Staff Frontend Engineer

Staff Frontend Engineer

Toronto, Canada

About Forma.ai:

Forma.ai is a Series B startup that's revolutionizing how sales compensation is designed, managed and optimized. We handle billions in annual managed commissions for market leaders like Edmentum, Stryker, and Autodesk.

Our growth has been fuelled by our passion for fundamentally changing and shaping how companies use sales intelligence to drive business strategy.

We're welcoming equally driven individuals who are excited about creating something big!

About the team

Engineers on this team build the application our customers and internal teams use to configure, operate, manage, and visualize complex incentive compensation workflows. There are many complex and difficult areas across the product, especially across frontend architecture and user experience, because of high data volumes, wide configurability, complex business logic, and mission-critical operational workflows. The work is not just about building screens; it is about helping users understand, act on, and trust complex compensation data and operational processes.

We are low on meetings and high on accountability. Most of the team is in the EST timezone, with some teammates in PST and Central. We are far from maintenance or simple progressive evolution in many areas; there is a lot of room to make a meaningful impact on the overall user experience, product architecture, and frontend design patterns.

What you'll be doing

Reporting to the VP of Engineering, the Staff Frontend Engineer will play a critical role in shaping the technical direction, architecture, and long-term evolution of Forma's customer-facing and internal operations experiences.

You'll operate as a frontend technical leader, working across teams to drive alignment, set standards, and solve complex, ambiguous problems in a highly configurable, data-intensive product. You'll partner closely with product, design, engineering, and leadership to define not just what we build, but how we build it — ensuring our frontend systems are scalable, consistent, and built for long-term velocity.

You will lead the design and development of foundational frontend systems, influence product and platform strategy, and help the team navigate complexity in workflows, automation, reporting, and data exploration at scale.

You will:

• Lead the architecture and evolution of Forma's frontend systems, patterns, and best practices.
• Drive large, cross-cutting frontend initiatives spanning multiple product areas and teams.
• Translate complex compensation and operational workflows into scalable, extensible UI systems and abstractions.
• Define and standardize reusable frontend and data visualization patterns across the platform.
• Partner with product and design to shape ambiguous problem spaces into clear, scalable solutions.
• Improve frontend performance, reliability, accessibility, testing strategy, and developer experience at a systems level.
• Mentor and guide engineers across the team, raising the overall quality and consistency of frontend development.
• Influence technical strategy, roadmap planning, and prioritization decisions.
• Identify and address systemic frontend challenges, including architecture, state management, and data handling at scale.
• Bring strong product thinking, customer empathy, and operational awareness to complex problem spaces.

What we're looking for

We're looking for a highly experienced frontend engineer who thrives in ambiguous environments, enjoys solving system-level problems, and can influence both technical and product direction.

This role is for someone who goes beyond owning features — you own systems, patterns, and outcomes across teams. You should be able to connect business goals to technical strategy, guide teams through complexity, and make pragmatic decisions that balance scalability, usability, and delivery.

You have:

• Deep experience building and scaling production web applications with React, TypeScript, and JavaScript.
• Proven experience designing frontend architecture and systems for complex, data-heavy, configurable applications.
• Experience leading large frontend initiatives or platform-level efforts across teams.
• Strong expertise in component design, state management, performance optimization, and testing at scale.
• Experience building dashboards, BI tools, reporting, analytics, or data visualization platforms.
• Excellent judgment around UX, accessibility, information hierarchy, and visualization patterns.
• Strong product instincts and the ability to influence product direction through technical insight.
• Experience working with complex workflows, automation systems, APIs, or policy-driven platforms.
• A track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across a team or organization.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to align stakeholders and drive decisions across disciplines.

Nice to have

• Experience working on enterprise SaaS platforms at scale.
• Experience in compensation, finance, workflow automation, analytics, or operational tooling.
• Experience building or leading design systems, frontend platforms, or shared component libraries.
• Familiarity with backend systems (Python/Django, Java/Springboot, APIs, Postgres).
• Experience designing systems that support both internal operations teams and external customers.
• Experience influencing or defining engineering strategy at the team or org level.

Technologies we use

Frontend: JavaScript, React, TypeScript

Backend: Java/Springboot, Django, Postgres

Infrastructure: AWS, Docker

What success looks like: 30/60/90 days

First 30 days

You'll focus on building deep context across the product, architecture, and organization.

By the end of your first 30 days, you will have:

• Developed a strong understanding of Forma.ai's product, customers, and the sales compensation domain.
• Built a clear mental model of the frontend architecture, key systems, and areas of complexity.
• Formed relationships with engineering, product, design, and leadership stakeholders.
• Identified high-impact opportunities for frontend improvements across architecture, UX, and systems.
• Contributed to technical discussions and begun shaping frontend direction.
• Shipped targeted improvements while building broader context.

First 60 days

You'll begin driving meaningful technical initiatives and influencing direction.

By the end of your first 60 days, you will have:

• Taken ownership of a cross-cutting frontend initiative or system-level improvement.
• Influenced product and technical decisions through strong architectural and product thinking.
• Introduced or improved frontend patterns, abstractions, or standards.
• Helped teams navigate complexity in workflows, data visualization, or state management.
• Begun mentoring engineers and raising the quality bar through reviews and guidance.
• Identified opportunities to improve consistency and reuse across the platform.

First 90 days

You'll be operating as a trusted technical leader for frontend across the organization.

By the end of your first 90 days, you will have:

• Led the design and delivery of a major frontend initiative or architectural improvement.
• Established or significantly advanced frontend standards, patterns, or platform capabilities.
• Influenced roadmap decisions and helped align teams on scalable frontend approaches.
• Improved the performance, usability, and maintainability of key product areas.
• Mentored engineers and contributed to a stronger frontend culture across the team.
• Identified and begun executing on longer-term frontend investments.
• Demonstrated clear impact on both user experience and engineering velocity.

Additional Job Info:

• This position is for an existing vacancy

What you can expect from us

Meaningful compensation. In addition to your base salary, you'll join our employee stock ownership plan to further recognize your contributions to Forma.ai's success.

Healthcare coverage. We have a full benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, and a paid parental leave program.

Learning and development. Access the resources