Chief Application Developer - Frontend Architecture

ADP•Florham Park, NJ

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

ADP Innovation Labs is seeking a senior technical leader to lead the design and development of next-generation application experiences. The role combines deep frontend architecture and engineering expertise with experience across backend services, API design, databases, and cloud-native application development. The Chief Application Developer helps define technical direction, establish engineering standards, mentor development teams, and remain hands-on in the codebase. The role partners with Product, UX, Architects, and Engineering leaders to deliver scalable, secure, intuitive solutions that improve client experience and accelerate product innovation. The position involves leading teams and technical work in an Agile environment, reviewing work, addressing challenges, and helping engineers grow. The developer may collaborate with teams across locations, meet with senior leaders about initiatives, and respond to requests from other departments. The role also involves communicating milestones and influencing technical direction with senior leaders, product owners, peers, and partner teams.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent.
15+ years of software engineering experience, with demonstrated leadership of complex application development efforts.
Expertise in modern frontend technologies such as React, Angular, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS.
Strong understanding of UX principles, responsive design, accessibility standards, and web performance optimization.
Significant experience designing and developing RESTful APIs, GraphQL services, and distributed systems.
Strong backend development experience with Node.js, C# .NET, Java, or similar enterprise technologies.
Deep understanding of relational databases, data modeling, SQL optimization, and application performance tuning.
Proven experience building highly available, secure, scalable, and maintainable enterprise applications.
Strong understanding of software architecture patterns, domain-driven design, and modern application design principles.
Experience with CI/CD tools and practices, including Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Docker, and containerized deployments.
Expertise in test-driven development and automated quality practices.
Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills.
Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams and organizations.
Familiarity with major AI platforms, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, and ability to leverage them to enhance products and features.
Proficiency with AI-assisted coding tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Amazon Q, or Cursor.
Effective prompt engineering, performance optimization, and secure data handling.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture, design, and development of modern software, emphasizing user experience and performance.
Collaborate with UX designers and product teams to translate customer needs into elegant, intuitive, scalable solutions.
Design and implement backend services, APIs, and integrations supporting business-critical workflows.
Define and evolve application, domain, and data architectures for scalability, maintainability, and performance.
Lead database schema, query, and data-access-pattern design and optimization.
Conduct architecture reviews and provide technical leadership across multiple initiatives.
Establish engineering standards, coding practices, testing strategies, and development processes.
Mentor and coach engineers, fostering technical excellence and continuous learning.
Partner with DevOps teams to improve CI/CD pipelines, observability, deployment automation, and operational excellence.
Champion quality through automated testing, code reviews, and continuous improvement.
Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend solutions aligned with business objectives and engineering strategy.
Support production applications through troubleshooting, performance tuning, and root cause analysis.
Review team work and help the team deliver polished products in an Agile environment.
Communicate milestone achievements and influence senior leaders, product owners, peers, and other stakeholders.
Use AI platforms and AI-assisted development tools to enhance products and development work, following effective prompting, performance optimization, and secure data-handling practices.