Meet the DevAllies - Darren Britton, CTO and co-founder

The Architect · Delivers magic · 1–2 years at DevAlly

Who are you, and what are you up to at DevAlly?

I'm Darren, CTO & Co-Founder at DevAlly. I lead the engineering team building our AI-driven accessibility testing and compliance tools. I'm driven by the belief that accessibility doesn't work as an afterthought - it has to be fundamental to how product teams work. The existing tools available to make that happen were incapable of keeping up with modern product and engineering organisations. DevAlly is changing that.

“I’m building the tools that enable everyone to contribute to improving their product's accessibility.”

What does a typical day look like for you at DevAlly?

No two days are the same, which is the best part. Mornings usually start with a check-in with the team, then it's a mix of architecture decisions, code reviews, and the occasional deep dive into a complex accessibility challenge. Afternoons tend to shift toward product and strategy - syncing with Cormac and Bruno on where we're headed, talking to customers, or mapping out what we're building next. Somewhere in there I'll convince myself I'll close my laptop at a reasonable hour. Sometimes I even do.

What problem does DevAlly solve — in your own words?

Accessibility has always been treated as something you bolt on at the end, an audit, a checklist, a scramble before launch. The tools that existed were built for that world. DevAlly gives product and engineering teams the tools to make accessibility part of how they actually work, not something they retrofit when it's too late.

What's the thing you're most proud of building here?

Closing our pre-seed round was a big moment, but what I'm actually most proud of is the team we've built. Watching the people who joined us early grow into some of the best in their domains; people who will set the bar for our culture - that's what sticks with me.

Hot take: what's the future of developer tooling?

Most developer tools are obsessed with helping you ship faster. Almost none of them care about helping you ship better. Speed without quality isn't velocity, it's just chaos with a CI pipeline.

“The teams that win long-term are the ones investing in tools that make doing the right thing the easy thing.”

Fun fact — something that surprises people about you.

Before DevAlly, I worked at Shutterstock as a software engineer. One of the more unconventional roles I picked up while there was leading the tech side of our live event coverage at the Oscars, the Emmys, and the BAFTAs. I was deploying custom hardware and software so photographers could get images to major media outlets within seconds of capture. Not your typical engineering brief.

Find Darren on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab), GitHub (opens in a new tab) or at darrenbritton.com (opens in a new tab)

Want to build accessible products? Get started with DevAlly (opens in a new tab)