Maren
Cole
Creative developer with a photographer's eye and an engineer's rigour. 7 years building interfaces people love to use.

Portland, Oregon
Available for freelance
I believe in the details — the micro-interaction, the perfect line-height, the 4 ms animation curve.
My path into tech started at an art school, studying visual communication. That foundation shapes everything: when I reach for a typeface or space a layout, it comes from intuition honed by years of studying how humans perceive the visual world.
Since 2018, I've worked across agencies and product companies, building everything from campaign microsites to large-scale design systems. The thread connecting all of it is a conviction that code and craft are not separate disciplines — the best interfaces emerge when they're treated as one.
When I step away from the screen, I carry a film camera through the forests and coastlines of the Pacific Northwest. Photography has taught me to see light, composition, and negative space in ways that quietly influence every interface I make.
I'm currently open to senior and lead frontend roles as well as select freelance projects. If what you're building deserves to be beautiful, let's talk.
Tools & Craft
Frontend
- React 19
- TypeScript
- TanStack Router
- Vite
- Next.js
Styling
- Tailwind CSS
- CSS Architecture
- Design Tokens
- Radix UI
- Framer Motion
Backend
- Node.js
- Netlify Functions
- REST APIs
- GraphQL
- PostgreSQL
Craft
- Figma
- Motion Design
- Typography
- Accessibility
- Performance
Experience
2022 – Now
Senior Frontend Engineer
Meridian Studio
Leading design-system architecture and cross-functional front-end for a SaaS platform used by 40k+ teams.
2020 – 2022
Frontend Developer
Coldwater Agency
Built campaign microsites and interactive data visualisations for Fortune 500 clients.
2018 – 2020
UI Engineer
Initech Solutions
Shipped accessible React component libraries and led performance audits across legacy product suite.
2017 – 2018
Design Intern
Foundry Creative
Prototyped and iterated on mobile-first interfaces using Figma and vanilla CSS.