From Craft to Velocity: My LinkedIn Pivot to AI Design Engineer
In January 2024 I kept two calendars. One tracked client deliveries in Figma, Python, Frappe, and hand-written Telegram bots. One tracked hours I spent waiting on myself: redrawing variants, wiring forms, copying copy between files. A landing took three weeks from brief to live. I billed it fixed price and absorbed the wait.
In March 2024 I shipped the same landing in four days. Same brief, same stack, added Flux and ComfyUI for imagery, a local LLM for copy drafts, and MCP servers that let the model read my Supabase and write components. I did not change the promise. I changed the tool chain. My profile still said Senior Full Stack Designer. My delivery said something else. I updated LinkedIn to AI Design Engineer that week.
Screenshot: Trello board 2024-03-15 to 2024-03-19 shows 28 cards moved from Brief to Live, 4 days, 3 review loops. Toggl report: 18.5 hours total.
What fifteen years gave me
I started in 2010 with Photoshop to HTML, then Figma to React, then Python and Frappe for back offices where clients track orders and money. I learned to own the full loop: interface, copy, analytics, Meta creatives, video cut, and the deploy that puts it live. I learned to price fixed and revise without limit until the owner says it looks right. Those years taught me where projects stall: handoffs between design and code, copy that never ships, and deploys that need a call.
I kept that loop. I shortened it. The five moves I built on that loop are in Blue Ocean for a Senior Designer in 2026: Five Moves.
What Vibe Coding changed
Vibe Coding for me means one person directs four helpers: Figma for layout, v0 for component drafts, Supabase for data and auth, Telegram for quick client approvals, and a local LLM that drafts copy and prompt variants on my machine before anything goes live. Flux and ComfyUI render the hero art that once waited on a shoot. MCP servers let the model read the content table, propose a page, and write it back as code I review. Months became weeks, weeks became days. On recent landings I measure 50 to 70 percent less time from brief to cache invalidation. One person with four helpers still covers three jobs, and I map them in Staff Your AI Initiative: Three Roles That Ship.
How I write the profile now
My LinkedIn now reads: AI Design Engineer 2024 to present. Focus: Vibe Coding 50 to 70 percent faster delivery, MCP servers, local LLMs, from Figma to production. Before that: Senior Full Stack 2010 to 2023. Focus: end to end, Figma to code, product architecture, MVP. Skills I list match what I ship with: Figma and UX, GenAI with Flux and ComfyUI and strong prompt work, Python and Frappe and Vibe Coding, product architecture and MVP. Interests that stay: GenAI, agentic workflows, nomad life in Thailand, open source. I do not claim speed as theory. I show the board. The profile also brings visitors, and I rank the channels that still worked in 2026 in Free Traffic in 2026: What Actually Works.
The check I use before I keep speed
Speed without taste ships junk. Every Vibe pass ends the same: I review the copy out loud, I click the page on a phone, I run the form with a real email. One of the four helpers writes. I sign. Clients learn the cadence fast: async on Trello, no calls, fixed price, daily Loom when I move cards. They see progress, not meetings.
What I ask you to copy
Pick one delivery and run it twice: once your old way, once with one helper. Time both. Keep the helper that cuts your loop. Update your title when your calendar proves it. My calendar proved it in March.