Staff Front-End Engineer

Shortstorybox; Toronto; Remote; CAD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a fast-growing startup on a mission to enhance the shopping experience for petite women. As one of the first engineers, you'll have a high-impact role in shaping user experience and engineering standards. Collaborate with a dedicated team to build innovative tools and scalable applications that make shopping personal again. This dynamic environment encourages ownership, creativity, and problem-solving, making it an exciting opportunity for those who thrive in fast-paced settings. If you're passionate about front-end development and eager to contribute to a mission-driven company, this role is perfect for you.

Benefits

4 weeks vacation

Medical & dental benefits

Fully remote work

Optional office access

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in professional front-end development is preferred.
• Strong understanding of testing practices and methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain responsive web applications using NextJS and React.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver user-focused solutions.

Skills

TypeScript

CSS

NextJS

ReactJS

React-Query

Tailwind CSS

Git

User Experience Design

A/B Testing

Performance Optimization

Tools

Webpack

Yarn

Cypress

Jest

React Testing Library

Netlify

GitHub Actions

Job description

About Us:

Short Story is an award winning, technology-powered retailer dedicated to petite women 5'4" and under. Our mission is to create a seamless shopping experience for millions of petite women so they can dress with effortless confidence. As a fast-growing startup, we're revolutionizing retail with a data-driven learning system that leverages customer feedback to create exceptional, tailored products. We've been recognized by top publications like Forbes, Fortune and are backed by top institutional investors who share our vision of building the world's next great consumer brand.

At Short Story, we celebrate petiteness, boldness, and modern womanhood. Our culture combines an insatiable hunger for data, an unwavering commitment to creating superior products, and a hustle startup mentality. We have a strong sense of urgency. Since 2019, we've cultivated a team of dedicated problem solvers and fashion enthusiasts. We're excited for you to join us on this exhilarating journey.

Short Story Engineering:

As a fast-growing startup with team members across the U.S. and Canada, we’re scrappy, data-driven, and deeply customer-obsessed. Our team includes engineers, stylists, product thinkers, and storytellers—all working together to make shopping feel personal again.

At Short Story, everyone is empowered to contribute ideas, challenge the status quo, and take ownership. We keep our decision-making lean and our feedback loops tight—because the best solutions come from those closest to the work.

Our Product:

Short Story is a wardrobe-as-a-service that connects petite women with clothing that actually fits. Behind the scenes, our tools enable stylists to deliver personalized recommendations, while our logistics and warehouse tech ensure fast, seamless order handling. With a mix of internal and customer-facing platforms, we’re building thoughtful, elegant systems to power our growth—and that’s where you come in.

The Role:

As one of the first 5 engineers, this is a high-impact opportunity to shape both the user experience and engineering standards at Short Story. Reporting to the Head of Engineering, you’ll work across internal and customer-facing platforms, building the tools our customers and stylists rely on every day. From improving order handling flows to scaling our design systems, you'll help us evolve how we deliver style—and joy.

You’ll be part of a lean but mighty engineering team, collaborating closely with designers, product managers, and operators. You'll also play a key role in establishing core front-end patterns and best practices, helping us scale thoughtfully while maintaining speed and quality.

• Develop and maintain high-quality and responsive web applications using NextJS, React-Query, and TailwindCSS

• Collaborate with designers, PMs, and backend engineers to deliver end-to-end solutions that meet both user and business needs

• Translate Figma designs into pixel-perfect, interactive user interfaces

• A/B test various designs to optimize user experience and conversion

• Own technical implementation, contributing to component libraries and scalable front-end architecture

• Actively participate in code reviews to ensure code quality, maintainability, and adherence to standards

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers and interns

• Drive automation in testing using Cypress, Jest, or React Testing Library

• Deploy and manage front-end apps on Netlify, integrating CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions

• Help shape front-end culture and set standards around performance, accessibility, and design consistency

Must Haves:

• You are passionate about improving the user experience and have built and launched high-quality user-facing products.

• You’re fluent in TypeScript and CSS, and have extensive experience building scalable applications using NextJS and ReactJS

• You have hands-on experience with React-Query, Tailwind CSS, and front-end tooling like Webpack and Yarn

• You’ve worked in collaborative development environments using Git and GitHub

• You’ve translated designs from Figma into elegant and accessible interfaces across multiple devices and browsers

• You are able to establish testing practices and methodologies for the team

• You understand how to optimize front-end performance and build for scalability

• You’re thoughtful about documentation, communication, and team enablement

• You thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where you can own solutions end-to-end

• You’re excited by ambiguity and love solving complex problems from end to end

Nice to Haves:

• You have 5+ years of experience in professional front-end development

• Experience working in a fast-moving startup environment

• Experience integrating/building component systems and libraries for large codebases

• Have experience with server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG)

• Have worked on sprint-based teams using OKRs or similar frameworks

• Have experience working remotely with global teams

• Have led or built a front-end engineering team before

• Have contributed to open-source or have a strong portfolio of personal project

Benefits and Compensation:

• 4 weeks vacation (20 days)

• Medical & dental benefits

• Fully remote work with optional office access in San Francisco and Toronto

• Ownership and autonomy in a fast-growing, mission-driven company

Short Story is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and a work environment free of discrimination and harassment for all employees and applicants. We work diligently to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.