Not every front-end job is a React job. Agencies, design systems teams, e-commerce platforms and organisations with long-lived products often care more about CSS architecture, accessibility and how a page behaves on a mid-range Android phone than about which framework you last used.
A framework-neutral CV plays to that. It leads with the parts of the craft that transfer - layout, typography, the cascade, semantics, the network waterfall - and treats the framework as one line of context rather than the headline.
This example is written for a developer with around five years across agency and in-house work, applying to teams that value fundamentals over a specific stack.
Opens in the editor with this content already filled in, so you can replace it with your own.
Charlotte Evans
Front-End Developer · Accessibility & Performance
charlotte.evans@example.co.uk
+44 7700 900218
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
linkedin.com/in/example-charlotte-evans
charlotteevans.example.co.uk
Profile
Front-end developer with five years across agency and in-house teams, focused on accessible, fast interfaces. Recent work includes taking a booking journey to WCAG 2.2 AA after an external audit and a performance programme that cut Interaction to Next Paint on the busiest page by two thirds.
PerformanceCore Web Vitals, Lighthouse CI, WebPageTest, Critical CSS
Professional Experience
Senior Front-End DeveloperApril 2022 – Present
Thistle & Pine Studio · Edinburgh, United Kingdom
•Lead front-end on public sector and charity projects, where accessibility is contractual rather than aspirational.
•Took a national charity booking journey to WCAG 2.2 AA after an external audit: keyboard traps in the modal, live-region validation announcements and a full retest with NVDA.
•Brought Interaction to Next Paint on the category page from 420ms to 130ms by removing a synchronous analytics script and deferring the filter widget until first interaction.
•Built the studio design system in Web Components so it could be dropped into three client stacks without a rewrite.
•Run the fortnightly accessibility review and trained four developers to use a screen reader properly.
TypeScript · CSS · Web Components · Astro
Front-End DeveloperJanuary 2020 – March 2022
Marchgate Digital · Glasgow, United Kingdom
•Delivered eleven client sites, from a five-page brochure to a 400-product catalogue.
•Replaced a Bootstrap theme with a token-based Sass architecture, which cut CSS shipped on the homepage from 240 KB to 38 KB.
•Introduced Lighthouse CI to the build so performance regressions were caught before client review rather than after launch.
Sass · JavaScript · React · Lighthouse CI
Selected Work
Coastal Trust booking journey
Lead front-end developer
•Five-step booking flow used by around 90,000 visitors a year, built with progressive enhancement so it works without JavaScript.
•Independently audited to WCAG 2.2 AA with no outstanding issues at handover.
Marchgate design system
Author
•Twenty-two components in Web Components with documented tokens, used across three client projects.
Education
BA (Hons) Digital DesignSeptember 2016 – June 2019
Edinburgh Napier University · Edinburgh, United Kingdom
First Class Honours
Certifications
Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) – in progressJanuary 2025
IAAP
Languages
EnglishNative
FrenchB2
Frontend Developer example on the Modern Professional layout. All details are fictional and shown for demonstration only.
What recruiters expect
Before writing anything, it helps to know what the person reading is checking for. In this field that is usually a short, specific list:
Demonstrable CSS skill: layout systems, container queries, design tokens, and a view on how to keep stylesheets maintainable.
Accessibility beyond alt text - keyboard order, focus management, ARIA used sparingly, and testing with an actual screen reader.
Core Web Vitals with numbers, and knowledge of what moves each metric.
Cross-browser and cross-device work, including the awkward cases: Safari, low-end Android, reduced motion, dark mode.
Comfort working from Figma with designers, including pushing back when a design will not hold up responsively.
Recommended CV structure
This is the running order the example uses. It is a starting point rather than a rule, but the order reflects what tends to be read first in this profession.
Profile — Three or four lines positioning you for the role.
Technical Skills — Grouped skills, for example "Languages" and "Tooling".
Professional Experience — Paid roles, in reverse chronological order.
Selected Work — Selected pieces with links.
Education — Degrees, diplomas and school-leaving qualifications.
Certifications — Completed certifications with the issuing body.
Languages — Spoken languages with CEFR levels.
Sections worth adding
Side Projects — Useful when agency work is under NDA and cannot be shown.
Community — Accessibility volunteering is directly relevant evidence here.
Skills worth including
Grouped rather than listed in one block. Grouping makes a long list readable and shows that you can tell the difference between the things you use daily and the things you have touched.
Core Web Vitals · Lighthouse CI · WebPageTest · Critical CSS · Image formats
Beyond the technical list: Design collaboration, Client communication, Documentation, Running accessibility reviews, Estimating front-end work. These belong inside your experience bullets, demonstrated, rather than in a list of adjectives.
Example professional summary
Three or four lines, positioned for the role rather than describing your personality. Two versions you can adapt:
Front-end developer with five years across agency and in-house teams, focused on accessible, fast interfaces. Recent work includes taking a booking journey to WCAG 2.2 AA after an external audit and a performance programme that cut INP on the busiest page by two thirds.
Front-end developer with deep CSS and accessibility experience and a framework-agnostic approach. Comfortable in React and Svelte, more interested in whether the page works on a five-year-old phone.
Writing your experience
The difference between a CV that gets a call and one that does not is almost always in the bullet points. Each pair below shows a real rewrite of the kind of line that appears on most CVs in this field.
Weak
Made the site responsive.
Stronger
Rebuilt the product grid with CSS Grid and container queries so the same component works in the sidebar, the main column and the checkout upsell without three variants.
Describes an architectural choice with a maintenance benefit, not a checkbox.
Weak
Followed accessibility standards.
Stronger
Took the booking journey to WCAG 2.2 AA after an external audit, fixing keyboard traps in the modal, adding live-region announcements for validation and re-testing each step with NVDA.
Names the standard, the specific defects and the verification method.
Weak
Optimised page load.
Stronger
Brought Interaction to Next Paint on the category page from 420ms to 130ms by removing a synchronous analytics script and deferring the filter widget until first interaction.
Uses the current metric and identifies exactly what was causing the delay.
Taken from the example
The sample CV for this profession is fully written. A few sections from it, so you can see the level of specificity that works:
Experience
Senior Front-End Developer, Thistle & Pine Studio
Lead front-end on public sector and charity projects, where accessibility is contractual rather than aspirational.
Took a national charity booking journey to WCAG 2.2 AA after an external audit: keyboard traps in the modal, live-region validation announcements and a full retest with NVDA.
Brought Interaction to Next Paint on the category page from 420ms to 130ms by removing a synchronous analytics script and deferring the filter widget until first interaction.
Built the studio design system in Web Components so it could be dropped into three client stacks without a rewrite.
Education
BA (Hons) Digital Design, Edinburgh Napier University — First Class Honours
Certifications and registration
Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) – in progress — IAAP
Common mistakes
Treating CSS as the junior part of the job
Many front-end CVs hide CSS at the end of the skills list. For a large proportion of roles it is the actual work.
Accessibility as a single word
Writing "accessibility" with nothing behind it is now so common it reads as filler. Name a standard, a tool or a fix.
A portfolio of unbuilt concepts
Live URLs beat mockups. If the client site has been redesigned since, say so rather than linking to nothing.
Chasing the framework in the advert
Rewriting your CV around a framework you have used once is easy to detect. Show transferable depth instead and say you can pick it up.
ATS considerations
Applicant tracking systems behave differently by sector, and generic advice is often wrong for a given field. These points are specific to frontend developer applications:
Include "front-end developer" with and without the hyphen somewhere in the document; adverts use both spellings.
Spell out WCAG once as "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2)" so both forms match.
Name at least one framework even on a framework-neutral CV, or you will fail keyword screens outright.
Avoid representing skill level with dots or bars. They parse as nothing and read as arbitrary.
The Minimal ATS layout is built for this, and the ATS guide covers what parsers do to a file in more detail.
Questions about frontend developer CVs
Is a framework-neutral CV a disadvantage?
It narrows you out of the most competitive framework-specific roles, but it fits agencies, design system teams and public sector work well. Name at least one framework so automated filters do not remove you.
How do I show design collaboration?
Describe a decision, not a process. "Flagged that the four-column table would not survive 320px and agreed a card layout with the designer" says more than "worked closely with designers".
Should I include a portfolio section?
Yes, if the work is live and you can say what you contributed. Three entries with your specific role beats a wall of client logos.