Hi there! I'm Sierra Layla Vithica - a web developer and software engineer based in the cozy, rainy heart of Seattle, WA. I've been in love with code ever since I was little and learned it could feel just like writing poetry. There's a quiet magic in writing clean, expressive code that solves a human-centric problem with elegance and grace.
To me, software development isn't dry or overly complicated; it's an evolving art form. I thrive on self-education and believe curiosity is the best fuel in this ever-changing field. There's always something new to explore and that's what makes this journey so exciting.
I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (graduated with honors from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2012), and I've been working professionally ever since. Over the years, I've had the joy of building everything from large-scale custom CRM platforms to elegant marketing websites across a wide array of industries.
For about a decade, I specialized in WordPress development for B2B and B2C clients, but more recently I've fallen in love with modern, progressive web stacks - headless architecture, Hydrogen and Oxygen, custom checkout and customer account UI extensions, and all the rich complexity of enterprise B2B Shopify Plus. These days I work as a Senior Software Engineer and AI Engineering Lead, focused on Shopify at scale, AI-augmented development workflows, and building the kind of internal tooling that frees teams up to do their most creative work.
I'm deeply into AI-augmented development and the new generation of agentic tooling. I've been building with Claude Code, Cowork, and Design as my daily collaborators, and I recently shipped an internal Claude Cowork plugin that turns Figma designs into structured JIRA tickets encoded with team ticketing standards and WCAG accessibility requirements. The pace and creative leverage this unlocks for small teams is genuinely thrilling.
When I'm not shipping client work, I'm poking at side projects that let me explore what's possible when a human and a well-scoped AI collaborator build together. It feels like we're at the start of something enormous, and I want to be part of shaping it thoughtfully.
Behind the keyboard, I'm just a soft-hearted, slightly anxious, neurodivergent girl navigating the world in her own way. I'm autistic, ADHD, and proudly transgender (she/her 🏳️⚧️). I live in Seattle with my beautiful polycule of four amazing partners who fill my life with love, laughter, and plenty of nerdy joy on the daily.
When I'm not building something on the web, you can probably find me curled up with my Steam Deck, tinkering with code, playing MTG, collecting Pokémon cards, or wandering around the city on a quiet walk. I'm also a huge lover of uplifting trance music. There's something about those soaring melodies and emotional drops (hello, Gareth Emery!) that just fills my heart to the brim with joy.
If anything here resonates, feel free to reach out! I love connecting with other thoughtful developers, creative minds, and kind souls. Whether you're building something cool, want to swap tech tips, or just share playlists - my inbox is always open.