Skip to content

About  ·  Dave Hudson

I build software, shape the work and stay close to the product.

A Senior Contract AI Product Engineer with a frontend bias, full-stack depth and more than twenty years of experience turning uncertain product ideas into working software.

Discuss a contractView my LinkedIn profile, opens in a new tab

Where I sit

The useful overlap between product thinking, interface engineering and modern AI-assisted delivery.

  1. 01

    Frontend by instinct.

    React, TypeScript and Tailwind are where I move fastest. I care about composition, interaction quality and the architecture beneath both.

  2. 02

    Full-stack in practice.

    I use Node.js and Convex when the product needs a complete vertical slice, especially in small teams and greenfield work.

  3. 03

    AI-native.

    Claude Code and Codex speed up the work. Product context, narrow scope, tests, visible checks and human-controlled MCP workflows keep it honest.

HOW I WORK WITH AI

AI is core to how I engineer.

I use Claude Code and Codex throughout the work. Product context and agreed scope guide each task. Tests, visible checks and human approval decide whether it ships.

DELIVERY WORKFLOW

2 LOOPS
  1. 01IntentHUMAN
  2. 02ContextTOOLS
  3. 03BuildAGENT
  4. 04EvidenceCHECKS
  5. 05ApproveHUMAN
CHECKS → BUILDAPPROVAL → CONTEXT

WORKING SETUP

MCP-connected planning and design Context from the team's existing tools Tests, QA and human approval

Writing from the work

The thinking behind the workflow.

What changes when agents write more of the code, and what engineering discipline still has to do.

View all writing

Selected timeline

More than twenty years, condensed.

The through-line is consistent: understand the product, make the architecture legible and help a small team ship it.

  1. Founded Applification Ltd

    Founded in 2003, Applification is still the business through which I deliver my contract work.

    Early clients included bet365, Department of Health, Newcastle Business School, University of York, Sunderland Council and Entrepreneurs Forum.

  2. Mobile product teams

    Mobile engineering and delivery leadership for TUI, Le Boat, Chubb Travel and the British Army. Appcelerator Titanium and Node.js APIs, with React Native later.

  3. Scrum Master at HMRC

    Scrum Master for a co-located team of 17 delivering tax repayments, company car, medical benefits and tax estimation services. Introduced mob programming, user story mapping, ATDD/BDD and example mapping to improve delivery.

  4. Secure government work

    Security-cleared frontend delivery for Cabinet Office, MoD and other government agencies. Senior Engineer, then Scrum Master and Tech Lead at Surevine.

  5. Health tech

    Built Pando Access and rebuilt Peppy Admin to support clinicians’ day-to-day work. Delivered the Pando Access prototype in four weeks, then architected its Next.js application. At Peppy, replaced tightly coupled screens with reusable components, a Storybook design system and automated tests.

  6. Recruitment platform

    Sole frontend ownership of Client Server’s recruitment platform, building it in three months and taking it to production after four.

  7. Principal Engineer

    Full-time at Logically from October 2024 to May 2026. Rebuilt the frontend in Next.js, then co-built Agentic Chat for threat analysts with AI SDK UI, MCP and Databricks tools.

  8. Released products and AI research

    Now

    Contexture and Voiced are live, open-source products. astack remains in development, alongside AI product research at Applification.

The work I am looking for

Contract roles only. Remote by default; North East hybrid considered.

Best fit

A small team with a product to shape.

  • Greenfield or architectural reset
  • React, TypeScript and Tailwind
  • AI product interfaces and agent workflows
  • Direct access to product decisions

Deliberate focus

AI product engineering, not data science consultancy.

I build LLM-enabled products, coding-agent loops, MCP integrations and the interfaces that make them usable. I focus on hands-on web product engineering, not specialist Python, RAG or big-data consultancy. I take on contract work rather than permanent roles.

Credentials

Scrum Master and Product Owner certifications awarded in 2015, expired in 2019. Previously held government security clearance for relevant engagements.