Lead Front-End Engineer

STRICTLY NO AGENCIES: We are only accepting direct applications for this role. Any unsolicited CVs sent will be treated as a gift and will not be subject to any terms or fees. RECRUITERS: please do not call or email us regarding this role.THIS IS A HYBRID ROLE WITH THREE DAYS IN OUR FARRINGDON, LONDON OFFICE. Occasionally more, when what we are shipping deserves it.Read this part before the requirements:We are rebuilding our platform, and we are looking for one person to own and drive the front end of it.This is not a role where you pick up tickets and hand them back. You will set the standard for front-end architecture, decide how it is built, and be accountable for whether it is good. That is a considerable amount of responsibility. We are hiring someone who wants it.We will be direct about what this is. We are a profitable, twenty-year-old SaaS business with blue-chip clients who are demanding and unforgiving, and we are in the most ambitious phase of our history. There are hard deadlines. There are weeks where the work is relentless and the standard still does not move. We plan properly so that those weeks stay the exception, but when one lands we need someone who is in it, not someone waiting for it to pass.What we care about is simple: you said you would do it, and it got done. Not hours at a desk. Not visible busyness. Done, to a standard you would defend in front of a tier-one bank's security team, because you may well have to.If that reads as a warning, it is meant to. If it reads as the job you have been waiting for, keep going.Who we are:A UK events management SaaS company, based in Farringdon, with twenty years of stability and profit and a client list of large international enterprises across banking, automotive and law. Our customers operate in regulated sectors. The bar for what we ship is set by them, not by us.The roleYou will:Lead, drive and own the front-end architecture of our platform rebuild: the structure, the patterns, the component system, the performance budget. Not contribute to. Take the leadTurn designs and wireframes into work you are prepared to put your name onSet the standard for speed, scalability and responsiveness, and hold the line on it in reviewBuild the reusable libraries and patterns the rest of the team will work inside for the next five yearsRaise the technical level of the engineers around you, through code review, pairing and exampleDrive AI-assisted development across the team. We use Cursor and Claude seriously, not decoratively, and we invest in tooling and training. You will be expected to hold strong opinions on where AI accelerates delivery and where it quietly degrades qualityWork directly with product, delivery and stakeholders on what we build, not only on howRequirementsWhat we need from you:Five years or more building React.js and Next.js (14+) in production, ideally on a SaaS productDeep JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3. Not framework deep, language deepReal fluency with AI coding tools such as Cursor and Claude for writing, reviewing, refactoring and documenting code, and the judgement to know when to switch them offGit, and a working command of CI/CD, TDD/BDD and Agile/Kanban deliveryA track record you can point at: something you owned end to end, where the outcome was materially better because you were the one holding itThe communication to disagree with a stakeholder, explain the trade-off, and be understoodWhat we are honestly not looking forSomeone who wants a quiet seat at a stable company. We are a stable company, and there are quiet seats here. This is not one of them.How to applySend a CV, plus a few paragraphs answering two questions:Describe something you shipped that you owned end to end. What was hard about it, what did you get wrong, and what would you do differently?Where has AI-assisted development made you faster, and where have you seen it make a codebase worse?Applications without answers to both will not be reviewed. This is deliberate.You must be eligible to work in the UK, hold a valid visa or UK residency, and be currently based in the UK. You must also be prepared to undergo high-level security clearance.NO AGENCIES. Please do not attempt to canvass from here.BenefitsWhat you get:Salary based on what you can actually contrbiuteGenuine ownership of a platform used by some of the largest institutions in the worldSerious investment in AI tooling and opportunityCompany pension schemeGym membershipHybrid working, three days a week in Farringdon, with a top-quality coffee shop next door and a food market outside