Tania Papazafeiropoulou

Senior Front-End Engineer & Tech Lead

[email protected]•United Kingdom / Greece

Front-End Engineer with 10+ years of experience building and leading scalable React and React Native applications. Strong focus on architecture, performance, accessibility, and developer experience. Comfortable operating as both a senior IC and a front-end tech lead.

I'm most comfortable where product complexity meets real users.

Where I add the most value

  • Shipping complex front-end systems

    Building React and React Native applications that handle real-world workflows, edge cases, and scale without becoming brittle.

  • Front-end architecture & maintainability

    Designing predictable UI patterns, managing complex state and async data, and keeping large codebases easy to evolve.

  • Performance & accessibility

    Improving runtime performance, accessibility and reliability through thoughtful UI design, refactoring and monitoring.

  • Hands-on leadership & cross-functional collaboration

    Leading by example through pairing, code reviews and day-to-day implementation, while working closely with product, design, backend and operations to turn complex, messy requirements into clear, usable solutions.

AI Experience

  • Daily user of AI-assisted development tools for coding, debugging, documentation and repo-wide analysis
  • Support engineers in using AI confidently and safely
  • Strong interest in prompt engineering and improving developer workflows
  • Exploring how AI can support front-end applications and workflow automation

Experience

08/2023 — Current

Front-End Tech Lead

Olio

A growing B2C/B2B scale-up focused on food redistribution. Joined when the engineering team was <20; contributed across its growth to 100+ employees and millions of users.

  • Owned front-end direction across partner and volunteer platforms, balancing product needs, UX quality and maintainability.
  • Contributed to early planning and technical decisions, raising feasibility concerns and shaping approaches before delivery.
  • Led architectural work in complex React apps, simplifying scheduling/grouping logic and reducing edge cases.
  • Worked closely with product, design, operations and backend to turn real-world workflows into clear, maintainable UI solutions.
  • Helped extend volunteer support from Olio volunteers to charity volunteers, enabling new flows and broader operational use.
  • Prototyped new ideas during internal hackathons (partner platform, AI-assisted appointment planner) to validate concepts and inform next steps.
  • Improved performance, accessibility and reliability through refactoring, monitoring and reducing technical debt.
  • Mentored engineers through pairing and code reviews while remaining a strong IC, writing production code daily and unblocking teammates.
09/2018 — 08/2023

Senior Front-End Developer

Olio

  • Promoted from Mid-Level to Senior within 1 year based on performance.
  • Key contributor to Olio's React Native app, helping build and stabilise the product within months as part of a small team.
  • Delivered and maintained user-facing features across core app areas with a focus on performance and reliability.
  • Played a major role in migrating the Volunteers platform from Rails views to a React-based front end.
  • Expanded the Volunteers platform beyond the initial migration by designing and implementing new features and improving workflows.
  • Improved stability and maintainability by addressing long-standing issues and reducing technical debt.
  • Partnered with backend, product and support teams to prioritise work based on real user needs.
01/2017 — 01/2018

Front-End & App Developer

Esquared Technologies

  • Delivered features on an Angular2 app, working closely with founders and designers
01/2016 — 12/2017

Web Developer

Cult Beauty

  • Built UI features and improved performance for a high-traffic e-commerce site
01/2015 — 12/2016

Web Developer

IDG UK

  • Developed editorial and publishing tools for websites including PC Advisor, Macworld, ComputerWorld, Digital Arts Online and TechWorld
01/2014 — 12/2015

Junior Software Developer

Kantar Worldpanel

  • Built internal data tools and reporting automations

Education

09/2010

University of Patras

MEng: Computer Engineering & Informatics

08/2012

University of Edinburgh

MSc: Bioinformatics

Languages

GreekFirst Language
EnglishProficient (C2)
FrenchBeginner (A1)

Certifications

Completed Leadership Training: Human Leadership

July 2024

Interests

I enjoy dancing, running, swimming, watching movies and spending time with my dog, Mario.