Staff Frontend Engineer · UI/UX & HCI Designer

Carina Sylvester

I build thoughtful, accessible interfaces for complex products - and bring UI/UX, privacy, governance, security, and responsible AI into the engineering conversation.

Profile

Engineering with a wider lens

I’m a Staff Frontend Engineer at Vultr with an MS in Software Development and extensive experience in UI/UX and Human-Computer Interaction Design. Architecting and building compliant, secure, and human-centered applications is my forte.

Engineering depth

Frontend architecture, React systems, reusable UI, and accessible experiences.

UI/UX expertise

Research, interaction design, design systems, and a focus on real user outcomes.

Trust & resilience

Privacy, GRC, secure development, responsible AI, and investigative thinking.

Experience

Professional journey

  1. Staff Frontend Engineer

    Vultr

    Frontend architecture, scalable interface systems, accessibility, and cross-functional product delivery for cloud platform experiences.

  2. Senior Frontend Engineer

    Vultr

    Led and delivered customer-facing frontend work across complex cloud products.

  3. Frontend Engineer

    Vultr

    Built responsive product experiences and reusable UI patterns with React and modern web technologies.

  4. UI/UX Designer (Freelance)

    accesSOS

    Created human-centered product and interaction design as a freelance partner.

  5. 911 Operator-Dispatcher

    Cincinnati Police Department

    Five years of high-stakes communication, rapid prioritization, and public-safety operations.

Capabilities

Skills & knowledge

My multidisciplinary toolkit for building usable, trustworthy, and resilient products.

Software Engineering

Architecture, implementation, and experience quality.

  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Next.js
  • React Native
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Sass
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Node.js
  • Redux
  • Vue
  • Swift
  • Java
  • Python

UI/UX & HCI

Human-centered systems from research through delivery.

  • HCI
  • Accessibility
  • Design systems
  • Responsive design
  • Interaction design
  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Affinity
  • Pendo
  • Google Tag Manager

Privacy, GRC & Security

Trust, compliance, and secure product development.

  • Privacy by design
  • GDPR
  • CCPA/CPRA
  • Vendor risk
  • Data processing agreements
  • Breach response
  • Application security
  • OWASP Top 10
  • Threat modeling
  • DevSecOps
  • SBOMs
  • EU CRA
  • OSINT
  • Intelligence analysis

Artificial Intelligence

Applied AI with governance, safety, and human judgment in view.

  • AI governance
  • EU AI Act
  • AI privacy
  • Responsible AI
  • Secure AI/ML
  • Claude API
  • Prompt design
  • Human-AI interaction

Education & Credentials

Formal foundations, continuous learning

MS, Software Development

Maryville University - St. Louis, MO | 2022

BS, Psychology

Excelsior University - Albany, NY | 2020

GDPR Operational Practitioner

Privacy Practice Lab | 2026

EU AI Act Practitioner for Privacy Teams

Privacy Practice Lab | 2026

Developing Secure Software

The Linux Foundation | 2026

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Coach

Trace Labs | 2026

My broader credential library also covers global privacy operations, DevSecOps, software supply-chain security, AI governance, cloud, analytics, UX, and product delivery. View the complete list on LinkedIn.

Selected Work

Projects

nodal

Visual investigation and link-analysis application.

NanoPNG

Smart, secure, client-side PNG compression.

Typing Speed Test

A responsive typing speed test built with web fundamentals.

Tailwind Colors

An interactive Tailwind CSS color-palette viewer.

Vultr DC Locations

An unofficial interactive infrastructure explorer.