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Full-Stack Software Engineer

Remote · Eastern Time · Open to opportunities

I build reliable software for the moments that matter.

Portrait of Joshua Small: glasses, a top knot and a long full beard, wearing a black hoodie in front of glowing code editor screens.

Hi, I'm Joshua. TypeScript, React and Node.js engineer working on enterprise software used in emergency management. I build new products and modernize old ones, with AI as my pair programmer.

Why it matters

My advantage as a senior engineer isn't generating the most code. It's validating what gets generated, understanding the system it lands in, and deciding what should be automated at all.

  • ~2/3of developers now use coding assistants or agents
  • 31%of daily users spend four or more hours a day with them
  • <10%would trust AI with important decisions

Source: Stack Overflow developer survey of 30,903 developers, as reported by Business Insider.

About

Engineering with a focus on people and reliability.

I'm a full-stack engineer at Juvare, where I build and modernize software used in emergency-management environments. I turn complex operational requirements into maintainable features, from the UI through APIs, testing and CI/CD.

I architected a shared TypeScript and SCSS component library that unified several front-end libraries for federal implementations, then helped hand it off to a dedicated team to maintain.

AI has made code cheap to write. It hasn't made it cheap to know whether that code is right. I spend my effort there: validating what AI produces, understanding how the whole system fits together, and deciding which work is worth automating and which needs a person.

Before engineering, I ran teams and operations. That's why I think about how technical choices affect users, teams and business outcomes.

I work remotely from North Carolina and do my best work in my own environment. I'm on Eastern Time and looking for remote roles only.

Experience
6+ years in software
Currently
Juvare · 5 years
Focus
TypeScript · React · Node.js
Growing into
Cloud · DevOps · AI
Works
Remote · Eastern Time

When I'm away from the keyboard…

…this is who I am.

  • Photography

    Professional photographer and retoucher since 2010. I shoot with Nikon DSLRs and finish every image in Adobe Creative Suite.

    Visit site for Photography

  • Drums & audio

    I play drums, record music and run live audio. Engineering sound has taught me a lot about getting details right.

    Visit site for Drums & audio

  • Yak fishing

    Kayak fishing, or yak fishing. I grew up by the ocean, and water is my life.

  • Family

    I'm the husband to my wife, Maggie, and father to my three children.

Projects

Things I've built and shipped.

TaskForge

Live

A task manager built to run in production.

  1. Started before AI tools existed
  2. Modernized with ChatGPT and Codex
  3. Live in production today

Create an account, sign in and manage your own private tasks with priorities, due dates, status tracking, search and filters. Every day starts from a Command Center that shows what needs attention.

  • JWT auth with hashed passwords; every query is scoped to its owner
  • GitHub Actions runs format, lint, test, build and audit on every push
  • Runs on free tiers: Vercel, Render and MongoDB Atlas
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Express
  • MongoDB
  • Vercel
View live (opens TaskForge) Source codefor TaskForge

One Small JARVIS

Live

A personal second-brain dashboard and planner.

Links to my notes in Google Drive, pulls in calendar feeds and weather, and gives an at-a-glance view of the day. A planner view lays out tasks, today hour by hour, the week and the month on one screen.

  • Read-only Google Drive access, with a reader for notes and Docs
  • Calendar events from iCal feeds and tasks from Todoist, behind a private key
  • Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no build step, plus two Vercel functions
  • JavaScript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Google Drive API
  • Vercel Functions
View live (opens One Small JARVIS) Source codefor One Small JARVIS

OneSmallUI

In progress

My own UI framework.

A React component library with SCSS design tokens and a docs site with live examples and copyable code. Currently at v0.2.0.

  • Design tokens generate the SCSS maps and TypeScript theme in one build
  • Every token pair is checked against WCAG AAA contrast
  • Vitest and axe audits cover components and every docs page, light and dark
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • SCSS
  • Vitest
  • axe-core
  • Vercel
View live (opens OneSmallUI) Source codefor OneSmallUI

One Small Mods Pack

In progress

Claude Code mods that hold AI to a project's rules while it works.

Four mods, installable from one plugin marketplace, that check the code Claude writes as it writes it: accessibility, design tokens, quality gates and secret handling. Each failure goes back to Claude with the file, line and rule so it fixes the problem before moving on.

  • Automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every UI file Claude changes
  • Blocks hardcoded colors and spacing, naming the design token to use instead
  • Keeps Claude working until lint, type check and tests pass, and redacts secrets from what it reads
  • TypeScript
  • Claude Code
  • ESLint
  • axe-core
Source codefor One Small Mods Pack

More projects are on the way. Follow along on GitHub.

Skills

The tools I work with every day.

How I build

Building new. Modernizing old.

Modern development is two jobs: building new things with new tools, and bringing older software into the present. I do both, with AI as my pair programmer and me accountable for every line.

  • Build new

    This site, One Small JARVIS and OneSmallUI all started from a blank page. I design them, build them with Claude, then review, test and ship them myself. One Small Mods Pack goes a step further, with Claude Code mods that hold AI to a project's rules while it writes.

  • Modernize old

    At Juvare I modernize enterprise software used in emergency management. On my own time, TaskForge started before AI tools existed; I revived it with ChatGPT and Codex and took it to production.

My ground rules

  1. I own the design

    Architecture and trade-offs are my calls.

  2. AI drafts, I review

    Nothing ships unread.

  3. Automation guards quality

    Tests and CI run on every push.

  4. I decide what to automate

    Judgment calls stay with a person.

Contact

Let's talk.

I'm open to remote opportunities and happy to talk about AI, engineering or collaborating on something. Send a message and I'll reply by email.

  • Remote only
  • Based in North Carolina
  • Eastern Time (ET)