DLIR UI Modernization

A major modernization and technical upgrade for the State of Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) unemployment insurance system. The existing platform was built on end-of-life frameworks (Angular 4 and Node.js 6) that posed severe security vulnerabilities and maintenance bottlenecks.

Full-Stack Modernization Engineer at Datahouse tasked with migrating the entire frontend from Angular 4 to Angular 14 and backend runtime from Node.js 6 to Node.js 16 with zero operational regressions.

• Bridging a 10-major-version gap (Angular 4 to 14) involving breaking changes in Ivy compiler, RxJS, and TypeScript.
• Upgrading Node.js runtime from v6 to v16 across legacy backend microservices with obsolete native C++ bindings.
• Ensuring 100% feature parity and zero workflow interruption for live citizens claiming unemployment assistance.

• Phased stepwise migration plan: upgraded dependencies incrementally through major releases (v4 -> v8 -> v12 -> v14) to isolate breaking issues.
• Refactored state and HTTP calls to modern reactive patterns using pipeable RxJS operators and typed observables.

• Refactored hundreds of legacy components to comply with Angular Ivy compilation standards.
• Migrated deprecated HttpModule to modern HttpClient with typed interceptors and standardized error handling.
• Upgraded Node.js server dependencies, replaced deprecated native packages, and audited for zero CVE vulnerabilities.

• Achieved 100% regression-free production deployment, modernizing critical state infrastructure seamlessly.
• Resolved all outstanding critical security vulnerabilities in obsolete packages and substantially improved build and test execution speed.

• Large-scale framework migrations succeed through automated regression tests and staged version bumps, not monolithic rewrites.