Principal Frontend Engineer

We're a seed-stage AI automation company building the control plane that lets businesses design, deploy, and manage intelligent back-office workflows. Think visual workflow builders, real-time observability dashboards, and hybrid interfaces that serve both technical and non-technical users - layered on top of enterprise ERP systems. We recently hired a designer. Now we need the engineer who executes. This role owns the frontend control plane UI - the surface our customers live in every day. You'll work directly with founders, ship fast, and have a significant say in how the product looks and behaves. This is a hybrid role. We're opening an office in Union Square and expect engineers in the office a few days per week. Remote-only candidates will not be considered. What You'll Build

• The core control plane UI - workflow authoring, agent configuration, task management, and human-in-the-loop approval surfaces
• Reporting and observability dashboards for workflow performance and analytics
• Real-time data sync layers using WebSockets and Server-Sent Events
• Adaptive interfaces that serve both technical operators and business users
• API integrations in close collaboration with backend engineers

Must-haves:

• 4-7 years of full-stack experience, strongly frontend-weighted (60-80% UI work)

• Expert-level React with TypeScript - production-grade, recent, modern patterns

• Proven experience building complex interactive UIs: dashboards, workflow builders, visual editors, data-rich applications

• Modern CSS proficiency - Tailwind preferred

• Full-stack integration experience: building and consuming APIs, collaborating with backend

• Product mindset - you care about how things feel and function, not just whether they ship

• NYC-based or genuinely willing to commute to Union Square a few days per week

• Existing US work authorization required - visa sponsorship is not available Nice-to-haves:

• Real-time UI experience: WebSockets, SSE, collaborative editing

• Background at a workflow builder, no-code/low-code, or visual editor company (Retool, Airtable, Notion, Zapier, Monday.com, etc.)

• Enterprise SaaS or B2B tooling exposure

• Early-stage startup experience (seed through Series B)

• Genuinely hard UI problems - visual programming, real-time collaboration, enterprise workflow UX. Not another CRUD app.

• Founding team equity at a well-backed seed round. The equity is meaningful.

• Small team (~16 people), direct founder access, and real ownership of a critical product surface from day one.

• Competitive base: $200K-$250K depending on experience. Not a Fit If:

• You're primarily backend or infrastructure-focused

• You need visa sponsorship

• You're only open to remote

• Your background is exclusively FAANG/large company with no startup exposure

• You're on a people management track