Arsh Khachatrian - Creative frontend engineer, team lead and photographer in Valencia.
I was born in Yerevan in 1997 and met engineering at the TUMO Center. My first three.js project, a solar system, still spins online. Since then the work has been data visualization, design systems and, now, a frontend team. Two earlier pieces are public: bugfixes on Google’s Polymer 1.0 components library, in the years Addy Osmani and Rob Dodson were leading that work, plus my own elements on GitHub, and the UI for Adidas on the Yung homepage, a Site of the Day. Visual design is the through-line: three.js and 3D on one side, dashboards on the other. I have sat on the Awwwards development jury since 2018. Photography started on an analog Zorkiy and continues on a Fujifilm X-T5. The pictures are on the photography wall.
Web work
BrainRocket (2024–Now) - Frontend Team Lead, Valencia · Limassol
Leading the frontend team behind a family of white-label brands on one architecture.
Frontend Team Lead in Valencia since October 2025, after a year as Senior Frontend Developer in Limassol. A distributed team across seniorities and time zones, many brands on one codebase, and releases into regulated markets.
Wirestock (2021–2024) - Senior Software Engineer, San Jose, California
The main platform, the marketplace, internal tools and the design system behind them.
Senior Software Engineer on the frontend from 2021 to 2024. I built and tuned the products the company runs on and pushed for design-driven development across the team.
DISQO (2018–2021) - Software Engineer, Los Angeles
Data-driven platforms that turn research into insight clients can act on.
Software Engineer on the frontend from 2018 to 2021. Interfaces that make large amounts of data feel simple, on an architecture built to last.
Cambridge Semantics (2016–2018) - Frontend Engineer, UI/UX, Greater Boston
Dashboards and data visualization for a semantic layer over enterprise data.
Frontend Engineer and UI/UX Designer from 2016 to 2018. Intuitive, performant applications that put a friendly face on sophisticated backend processes.
adidas Yung (2019) - UI, Site of the Day, Adidas
The interface for the adidas Yung homepage, a 90s homage and a Site of the Day.
A homepage for the adidas Yung series: a music rhythm game, wallpapers, video and animated type. I did the UI. The public credit on Awwwards is Monks, and the case was Site of the Day.
adidas Yung on AwwwardsGetting Started with Polymer (2016) - Author, Packt Publishing
A book on building with Polymer and Web Components, published by Packt.
Written between 2015 and 2016 for Packt Publishing, Birmingham. Writing it changed how I think about explaining what I build.
Polymer 1.0 (2015–2017) - Contributor, Google
Bugfixes on Google’s Polymer 1.0 components library, and three elements of my own.
I contributed bugfixes to Google’s Polymer 1.0 components library, the library Addy Osmani and Rob Dodson were shaping in those years. It was open-source work, not a job at Google. I also published my own elements: paper-fab-menu, paper-video and paper-accordion.
GitHubSolar System (2012) - Three.js, Yerevan
My first three.js project, from 2012. The sun and the planets, turning in a browser tab. Still online.
Built in Yerevan in 2012, after my first encounters with engineering at the TUMO Center. It is where three.js, physics and a love of space first met, and it led straight to my first paid projects.
Launch the solar systemAwwwards (2018–Now) - Jury Member, Development jury
Judging web projects on design, usability, creativity and content since 2018.
Jury member for development since January 2018. I score sites on design, usability, creativity and content. The same year, my own The Soviet Taxi received an Honorable Mention.
Google Developer Groups (2014–2017) - Organizer, GDG Armenia, Yerevan
Codelabs and talks on Polymer and Google technologies in Yerevan.
From 2014 to 2017 I organized Polymer codelabs and talks with GDG Armenia, the local Google Developer Group in Yerevan. It was a community role, built around events and the people who came to them, and the same years I was writing about Web Components.
Experiments (2014–Now) - Creative engineering, Independent
Apps and games across mobile, AR/VR, Roku, Kinect and Oculus, and this room.
Alongside the day jobs I push on what the next interface can be: three.js and 3D modeling, and apps and games for mobile, AR/VR, Roku, Kinect and Oculus.
Photography
Photography was never a phase. It started on an old analog Zorkiy, carried on through every phone I owned, and it never stopped.
The biggest push my photography ever had. Working with the body taught me to experiment with light, shadow and colour, and it shaped both the pictures I make now and the ones I want to make next.
- Calle Salvador, 2026: A hand with red nails reaching past a no-entry sign on a pink wall, Calle Salvador, Valencia
- Opera house: Tiers of gilded opera boxes lit by crystal chandeliers under a painted ceiling
- The cat: Black and white portrait of a woman leaning in nose to nose with a cat
- Octopus: A roasted octopus on a steel tray against a deep blue background
- Arts and Sciences: The white ribs of the City of Arts and Sciences mirrored in still water, Valencia
- Valencianos: A man working behind the counter of a small kiosk with a Valencianos sign
- Conversation: An old man with a cane talking with a nun in white outside a doorway
- Sheikh Zayed: White domes and gold-capped arches of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque reflected in a pool, Abu Dhabi
- Off season, 2026: A pink umbrella and red chairs beside an empty pool against a pale concrete building
- Fountain, 2026: A pigeon flying across a fountain in front of ornate yellow buildings
- Red skirt: A woman in a red skirt and white blouse leaning over a stone urn by the sea
- Italia: A small red car parked under a green gateway with an Italia sign
- Blue hour, 2023: A pale blue vintage car driving along a tree-lined avenue at dusk
- Bonnet, 2024: Black and white photo of two women sitting on the bonnet of a car at night
- Red dot: A pale wall with a blue awning and a black line mural around a single red dot
- The tree: Black and white flash photo of a woman climbing a bare tree at night
- Sailboat: A sailboat on a turquoise sea seen past blurred figures on the beach
- Mina: A woman holding two Mina records beside a bunch of white flowers
- Paradiso coffee, 2023: A hand pouring from a moka pot beside a plate of peaches and two white cups
- Balcony: A red-haired woman sitting in a wire chair on a balcony
- Starfruit: Two hands holding three yellow starfruit against a white wall, with the sea behind
The path
1997 · Yerevan: Hello, world
Born in Yerevan, Armenia. Everything after this is light, code and a lot of curiosity.
Childhood · Film: An old Zorkiy
My first camera was an analog Zorkiy, a Soviet rangefinder with no screen and no autofocus. Every frame cost something, so I learned to look before pressing the shutter.
Teens · TUMO, Yerevan: TUMO Center
My first real meeting with engineering happened at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies. A building full of teenagers, screens and permission to try things nobody had shown us yet.
2012 · three.js: A solar system in a browser tab
My first three.js project: the sun, the planets and their orbits, turning in a browser. It is still online and still spinning.
Right after · First clients: The first paid projects
The solar system opened the door to my first paid work. Real clients, real deadlines, while I was still a teenager in Yerevan.
Those years · Physics: Physics and photography
Back then I was into two things above all: physics and photography. One explains how light behaves, the other is about catching it. Both are still in everything I make, down to the objects you can knock over in this room.
2014 · Yerevan: Google Developer Groups
Organizer with GDG Armenia: Polymer codelabs, talks on Google technologies, and a community that put me on stage.
2015–2017 · Open source: Polymer, in public
Bugfixes on the Polymer 1.0 components library, in the years Addy Osmani and Rob Dodson were leading that work, and my own elements on GitHub: paper-fab-menu, paper-video and paper-accordion.
2016 · Packt: I wrote the book
Getting Started with Polymer, published by Packt. Teaching a tool is the fastest way to really learn it.
2016 · Boston: Cambridge Semantics
Frontend engineer and UI/UX designer on enterprise data integration: dashboards, data visualization and Web Components.
2018 · Los Angeles: DISQO, and a seat on the jury
Data-driven platforms and frontend architecture for large projects at DISQO. The same year I joined the Awwwards jury, judging the web on design, usability, creativity and content.
2018 · The nude series: Light on skin
I started a series of nude photography, and it was the biggest push my pictures ever had. Light and shadow on the body, colour, experiments I would never have tried otherwise. It shaped the photographer I am now.
2019 · Adidas: adidas Yung
UI for the adidas Yung homepage, a 90s homage and a Site of the Day on Awwwards.
2021 · San Jose: Wirestock
Senior engineer on the platform, the marketplace, internal tools and the company-wide design system.
Now · Valencia: Leading the team, still shooting
Frontend Team Lead at BrainRocket: white-label brands on one architecture, releases into regulated markets, engineers who own their work end to end. After hours, the streets of Valencia with an iPhone and a Fujifilm X-T5.
Contact
A lead or senior frontend role, in Valencia or with a move to Madrid or Barcelona. Photography commissions are welcome too.
arshak.kh.work@gmail.com