution to the Developer Community

Speaker in many public meetups & conferences

As a part of my efforts to share my learnings with the community. All my talks are available on my website.

Contributor to the official React Native Docs

I have written the updated documentation to many components of the new react native docs (Animated, PanResponder etc)

Open Source Projects @ github.com/daniakash

Have built many useful projects for the React & React Native community such as BetterImage, Rex State, Responsive Dimensions etc. More interesting libraries are under development.

Author of JavaScript By Example (2017)

Published by PACKT

EDUCATION

Jeppiaar Engineering College — BE Computer Science & Engineering

2012 - 2016, Chennai

Active participant in IEEE student council and Computer Society of India student team, helping with building websites for events and actively organizing contests and symposiums.