CV | Pete Watters

Engineer · Bitcoin & Web3 · Dublin, Ireland

Engineer building for the web for nearly 20 years, the last decade in crypto — delivering web and mobile applications across fintech and Web3. Plan it, build it, ship it. Deep expertise in React, TypeScript, Next.js and React Native, with hands-on production experience across the stack — Node.js, Express, CI/CD, architecture and developer tooling. Custodian of engineering quality, with a clear sense of what matters most — shipping products people use.

Skills

Front-End: TypeScript, React, Next.js, React Native, Redux
Server-side: Node.js, Express, Python, Ruby, Shell scripting
Web3 & Crypto: Bitcoin, Stacks, sBTC, wallet integration, MetaMask, WalletConnect
Tooling: CI/CD, Docker, Git, Cypress, Playwright, Maestro, Vitest, TDD, Cucumber, Unix, AI-assisted development (Claude Code, Codex)

Work Experience

Trust Machines · Senior Frontend Engineer July 2023 — Present · Remote

Contribute to the largest ecosystem of Bitcoin applications on the Stacks network. Actively maintain and enhance the Leather Web3 Bitcoin wallet as an open-source contributor.

Worked on the Hiro Wallet → Leather rebrand as a core team member — architected the mono-repo, built a shared Panda UI component library and implemented BIP key validation on the mnemonic login form — delivering a redesigned experience for over 8,400 monthly active extension users (62,000+ over six months).
Managed the end-to-end launch of the Leather mobile app from scratch using React Native and Expo, growing to over 1,850 monthly active users within three months on iOS and Android. Represented the team at the Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas.
Shipped the multi-chain NFT gallery in Leather (Stacks SIP-9 and Bitcoin ordinals, including video and audio playback) using an AI-assisted development workflow — accelerating delivery while maintaining the wallet’s review and testing standards.
Early AI-tooling adopter on the engineering team: established working patterns with Claude Code and Codex, contributing to CLAUDE.md and reusable skills that extended AI fluency across the team.

Qredo · Web3 Lead Developer Jan — Jun 2023 · Remote

Layer 2 decentralised custodian protocol for institutional private key management on a blockchain network.

Lead frontend developer for the Web3 wallet integration into Qredo’s rebranded institutional UI, using React, Redux Toolkit, Material UI and styled-components. Integrated MetaMask, WalletConnect and WebAPI to support secure client transactions on the Qredo network.
Developed a Node.js ETH transaction parser to present on-chain history in a human-readable format, improving compliance and operational transparency.

Kraken · Cryptowatch · Senior Frontend Engineer Aug 2020 — Nov 2022 · Remote

Cryptowatch was a widely used real-time charting and trading terminal in the crypto community, acquired by Kraken and later integrated into Kraken Pro. Supported millions of active traders across 25 exchanges and over 4,000 markets.

Developed the multi-exchange trading form, cockpit redesign and custom trade table and leverage slider components for the Cryptowatch trading team. Built high-traffic, mission-critical infrastructure with direct visibility to executive leadership.
Took over and rebuilt the frontend of Coderunner, a trading-automation tool, working alongside a backend developer — delivering an MVP in eight months using React, TypeScript and PostCSS with a custom dynamic form-generation system (replacing the prototype’s JSON-schema forms) supporting consistent field types such as market picker, asset-aware amount input and precision-aware currency handling.
Initiated a Cypress E2E testing framework for Cryptowatch as a side project. Won the company-wide Codebashing security challenge in 2020, placing first for expertise in client-side vulnerabilities and OWASP mitigations.

Xapo · Senior Frontend Engineer Nov 2017 — Apr 2020 · Remote

Fully remote global FinTech providing multi-currency digital wallets and Bitcoin custody services, serving over 1.5 million customers worldwide.

Designed a full-stack application blueprint — React, Next.js and Express — adopted as the company standard across multiple product teams.
Led the core product squad responsible for a comprehensive web platform redesign.
Built CI/CD infrastructure and E2E testing standards from the ground up, reducing manual QA overhead and accelerating release cycles.
Mentored engineers on testing practices and architecture patterns. Served as a technical bar-raiser during hiring across the engineering organisation and developed the hiring process.
Completed private blockchain engineering training, including live sessions with Andreas Antonopoulos and a multi-day Bitcoin programming course with Jimmy Song.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch · Senior Frontend Engineer May — Oct 2017 · On-site

One of the world’s largest financial institutions with $3+ trillion in assets under management.

Served as the Ember.js subject-matter expert and senior frontend engineer within a team of six, working across the stack with Python and Django to deliver investment performance tracking software.
Introduced automated acceptance testing (TDD/BDD with Cucumber) to the BAML frontend workflow, establishing it as the team standard. Mentored the team and delivered a series of technical presentations to elevate team quality standards.

Motocal · Rocksteady · Lead JavaScript Developer Apr 2016 — Mar 2017 · On-site

Web-based tool for custom decal manufacturing. Recruited to recover a failing legacy Ember.js and Fabric.js application.

Delivered the first stable production release in seven months, reducing test cycle time by 70%. Designed and implemented CI/CD with automated E2E testing (Docker, Webdriver.io, CasperJS) and automated deployment using Gitflow and custom Bash scripts.
Recruited and onboarded a team of two to replace the outgoing engineering team, reporting directly to the CEO and CTO.

Kontainers · Full-Stack Developer Jun 2015 — Apr 2016 · Remote

Ocean freight platform serving major global shipping brands. Later acquired by Descartes.

Recruited by the co-founder and CTO to lead the frontend product from inception to production (JavaScript, Ember.js, Ruby, CI/CD).

Fidelity Investments · UX Developer Jun 2014 — Jun 2015 · On-site

Global financial services corporation managing $11+ trillion in assets under management.

Responsible for building prototype fintech applications. Technical lead for an offshore development team, providing hands-on direction in the UK and India. Represented the engineering team during Enterprise Ireland R&D accreditation.

Earlier Career 2006 — 2014

Ad Technology Producer — Yahoo! (2013–2014) · UX Developer — eSpatial (2012–2013) · Operations Engineer — The Now Factory (2010–2012) · Technical Support / QA — Ocuco, IBM, Hewlett Packard (2006–2010)

Education

MEng Telecommunications Engineering · Dublin City University (DCU) · 2010

Awarded a master’s scholarship for academic performance and completed it remotely while working full-time. My thesis focused on research into academic performance analysis. I developed a Java web application using HighCharts and the Google Visualisation API to model performance data.