Cristiane Silva
I'm a senior software engineer focused on design systems and the platform foundations other engineers build on, most recently at Leonardo.Ai, a Canva company.
Based in Vancouver, BC, or working remotely.
Experience
-
Leonardo.Ai, a Canva company
A generative AI platform for images and video.
- Helped found Codex, Leonardo's design system, and stayed a core contributor. I defined the Storybook structure, wrote the contribution guidelines, started a fortnightly design system sync and mentored new teammates.
- Made the codebase easier for AI coding agents to work in, by writing design-system rules for compound components, Storybook guidance for agents, and a reusable skill for improving the agent setup.
- Helped migrate the app from Chakra UI to Tailwind, shadcn/ui and Radix, upgraded Storybook to v9, and coached teammates through the post-rebrand theme cleanup in PR reviews.
- With my team, built the unified AI image and video generation experience over six months, replacing several legacy routes and carrying it through the Canva migration. My scope covered the model selector, image and video modes, settings persistence, model restrictions, and the experience for public and signed-in users. Handed it over to another team through documentation, knowledge-sharing sessions and ongoing support.
- Helped build Model Matrix, a schema-driven system for configuring AI models, from its early days. I wrote its documentation, coached teammates on using it, helped migrate legacy models onto it, and built a proof of concept for a new model style.
- Moved state management from a monolithic Redux store to form state built with composition patterns, and revamped the sign-in, sign-up and log-out flows.
- Reviewed 847 pull requests in a year, patched critical security vulnerabilities in Next.js and React, and fixed production regressions and accessibility problems such as lost keyboard focus.
-
Neon
- Led the front-end team building an HR system.
- Designed and built the internal design system with Chakra UI, Storybook and TypeScript.
- Integrated GraphQL and Apollo Client for type-safe data handling.
- Wrote documentation and setup guides to speed up developer onboarding.
-
Starling Minds
A digital mental health platform.
- Built and maintained an accessible mobile app with Vue.js and Cordova.
- Added authentication and API integrations for personalized user flows.
- Introduced automated testing.
About
I started out as a UI designer and moved into frontend engineering, and I still care a lot about how things look and feel. At Leonardo.Ai, I helped build Codex, the design system, and the platform foundations other engineers build on, including making the codebase easier for AI coding agents to work in.
I care about consistency, accessibility and code that stays easy to maintain, and I try to build those into the shared tools so every team gets them. I also mentored teammates, helped govern the design system, and worked with the platform group on raising engineering standards.
I'm a big fan of great developer experience, good design and dog photos. Outside of work, I love knitting and reading fantasy. Show me your dog!
- Tools
- React, JavaScript, TypeScript, Next.js and GraphQL.