Original listing text, shown exactly as published by the company.
About the Role
HavocAI is seeking a Frontend Team Lead to lead the development of the user interfaces that power our platform. This role combines hands-on frontend engineering with technical leadership, team mentorship, architecture ownership, and cross-functional execution.
In this role, you will lead a frontend team focused on building high-performance, data-driven web applications, including map-based and visualization-heavy interfaces. You will work closely with backend, platform, product, design, and autonomy teams to deliver reliable, scalable frontend systems that support real-time data, complex workflows, and mission-critical operations.
The ideal candidate is deeply technical, performance-focused, and excited to lead a team building interfaces that operate in real-world environments. You should be comfortable setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, making architectural decisions, and still contributing directly to the codebase.
What You’ll Do
Lead Frontend Engineering
- Lead the design and development of scalable, performant user interfaces using React and modern frontend technologies
- Set technical direction for frontend architecture, state management, data flow, and component design
- Build complex workflows and UI components for data-rich, operational applications
- Develop interfaces that support real-time data, situational awareness, and operator decision-making
- Contribute directly to implementation while guiding the team through technical tradeoffs and execution
Team Leadership & Mentorship
- Mentor frontend engineers and help raise the technical bar across the team
- Lead code reviews, design discussions, sprint planning, and technical planning for frontend work
- Help break down ambiguous product and technical requirements into clear execution plans
- Promote engineering best practices around performance, testing, maintainability, accessibility, and reliability
- Partner with engineering leadership to support team growth, hiring, onboarding, and development
Data Integration & Performance
- Integrate frontend systems with backend services via REST, GraphQL, and real-time data interfaces
- Optimize rendering performance for large datasets, map-based views, streaming data, and real-time updates
- Ensure responsive, reliable performance across devices, browsers, and operating environments
- Identify and resolve frontend performance bottlenecks across the platform
- Build systems that remain usable and dependable in mission-critical workflows
Architecture & Maintainability
- Own and evolve frontend architecture, including state management, data flow, build tooling, testing strategy, and component organization
- Build and maintain reusable component libraries, design systems, and shared UI patterns
- Ensure frontend systems are scalable, maintainable, testable, and easy for other engineers to extend
- Establish patterns that support multiple products, mission workflows, and customer-facing applications
- Drive technical consistency across frontend codebases and applications
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with backend, platform, autonomy, product, and design teams to deliver end-to-end features
- Collaborate with UX/design to ensure high-quality implementation and operator-focused user experiences
- Translate complex operational requirements into intuitive, reliable frontend workflows
- Work with stakeholders to balance speed, usability, performance, and technical quality
- Represent frontend engineering in product planning, architecture reviews, and roadmap discussions
What We’re Looking For
- 7+ years of frontend engineering experience, including experience leading frontend projects or teams
- Strong expertise in React and modern JavaScript or TypeScript
- Experience building data-driven, high-performance web applications
- Strong understanding of frontend architecture, state management, data flow, and performance optimization
- Experience working with APIs, asynchronous data flows, and real-time or frequently updating data
- Experience building reusable component libraries, design systems, or shared UI frameworks
- Ability to mentor engineers, lead technical discussions, and drive frontend best practices
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and design
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, mission-driven, highly collaborative environment
- Strong ownership, technical judgment, and willingness to remain hands-on
Nice to Have
- Experience building map-based or geospatial applications using Mapbox, Leaflet, Deck.gl, or similar tools
- Familiarity with WebGL or advanced visualization frameworks
- Experience with automated testing frameworks such as Jest, Cypress, Playwright, or similar tools
- Understanding of design systems, accessibility, and reusable component architecture
- Experience with real-time systems, data streaming applications, or operational dashboards
- Experience supporting defense, autonomy, robotics, maritime, aviation, or mission-critical software environments
- Experience leading frontend teams in a high-growth startup environment
What Success Looks Like in 12 Months
- A high-performing frontend team with clear technical standards, strong execution, and growing ownership
- Scalable, high-performance frontend systems supporting real-world operations
- Reliable, intuitive interfaces for complex data, maps, workflows, and mission-critical decision-making
- Improved frontend performance, responsiveness, maintainability, and system consistency
- Strong collaboration across engineering, product, design, autonomy, and platform teams
- Reusable UI components, design patterns, and frontend systems adopted across the platform
- A frontend architecture that can scale with HavocAI’s products, customers, and operational needs
