Front-End Engineer

Title: Front-End Engineer (React Three Fiber · AI-Assisted Development)

Location: Hoboken, NJ Onsite

About the project

We are building a browser-based 3D virtual science lab. Students assemble apparatus, perform experiments, and are assessed on their technique — all rendered in real time with React 19, React Three Fiber (Three.js), and Zustand , built with Vite. The simulation runs on ordinary school hardware, including low-end Chromebooks, so it has to be both convincing and fast, and its behavior has to be deterministic enough to score reliably.

What you'll do

• Build and own complex React Three Fiber features: interactive 3D equipment, a selection-driven action system, real-time visual effects, and the UI around them.
• Keep the app fast on low-end hardware — profile and tune the render loop, manage GPU/CPU cost, and hold a frame budget on Chromebook-class devices.
• Keep application state coherent as it grows (simulation state, equipment state, an event log used for assessment, and UI state) using Zustand.
• Make accessibility real: full keyboard operation, focus management, ARIA, and screen-reader support are core requirements here, not polish.
• Direct Claude Code effectively — decompose work into well-specified, agent-sized tasks, review the output with a senior eye, and know when to write something by hand instead.
• Help maintain the conventions, CLAUDE.md guidance, and repo structure that keep AI-generated code consistent and safe.
• Collaborate with our 3D technical artist to integrate assets and shaders cleanly.

Front-end engineering (the foundation — non-negotiable):

• Deep, senior-level React (React 19 / modern React): the render model, hooks discipline, memoization, effect timing, and a real feel for where re-renders and stale closures come from — which matter acutely in an app running a physics loop every frame.
• Three.js and React Three Fiber in production. Real command of the scene graph, geometry and materials, the useFrame render loop, and disposal / memory management (WebGL leaks are a real hazard). This is the heart of the role and the skill we weight most heavily — React experience without R3F is not a substitute.
• Real-time performance discipline. You think in frame budgets, know what drives GPU vs CPU cost, can profile a render loop, and habitually design for the weakest target device.
• State management at scale with Zustand (or clearly transferable experience), keeping a growing state model coherent rather than tangled.
• Accessibility as a first-class skill — keyboard navigation, focus management, ARIA, WCAG AA, screen-reader testing. For an education product this is a core requirement and a procurement gate, not an afterthought.
• TypeScript, testing, and modern tooling — TypeScript fluency, Vite, a real testing discipline (we favor testing real behavior over mocks), and the judgment to set the quality bar for others.

Working effectively with AI coding agents (the differentiator — evaluated seriously):

• You can decompose work into agent-sized units — scoping a task with enough context, clear boundaries, and defined done-conditions so an agent produces good work. You write specifications, not wishes.
• You review AI output critically — reading every diff with the skepticism you'd bring to a junior's PR, catching the plausible-but-wrong, the convention drift, and the code that passes tests but violates an architectural rule. You never ship output you don't fully understand.
• You know when not to use the agent — a feel for which tasks fit an agent well and which are faster or safer done by hand.
• You are comfortable with the operating environment around the agent: context management, CLAUDE.md / skills / MCP, and structuring a repo and its conventions so agents produce consistent results. (Multi-worktree / parallel-agent experience is a strong plus.)
• You have honest calibration about the tool — neither refusing it nor over-trusting it, with real intuition, from experience, about where it's strong and where it approximates or fabricates.

Strongly preferred:

• WebGL / GLSL literacy — enough to collaborate with a technical artist and debug shader and asset integration.
• glTF / GLB loading and the asset pipeline.
• Prior educational, assessment, scientific, or simulation software experience.

Pay and Benefits

Pay Range Minimum: $55/hour

Pay Range Maximum: $ 70/hour

HCLTech is an equal opportunity employer, committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees regardless of race, religion, sex, color, age, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, physical disability or genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with federal, state, and/or local law. Should any applicant have concerns about discrimination in the hiring process, they should provide a detailed report of those concerns to for investigation.

A candidate’s pay within the range will depend on their skills, experience, education, and other factors permitted by law. This role may also be eligible for performance-based bonuses subject to company policies. In addition, this role is eligible for the following benefits subject to company policies: medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, life, accidental death & dismemberment, and disability insurance; employee assistance program; 401(k) retirement plan; 10 days of paid time off per year (some positions are eligible for need-based leave with no designated number of leave days per year); and 10 paid holidays per year

How You’ll Grow

At HCLTech, we offer continuous opportunities for you to find your spark and grow with us. We want you to be happy and satisfied with your role and to really learn what type of work sparks your brilliance the best. Throughout your time with us, we offer transparent communication with senior-level employees, learning and career development programs at every level, and opportunities to experiment in different roles or even pivot industries. We believe that you should be in control of your career with unlimited opportunities to find the role that fits you best.