Brandon Bradley

Hello World

My journey began at Zigzag Surfing Magazine, one of the world's longest-running surfing publications. As a passionate twenty-something surfer eager to break into media, this was a dream opportunity.

It was 2006, the Media 2.0 revolution was in full swing, and my mission was to take the iconic print magazine deeper into digital. The role was hands-on, involving everything from content strategy to building web platforms using open-source technologies—PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

WildWeb Adventures

After five incredible years at Zigzag, I had explored both my technical and creative talents while establishing a solid foundation in digital media. Meanwhile, my horizons were shifting — outside of work, I got married and started a family.

Life in media was exciting, but I found myself increasingly drawn to the technical side of my role. In 2011, I made the leap and joined WildWeb as a Fullstack Web Developer.

WildWeb is a boutique digital agency specializing in the tourism sector. We built websites and applications for airlines, safari operators, and high-end lodges. Over the next five years, I gained confidence as a web developer, working across the entire technical stack. This role deepened my expertise in coding pipelines, DevOps, web security, and RESTful APIs.

Perspective Changes When You Have Kids!

After welcoming our second child, my wife and I began exploring the idea of moving to New Zealand. To improve my chances of finding international opportunities, I specialized as a Frontend Web Developer, joining Jellyfish, a multinational digital agency with offices in the USA, Europe, and Africa. Although my time at Jellyfish was less than a year, it was an invaluable experience. I worked alongside marketers, developers, and creatives on projects for global clients, all within an Agile development environment.

Then, an incredible opportunity arose — I was offered the position of Technical Lead / Developer at Digital Journey, a growing digital agency in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Kia Ora, Aotearoa

With an exciting future ahead, our young family made the move to New Zealand's South Island.

At Digital Journey, I led all product development and scaled hosting services for website clients. As the head of the technical division, I gained deeper experience in leadership, project management, technical architecture, DevOps, and product lifecycles. One of my most rewarding experiences was mentoring a team of creatives and developers, helping them grow in their careers.

Kathmandu - We Are Out There!

In 2022, I joined Kathmandu's Digital Team, working closely with the UX team. As a huge fan of the outdoors—one of the key reasons I moved to New Zealand—I couldn't turn down the opportunity to work for such an iconic adventure brand.

My role focused on Frontend development, innovation, and optimization for the e-commerce website. My background in design, UI, and frameworks like Vue and React helped me get my foot in the door.

Over the past two years, I've had the privilege of working alongside specialists in a highly collaborative environment. This experience has expanded my expertise in SEO, analytics, UX, testing, and real-time user monitoring, further strengthening my skill set.