Horizon: Design Engineer (Mid-level)

Spear AI•Washington, DC

3d•Remote

About The Position

Spear AI is a growing defense contracting company dedicated to delivering cutting-edge solutions that support our nation’s security. As we expand, we’re building a culture where innovation meets mission-critical work. We operate with a flat structure that empowers every team member to make an impact, collaborate directly with leadership, and contribute to projects that matter. The work is technical, the problem space is dense, and the stakes are real. We ship in months, not years, and the people using what we build are operators, analysts, and warfighters.

Requirements

Successful candidates typically have 4+ years of Frontend or Design Engineer experience.
You write clean, maintainable code that doesn't constrain future product ambition.
You use LLMs as a tool, not a crutch: you independently audit their output, question their assumptions, and override them whenever a more elegant, human-engineered solution is required.
You possess a strong portfolio of shipped interfaces where you handled both the design and the front-end build, and can clearly explain your decisions and trade-offs.
You have a deep understanding of design workflows and the technical or hardware constraints that surround them.
You sweat the small stuff: animation, loading states, typography rhythm, accessibility, responsiveness, and runtime performance.
You have the confidence to ask hard questions, experiment wildly, and advocate for what you feel is right for the user.
You treat every engineering bottleneck as a chance to dig deeper, constantly expanding your technical toolkit because you genuinely love figuring out how things work.
You thrive when things are moving fast. Mission-critical work in defense isn't always tidy, and priorities shift. You stay calm, adjust, and iterate.
You make the team better. On a team of three, every hire shapes how we work. You bring your own strengths but check your ego at the door, taking your teammates' wins as your own.
You can explain a technical decision, a design rationale, or a complex trade-off in a clear way that lands perfectly with any audience.
Modern Stack Fluency: Deep, professional experience with React, Next.js, and TypeScript.
Advanced Styling: Highly fluent with Tailwind and modern CSS fundamentals (including container queries, cascade layers, specificity, OKLCH color spaces, view transitions, flexbox, and grid).
Technical Auditing: A strong understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2) and core performance metrics (Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse).
Must be a U.S. citizen.
Must be able to obtain or currently hold a Secret or Top Secret U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

Code production-ready prototypes, modular front-end components, and core user-facing features.
Spot opportunities to redesign or refine key features and flows, aggressively hunting down visual "paper cuts" and UX friction.
Participate in project kickoffs to understand the product and audience, actively proposing visual direction rather than waiting for a rigid specification sheet.
Champion application performance, accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA), and codebase maintainability as first-class architectural concerns.