Principal Frontend Engineer

About the Role

We're a seed-stage AI automation company building the control plane that lets businesses design, deploy, and manage intelligent back-office workflows. Think visual workflow builders, real-time observability dashboards, and hybrid interfaces that serve both technical and non-technical users — layered on top of enterprise ERP systems.

We recently hired a designer. Now we need the engineer who executes. This role owns the frontend control plane UI — the surface our customers live in every day. You'll work directly with founders, ship fast, and have a significant say in how the product looks and behaves.

This is a hybrid role. We're opening an office in Union Square and expect engineers in the office a few days per week. Remote-only candidates will not be considered.

What You'll Build

• The core control plane UI — workflow authoring, agent configuration, task management, and human-in-the-loop approval surfaces
• Reporting and observability dashboards for workflow performance and analytics
• Real-time data sync layers using WebSockets and Server-Sent Events
• Adaptive interfaces that serve both technical operators and business users
• API integrations in close collaboration with backend engineers

What We're Looking For

Must-haves:

• 4–7 years of full-stack experience, strongly frontend-weighted (60–80% UI work)
• Expert-level React with TypeScript — production-grade, recent, modern patterns
• Proven experience building complex interactive UIs: dashboards, workflow builders, visual editors, data-rich applications
• Modern CSS proficiency — Tailwind preferred
• Full-stack integration experience: building and consuming APIs, collaborating with backend
• Product mindset — you care about how things feel and function, not just whether they ship
• NYC-based or genuinely willing to commute to Union Square a few days per week
• Existing US work authorization required — visa sponsorship is not available

Nice-to-haves:

• Real-time UI experience: WebSockets, SSE, collaborative editing
• Background at a workflow builder, no-code/low-code, or visual editor company (Retool, Airtable, Notion, Zapier, Monday.com, etc.)
• Enterprise SaaS or B2B tooling exposure
• Early-stage startup experience (seed through Series B)
• State management library depth: Zustand, Redux, or Recoil

Why This Role

• Genuinely hard UI problems — visual programming, real-time collaboration, enterprise workflow UX. Not another CRUD app.
• Founding team equity at a well-backed seed round. The equity is meaningful.
• Small team (~16 people), direct founder access, and real ownership of a critical product surface from day one.
• Competitive base: $200K–$250K depending on experience.

Not a Fit If:

• You're primarily backend or infrastructure-focused
• You need visa sponsorship
• You're only open to remote
• Your background is exclusively FAANG/large company with no startup exposure
• You're on a people management track