Lead Frontend Engineer - Full time role

Client: Photon

Position: Lead Frontend Engineer

Location: Newark, DE (Onsite or travel required - travel expenses will be paid by client)

Duration: Contract & Fulltime

Short Description

Role Summary Owns end-to-end delivery of the organization's web/mobile UI platform: micro-frontend architecture, design systems, and the shared standards that let many teams ship UI independently without breaking cohesion, performance, or accessibility. Sets the technical direction but is accountable for shipped outcomes runs the offshore development team day-to-day, reviews their work, and stays hands-on to unblock delivery.

Description

Key Responsibilities

Own delivery of the micro-frontend strategy, including module boundaries, shared shell, and Webpack & Module Federation setup across teams.

Define the UI design system component libraries, design tokens, and how they're sourced from Figma and propagated to code.

Set standards for state management across React applications (web and mobile) and for CSS architecture at scale.

Own accessibility (ARIA) compliance delivery across all portal surfaces.

Define UI performance budgets and drive performance/error monitoring rollout in production.

Direct authentication/authorization delivery for UI surfaces using OAuth/OIDC, and enforce OWASP web security standards.

Set the A/B testing approach and the containerization & deployment pattern for UI services.

Define the test automation strategy (Playwright) and quality gates for UI releases.

Run day-to-day delivery of the offshore senior developer team: sprint commitments, code review, real-time unblocking, and hands-on work on critical or time-sensitive pieces.

Report delivery status, risks, and blockers to engineering leadership.

Must-Have Qualifications

8+ years in front-end engineering, with 3+ years as a tech lead owning end-to-end delivery of large-scale web applications (not a pure design/review architect role).

Expert, architecture-level command of React (web and mobile) and Node.js/TypeScript.

Proven design experience with Webpack, Module Federation, and micro-frontend architecture in production at scale.

Strong grounding in state management patterns (Redux, Context, signals, or equivalent) and when to use each.

Experience architecting a UI design system (component libraries, design tokens) and working with design tooling (Figma) hand-off workflows.

Deep knowledge of ARIA/accessibility standards (WCAG) and how to enforce them at the platform level.

Strong CSS architecture experience (design-system-driven styling at scale, not just component-level CSS).

Proven ability to define and enforce UI performance measurement and optimization strategy.

Solid understanding of OAuth/OIDC and OWASP web security practices for front-end applications.

Experience architecting containerized UI deployment pipelines.

Financial-services or regulated-industry experience preferred given security/compliance stakes.

Strong stakeholder communication; able to directly manage day-to-day delivery of an offshore team (standups, unblocking, sprint accountability).

Proven track record of shipping large-scale UI platforms on committed timelines, including hands-on troubleshooting under delivery pressure.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

Experience designing UI A/B testing frameworks.

Familiarity with Playwright or comparable UI test automation frameworks at an architectural level.

Experience with error-monitoring platforms (Sentry, Datadog RUM, or similar) at a design level.

Exposure to mobile-specific micro-frontend or module-federation patterns.

Relevant certifications or contributions to open-source design systems.