Principal Front-End Engineer

About the position

We're looking for a Principal Front-End Engineer to join our team! In this role, you'll lead our front-end engineering efforts to build a world-class financial services experience for our credit and loan customers. Working within Avant's technology organization, you'll collaborate closely with Product, Design, Data, and Compliance teams to create beautiful, resilient, and accessible user experiences.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive front-end architecture - Lead the technical vision for web development across the servicing org, ensuring scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Collaborate cross-functionally - Work closely with engineering, product, and design teams to build exceptional customer experiences and improve internal operations.
• Elevate Quality and Performance - Champion best practices in testing, accessibility, and performance. Define strategies, implement solutions, and drive adoption across the org to ensure a seamless and high-quality user experience.
• Be a hands-on technical leader - Work closely with multiple pods in the servicing org, providing architectural guidance, mentoring engineers, and jumping in to solve complex problems when needed.
• Mentor and elevate the team - Share knowledge, conduct code reviews, lead technical discussions, and foster a culture of learning. Act as a thought leader, helping teams stay ahead of industry trends and adopt new technologies where they add value.

Requirements

• 10+ years of relevant Software Engineering experience.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven expertise in front-end web development, with a deep understanding of fundamental web technologies.
• Strong proficiency in JavaScript, including its quirks and workarounds. You have experience with modern JavaScript frameworks and enjoy using React to build interactive user interfaces.
• Comfortable with modern CSS features and how to apply it to make things work across different screen sizes, browsers and devices.
• Knows the value of semantic markup and how to effectively use HTML as the foundation for accessible web applications.
• A keen eye for great UI/UX design and experience collaborating with design teams to merge aesthetics with functionality.
• Experience integrating with APIs and collaborating with backend engineers to design web-friendly APIs.
• Strong advocate for automated testing, with hands-on experience using front-end testing tools.

Nice-to-haves

• Exploring modern full-stack frameworks such as Remix or Astro to simplify development and improve performance.
• Leveraging Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or similar edge deployment platforms to build fast, scalable front-end applications.
• Driving web performance and Core Web Vitals improvements to ensure a best-in-class user experience.
• Building accessible and resilient applications with WAI-ARIA best practices and progressive enhancement to ensure accessibility and functionality across all environments.
• Improving front-end reliability with tools like Playwright for automated UI testing.
• Adopting CSP and other best practices to build secure front-end applications, mitigating risks like XSS, CSRF, and other web vulnerabilities.
• Experimenting with Progressive Web Applications (PWAs), service workers, Web Components, and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) to push the web forward.

Benefits

• Choice of great Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance Plan options
• 401(k) match
• Flexible Time Off
• Flexible Work Environment - (i.e. Mon/Tues/Thurs in-person)
• Generous Paid Parental Leave, Adoption Assistance and Post-parental leave ramp-up program
• Lunch Allowance (Fooda) and In-office Snacks
• Summer Fridays
• Fun In-Office and Virtual Social Events
• And who doesn't love the swag