Principal Front End Engineer

General Dynamics Information Technology•USA MD Home Office (MDHOME), MD

3d•$147,292 - $199,278•Remote

About The Position

The Principal Front End Engineer defines the organization’s strategic direction for frontend engineering practices, tooling, and skills. This role leads the development of accessible, performant, user-centered web applications for government customers and serves as a technical authority for frontend architecture and engineering excellence. The engineer designs and implements modern frontend architectures, development pipelines, and deployment infrastructure, while delivering features and improvements to customer-facing applications with a focus on user experience and accessibility compliance, including Section 508 and WCAG. The role partners with product managers and designers to shape user experiences and make pragmatic trade-offs between product value and implementation effort. It builds and maintains component libraries, design systems, and shared frontend infrastructure; modernizes the frontend stack; and champions practices for mobile-first development, testing, performance, accessibility, and code quality. The engineer mentors and coaches engineers, influences decisions across teams, and may work across the full stack when needed, with frontend engineering as the primary focus. This is a remote position with approximately 0–10% business travel. It is listed as a pipeline requisition, requires U.S. citizenship, and requires the ability to obtain and maintain Public Trust 6C. The scheduled workweek is 40 hours. The stated likely salary range is $147,292–$199,278, with actual compensation depending on experience, geographic location, and potentially contractual requirements.

Requirements

At least 10 years of related experience.
Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain Public Trust 6C.
Demonstrated experience leading and delivering production-ready accessible frontend applications.
Proven experience architecting and implementing modern frontend applications at scale using React and/or Angular.
Experience establishing frontend engineering standards, practices, and tooling that improve productivity and code quality.
Experience with frontend build tooling, bundling strategies, and deployment pipelines, such as Webpack, Vite, pnpm, or npm.
Strong understanding and practical implementation experience with WCAG 2.1 AA or higher and Section 508 accessibility requirements.
Experience with accessibility linting, such as axe-core or eslint-pluginjsx-a11y, and automated accessibility testing in CI/CD pipelines.
Experience with frontend unit, component, and end-to-end UI testing strategies and tools such as Jest, Vitest, React Testing Library, Angular Testing Library, Playwright, or Cypress.
Familiarity with frontend infrastructure, CDN strategies, asset optimization, and progressive enhancement.
Experience with design systems and component libraries, including maintaining consistency across multiple applications.
Strong proficiency in modern JavaScript/TypeScript and deep understanding of web platform APIs.
Solid understanding of CSS architecture, mobile-first responsive design, and cross-browser compatibility.
Experience integrating accessibility validation into testing pipelines using axe-core or similar tools.
Experience with state management patterns and asynchronous data handling in frontend applications.
Practical knowledge of web performance optimization, Core Web Vitals, and frontend monitoring.
Understanding of API integration patterns, GraphQL or REST, and working with backend services.
Familiarity with cloud deployment patterns for frontend applications, including CDN and static hosting.
Experience establishing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with automated accessibility checks, linting, and testing.
Strong product thinking and ability to balance user needs, business requirements, and technical constraints.
Working knowledge of modern UI/UX principles, design patterns, and user-centered design methodologies.
Experience collaborating with product managers and designers on customer-facing applications.
Ability to provide technical input during design discussions and advocate for feasible, accessible solutions.
Data-driven approach to measuring and improving user experience through analytics and user feedback.
Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale technical initiatives and make architectural decisions with organizational impact.
Strong communication, code, and documentation practices.
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts and strategic vision clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
Proven ability to mentor and develop engineers and build organizational frontend capability.
Ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and navigate technical and business trade-offs at the principal level.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the strategic direction for frontend engineering practices, tooling, and skillset across the organization.
Lead development of accessible, performant, user-centered web applications for government customers.
Serve as a technical authority and thought leader for frontend architecture and engineering excellence.
Design and implement modern frontend architectures, development pipelines, and deployment infrastructure.
Deliver features and improvements to customer-facing applications, emphasizing user experience and accessibility compliance.
Collaborate with product managers to develop UI/UX approaches and make pragmatic trade-offs between user experience and implementation effort.
Build and maintain component libraries, design systems, and shared frontend infrastructure.
Identify frontend modernization opportunities and lead technical initiatives that improve developer experience and application quality.
Establish and promote frontend best practices for mobile-first development, testing, performance optimization, accessibility, and code quality.
Mentor and coach engineers at all levels and establish career development pathways for frontend specialization.
Influence technical decisions across teams and advise strategically on frontend initiatives.
Work across the full stack when needed to solve problems end-to-end.
Collaborate with product managers and designers throughout the development lifecycle on customer-facing applications.
Provide technical input in design discussions and advocate for feasible, accessible solutions.
Use analytics and user feedback to measure and improve user experience.
Lead large-scale technical initiatives from vision through production, influencing outcomes across multiple teams.
Communicate technical concepts and strategic vision to engineers, designers, product managers, executives, and external stakeholders.

Benefits

Medical plan options, including plans with Health Savings Accounts.
Dental plan options.
Vision plan.
401(k) plan with pre-tax and post-tax contribution options and company match.
Full flex work weeks where possible.
Paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time.
Paid holidays.
Paid parental leave.
Military leave.
Bereavement leave.
Jury duty leave.
Typically 15 days of paid leave per calendar year for new employees, prorated based on date of hire.
Typically 10 paid holidays per year, prorated based on date of hire.
Paid Family Leave of up to 160 hours in a rolling 12-month period for eligible employees.
Short- and long-term disability benefits.
Life insurance.
Accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
Personal accident insurance.
Critical illness insurance.
Business travel and accident insurance.