I’m a design engineer with 15+ years of experience. I help founders, startups and product teams explore, unpack and refine ideas, then ship carefully crafted products end to end.
I’ve honed my skills and judgement as founding designer at Altostrat, co-founder of Owners Circle, and design and development lead for Simvida, Imagemakers and Stream, alongside years of freelance work focused on helping teams ship with design systems.
Outside work, I love metal music, classic games, mountain biking, nature, beautiful drives and having fun with my wife and our son.
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A design engineer takes an idea from sketch to production code. I shape the product, design its interface and build the frontend, caring about performance, accessibility and the details people feel.
Early ideas that need a working prototype, complex products that need clearer interfaces, teams building or improving a design system, and projects where every detail deserves careful consideration. My work includes AI harnesses, AI agents at Altostrat, fintech at Simvida, and design systems for large logistic platforms, publishing and ecommerce.
I work closely with founders, designers and engineers. I sketch and prototype to explore options together, then carry our decisions into production code without losing the details. I work well remotely and asynchronously, with clear ownership and communication.
I’m always happy to hear about interesting products and meet the people building them. Email nico@vanzyl.co and tell me what you’re working on.
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