Oscar te Giffel®

Freelance · Senior Fullstack Engineer

Finding meaning in code, life and humans.

I'm a fullstack engineer, freelance since 2023. The paid work is mostly React, TypeScript and Kotlin for large Dutch organisations like DPG Media and KVK: codebases that have been around for a decade and will be around for another one. Off the clock it's Go, Rust, Zig and Swift, a homelab in Terraform, and side projects that solve a real problem for me or my family.

What you get is someone who still cares about the code after the sprint ends. I'll tell you when a shortcut costs more than it saves, and I'll leave the codebase in a state your next hire can pick up.

Right now

Helping organizations adopt AI end-to-end.

Most teams already have AI writing some of their code. Fewer have it anywhere else. On my own projects every change starts as a spec in Linear; an agent turns it into a branch and a pull request, a second agent reviews it, and I read what comes back before anything merges. I built the tooling that makes that work, from the review skills to a Linear agent you can @mention on an issue.

I help teams get there: where to let the agent run, where to keep a person in the loop, and how to keep understanding code you didn't type. I do my best work with people who talk plainly. Little ego, no politics, and honest feedback in both directions.

Experience.

2023 — Present · Freelance

Senior Frontend Developer · DPG Media

Started as a Senior Developer for the Publishing Services; became the person teams across the company reach out to for a second opinion on code, vision and architecture. Introduced React best practices and frontend development as a whole.

  • Legacy migration — led the Javascript → React transition for pages and embeds in articles with emphasis developer experience.
  • Guardrail for quality — gatekeeper for the React and UI repositories

React · Next.js
TypeScript · Kotlin

2023 · via HeadFWD

Senior Fullstack Developer · Polariks

Building the frontend for a greenhouse data platform — tuning GraphQL and caching to handle large datasets.

React · TypeScript
GraphQL · NestJS

2021 — 2023 · via HeadFWD

Senior Frontend Developer · KVK

Leading frontend across seven services used by every Dutch business — introduced DDD and started the move to microservices.

React · TypeScript
Redux · xState

Projects.

Side projects double as my lab each one solves a real problem for myself or my family.

01 In developmentJustWhisk previewJustWhiskOnline recipes buried under blog stories, and grandma's family recipes stuck on paper. Building a place that fixes both.TanStack Start · React · Convex · TypeScript02 In developmentBlackjack Learner previewBlackjack LearnerA practice tool for learning basic strategy and card counting.SolidJS · TypeScript

Roadmap.

Currently learning / building.

  • 01

    Termzig

    Building a terminal emulator in Zig.

  • 02

    OpenGL & Graphics

    Exploring WebGL and graphics programming.

  • 03

    Data Structures & Algorithms

    Deepening fundamentals in algorithms and problem solving.

Coming upC/C++ & SystemsAssemblyOperating Systems & EmbeddedFollow the progress on GitHub ↗

Taste.

All 34 verses →

Writing.

All posts →
26 May 2026Cognitive DebtClean code you can't explain is a worse problem than messy code that works.19 Mar 2026Third SpacesWe optimized connection out of our lives, then started paying to get it back.04 Mar 2026Where Does It Belong?The one question that separates senior engineers from everyone else.01 Mar 2025The Good Enough ApproachSometimes 'good' is enough.31 Jan 2025Taking the StairsAn ode to taking the harder path in life as an investment in personal growth.