Lead Frontend Engineer

About the role

We are looking for a Lead Frontend Engineer to own the frontend craft for the “candidate site” or the take-home assessment product. You will work on a React/Next.js and TypeScript codebase that is required to perform reliably under real-world conditions at a significant scale. Performance, accessibility, and reliability are treated as core product attributes rather than secondary concerns because the quality of this experience directly affects whether a developer can demonstrate their true ability.

Beyond the core product, this role sits at the centre of HackerRank's AI-era shift. You will contribute to building AI-powered assistants that help candidates inside the assessment experience, and work alongside a broader engineering push to embed AI agents across the internal SDLC engineering, QA, review, and delivery. Paid access to leading AI development tools is standard, and applied AI work here is production-bound rather than experimental.

What you’ll do

• Lead the development of intuitive, scalable user experiences across the hiring journey in close partnership with product and design.
• Architect and build reusable frontend systems and component libraries that scale across HackerRank products.
• Set and uphold high standards for performance, accessibility, testing, and overall code quality.
• Contribute to building AI-powered assistants in the candidate experience and to internal AI agents that speed up the team's engineering workflows.
• Own and continuously improve key web performance metrics such as Core Web Vitals and responsiveness.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to influence product direction and elevate user experience.
• Mentor engineers and drive end-to-end ownership of features from ideation to production.

Who you are

• An experienced frontend engineer 6–8 years of experience building production-grade frontend applications, with strong expertise in React.
• Deep knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with a sharp eye for detail and accessibility.
• Proven ability to design scalable frontend architectures and reusable component systems.
• Strong understanding of modern frontend tooling, bundling, and performance optimization.
• Comfortable leading projects, mentoring engineers, and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on with AI-native development; ideally has already built or shipped AI-powered features and uses agentic tools as a core part of the workflow.

Even better if you have

• Experience with frontend security and protecting user trust.
• Experience shipping AI-powered product features or working with LLM APIs and agentic tooling.

You will thrive in this role if

• You lead with product thinking and bring deep empathy for real customer problems.
• Turn ambiguity into clarity through structured problem-solving and crisp, high-quality execution.
• AI tools are part of your workflow - helping you move faster, solve smarter, and raise the bar on craftsmanship.