Storefronts for Barnes & Noble, Netflix, and SKIMS. A Shopify app, a map app for iOS, Android, and web, a game calculator, and the AI agent on this page. I'm Alex Medina, a senior engineer in Long Beach, CA: front end first, full stack when it counts, and I design, too.
At SDG, 2022 to 2026
Most recently, big commerce builds for brands you've probably shopped: headless React sites on Hydrogen, custom themes, and custom apps, all on Shopify. Before that, web apps, marketing sites, and servers for startups and agencies.
React and APIs
Built custom React components, wired in Sanity CMS and the membership and rewards APIs, and made the front end and back end faster.
Templates and nav
Built custom product and collection templates, updated the header navigation, and fixed bugs.
First on Hydrogen
Helped build and launch SKIMS on Hydrogen, making it the first enterprise brand on Shopify's headless framework.
Shopping UI
Helped build the custom UI behind product pages, collections, and the cart.
Product to cart
Worked on the team building custom product pages, collection grids, and cart components for the Design Store.
Store locations
Worked on product, collection, and cart pages, and built and updated landing pages for store locations.
Custom app
Co-built a custom Shopify app for creating and managing QR gift codes, plus product, collection, and cart UI.
Loyalty apps
Helped connect the store to Indigo's loyalty program with custom Shopify apps, and worked on shopping UI from product page to cart.
Designed and built on my own
Products and tools I took from idea to launch myself, from mobile apps to a Shopify app and a board game calculator.
iOS, Android, and web app. Founder, designer, and developer, 2015 to now.
Search for a few things at once, like coffee, tacos, and a park, and see them all on one map. I rebuilt my 2016 web app as a cross-platform Expo and React Native app for iOS, Android, and web. It runs on Google Places, Mapbox, and Apple MapKit behind a Cloudflare Workers API with cost limits.
Shopify app
Tells wholesale brands when a shop is overdue to reorder. It learns each account's usual rhythm from its orders, flags the quiet ones, and drafts the email that brings them back, with a cart link that rebuilds the last order.
Web app
Compares two loadouts for the Zombicide board game and shows which one is more likely to clear a zone. Every weapon from the core box, survivor skills, and re-rolls, worked out with real probability math in plain JavaScript.
Large custom Shopify builds, both headless (Hydrogen) and Liquid, plus custom Shopify apps, for Barnes & Noble, Netflix, SKIMS, Glossier, MoMA, Peet's Coffee, HAUS Labs, and Indigo. React, Node, TypeScript, and Remix, with AI-assisted workflows.
Marketing sites, WordPress themes, and React and PHP web apps, mostly for real estate and land management clients. I ran the DigitalOcean Ubuntu servers and moved them from Ubuntu 14 to 18 with zero downtime.
Helped shape the features, UX, data model, and design of a web annotation app, front end and back end. Also built for Mideo Systems and Film Solutions as a contractor.
Built features from designs and fixed bugs in jQuery and React.
Startup work, from custom Facebook pages for local businesses to 1smartmenu, an online ordering menu builder for restaurants.
React, TypeScript, Remix, Vue, HTML, CSS, SCSS, and Tailwind.
Hydrogen, Liquid, custom apps, and Flow. Certified in Developing Apps for Shopify and Liquid Storefronts for Theme Developers.
Node, PHP, SQL, and WordPress. Cloudflare Workers, Oracle Cloud, DigitalOcean, Ubuntu, and Apache2.
Claude and Codex every day. I also built alxdnAI, the agent in the corner of this page, on a self-hosted open model with tools, guardrails, and evals.
UI and product design for Maps On Maps and this site, including the design systems and light and dark themes.
I drew and painted all through school, so I started college in visual art. Music pulled me toward jazz guitar, and a bandmate started teaching me web development on the side. I transferred to CSUF for music, switched to computer science, then left to build for the web full-time.
That was 14 years ago. Since then I've shipped web apps, marketing sites, mobile apps, and commerce for startups, agencies, and in-house teams, and I keep building my own projects on the side.
Jump into the Then/Now block from below to switch.
