Frontend Software Engineer, Data

Nominal•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software. We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn't an option. We're backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence. JOIN NOMINAL AS A FRONTEND SOFTWARE ENGINEER, DATA At Nominal, the frontend goes far beyond a visual layer on top of APIs. It's where engineers make sense of massive streams of telemetry, investigate failures, automate workflows, and operate some of the world's most advanced hardware systems. We're looking for engineers who love modeling complex systems as much as building intuitive interfaces. You'll work at the intersection of product, design, and engineering to transform high-volume, real-time data into tools that help engineers make mission-critical decisions. Success in this role is measured by building products that simplify complexity without sacrificing power. You'll partner closely with backend engineers, designers, and product teams to define workflows, shape product direction, and make thoughtful technical tradeoffs in an environment where requirements are often ambiguous and the best solutions aren't immediately obvious.

Requirements

5+ years of experience building products for technical users where you’ve been involved in shaping the data model.
Strong experience with TypeScript, and modern frontend architecture, along with an understanding of how frontend systems interact with backend services.
Experience building products involving large datasets, real-time systems, observability platforms, developer tools, infrastructure software, GIS, security products, financial systems, or other technically sophisticated domains.
A track record of navigating ambiguity by defining problems, forming hypotheses, and iterating with users instead of waiting for complete specifications.
Strong product instincts. You naturally ask "Why are we building this?" before "How should I implement it?" and aren't afraid to challenge assumptions when you believe there's a better solution for users.
A systems mindset. You enjoy reasoning about data models, user workflows, and how complex systems should behave before jumping into implementation.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to explain technical and product tradeoffs clearly across engineering, design, and product teams.

Nice To Haves

Systems Thinking: Experience designing products around complex object models, relationships, and workflows rather than simple CRUD interfaces.
Product Thinking: Ability to understand user goals, simplify complicated workflows, and make thoughtful product decisions under ambiguity.
Frontend Architecture: Strong experience with React, TypeScript, modern state management, asynchronous data flows, and scalable application architecture.
Backend Collaboration: Comfort reasoning about APIs, data loading strategies, backend constraints, and making architectural tradeoffs across the full stack.
Performance Engineering: Experience optimizing rendering, managing large datasets, virtualized interfaces, streaming updates, caching strategies, and browser performance.
Data Visualization: Experience building rich data exploration tools, visualization systems, or interactive applications involving complex datasets is a plus.

Responsibilities

Design products around complex data: Build interfaces that help engineers explore, understand, and act on large-scale telemetry and operational data. You'll help define the underlying data models and user workflows that power the product.
Own ambiguous product problems: Partner closely with product, design, and engineering to turn loosely defined ideas into intuitive user experiences. You'll challenge assumptions, validate workflows directly with users, and make confident product decisions when requirements are incomplete.
Build systems, not just screens: Develop scalable frontend architecture using React, TypeScript, and modern web technologies. You'll work across application state, data fetching, rendering, and performance to support complex workflows and large datasets.
Make complexity feel simple: Design experiences that expose powerful capabilities without overwhelming users. You'll think deeply about information architecture, interaction design, and how technical users reason about their work.
Optimize for performance: Build responsive interfaces capable of handling real-time updates, high-frequency data streams, and large datasets while maintaining exceptional usability and performance. Success in this role comes from combining strong frontend engineering with product judgment. You'll spend as much time thinking about how users reason about complex systems as you will writing React code.