I build things for the web.
Sometimes they even work.

Lead Engineer. Co-founder. Ships fast, breaks things responsibly.

About

I'm an Irish software engineer who moved to Amsterdam a couple of years ago and never looked back. I've spent 10+ years building web apps, mostly in Angular and TypeScript, for companies like IBM, Fidelity Investments, and now Yellowtail Conclusion.

On the side, I co-founded Simplicity Labs, where we're building AI-powered products. Currently deep into AI-assisted development with Claude Code, Cursor, and agentic workflows. Building tools that make engineers faster.

When I'm not writing code, I'm rating hot sauces with unnecessary seriousness, rewatching Futurama, or convincing myself that this side project will be the one I actually finish.

Experience

Not a CV. More of a story arc.

🏗️

Act I: The Foundation

IBM & Enterprise Ireland · 2013 – 2016

Started in enterprise. Built with AngularJS, Python, and Java. Cut my teeth on real software at scale and figured out that I actually liked this stuff.

AngularJSPythonJavaJavaScriptEnterpriseGalway

📈

Act II: The Growth

Fidelity Investments · 2016 – 2022

Six years in FinTech. Built things that handled actual money (terrifying). Became the go-to UI voice, drove global initiatives, and helped architect the move to Nx. Spent most of my time modernising legacy codebases and championing Angular across the org.

AngularTypeScriptNxFinTechSecurityArchitecture

🚀

Act III: The Leap

Amsterdam · Yellowtail · Simplicity Labs · 2022 – Present

Moved to Amsterdam and levelled up from Senior FE to Lead Engineer. Now the AI Lead for Yellowtail's business unit, shipping POCs in 6 weeks with AI-assisted development. Built enterprise pension reporting from scratch (Angular v20, signals, zoneless). Went full stack across Vue, React, Hono, NestJS, TanStack. Co-founded Simplicity Labs to build and ship AI-powered products.

Lead EngineerAI LeadClaude CodeFull StackVueReactHonoAmsterdamCo-founder

Skills

📦 package.json

{
  "name": "ronan-connolly",
  "version": "35.0.0-rc.1",
  "description": "Lead Software Engineer. Runs on caffeine and opinions.",
  "location": "Amsterdam, NL",
  "dependencies": {
    "angular": "^11 years",
    "typescript": "^9 years",
    "javascript": "^12 years",
    "node.js": "^8 years",
    "ai-agents": "^2 years",
    "vue": "^2 years",
    "react": "^1 year",
    "css/tailwind": "^10 years",
    "python": "^3 years",
    "docker": "^5 years",
    "postgresql": "^6 years",
    "git": "^12 years"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "astro": "^1 year",
    "bun": "^1 year"
  },
  "peerDependencies": {
    "hot-sauce": "∞",
    "futurama-quotes": "∞",
    "strong-opinions": "^10 years"
  }
}

Projects

Things I'm building (and occasionally finishing).

🧪

Simplicity Labs

AI-powered products that actually solve problems. Co-founded and shipping real tools.

AITypeScriptCo-founder

View → ⚗️

Distil

AI-powered idea validation. Stress-tests your business idea with structured discovery questions, then scores it across problem clarity, solution potential, and maturity.

AIHonoReactSaaS

View → 🔥