Staff Frontend Engineer / Frontend Architect (m/f/d)

FACT-Finder; Pforzheim; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

FACT-Finder is seeking a Staff/Principal frontend engineer to lead a hybrid frontend effort across two React-based products. You will unify architectures, build a shared design system, and enable product managers and designers to prototype with AI tooling.

The role requires hands-on coding, deep expertise in React and TypeScript, and a track record in design-system maturity with Web Components. You will report to the VP Engineering via a CPTO sponsor.

Qualifications

• Expert-level React and TypeScript in complex production SaaS frontends.
• An AI-first engineering practice with daily use of AI coding tools and agents.
• Designed or led a design system adopted across multiple teams or products.
• Web Components and frontend architecture track record including migrations or modernization.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the target frontend architecture across both React products – a single, efficient system.
• Build and own the shared design system: tokens, component library and Web Components.
• Create an AI-first prototyping and contribution framework with tools and CI for production-grade UI.
• Stay hands-on and write a significant share of critical code while mentoring others.
• Balance 80% hands-on coding with 20% architecture, design-system leadership and enablement.

Skills

React

TypeScript

AI-first engineering

Design-system architecture

Web Components

Frontend architecture

Staff/Lead level

Tools

Storybook

Job description

Introduction

Teaser Two products, two backends, one frontend vision: build the AI-first frontend platform and design system that lets our engineers, product managers and designers ship UI at speed. A senior hands-on role with architect-level influence, no people management, and our CPTO as your executive sponsor.

Role at a glance

• Level: Staff/Principal-level individual contributor - technical leadership, no direct reports
• Reporting line: VP Engineering. Executive sponsor: our CPTO
• Products: FactFinder NG (React on a Java backend) and Infinity (React on a .NET/F# backend)
• Stack you'll shape: React, TypeScript, Web Components, design tokens, Storybook, AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP-based tooling)
• Team: Product & Technology organization of around 25 people, led by our CPTO, working in a product trio model with product and design
• Location: Berlin; Munich, Pforzheim or Stockholm possible - hybrid with 2–3 office days per week; occasional travel (<10%) for offsites and design-system workshops
• Start: as soon as possible

About FactFinder

FactFinder is one of the leading product discovery platforms for European eCommerce. For more than 20 years we've applied AI and machine learning to product search, navigation, personalization and recommendations. Our Product Discovery Experience (PDX) spans two products: FactFinder NG, an exact and highly configurable search, and Infinity, a self-learning, behavioral discovery engine. More than 2,000 customers generate over €160 billion in annual GMV on our platform.

We're around 90 people with a new management team, a clear growth plan and reknown investors behind us. Right now we're rebuilding our product and tech organization around an AI-first way of working and agentic commerce – and this role sits at the center of it.

Why this role exists

Our two products run two React frontends with very different technical roots. We need a vision, an architect, and an owner — someone who will unify them into a single, efficient system, build the shared design system on top, and enable product managers and designers to prototype and ship production-grade UI themselves with AI tooling. Incrementally, without a big-bang rewrite, and while both products keep shipping.

Your mission

What you'll do

• Define and drive the target frontend architecture across both React products - one consistent, efficient React-based system, migrated step by step
• Build and own our shared design system: tokens, component library and Web Components for embeddable shop UI, tightly aligned with Product Design
• Create an AI-first prototyping and contribution framework - design system, AI coding tools, guardrails, automated review and CI - so product managers and designers can prototype and contribute production-grade UI
• Stay hands-on: write a significant share of the critical code, set standards, and pair with and level up our frontend engineers
• Work with a clear operating split: after architecture-focused first stints, spend around 80% of your time hands-on coding and 20% on architecture, design-system leadership and enablement

What success looks like

• After 90 days: frontend audit of both products done, target architecture and migration roadmap agreed, design-system tokens and core components live, and the first prototype built and shipped by a product manager or designer on the new framework
• After 12 months: both products run on the shared design system, the frontend rework shows measurable efficiency gains, and product and design prototype independently as a routine - frontend is no longer the bottleneck

Your profile

Must-have

• Expert-level React and TypeScript, proven in complex production SaaS frontends
• A real AI-first engineering practice: you use AI coding tools and agents daily and have built workflows or frameworks that others use – not just "I use Copilot"
• Design-system architecture: you've built or led a design system (tokens, component library, Storybook or similar) that was adopted across multiple teams or products
• Web Components (Custom Elements, Shadow DOM, embedding in third-party environments) plus a frontend architecture track record: you've modernized or migrated a frontend stack at least once, ideally several times
• 6+ years in frontend or software engineering, including 3+ years at Staff, Lead or Architect level - setting technical direction across teams, not just within your own
• Hands-on today: you write production code yourself - this is not a concept-only architect position
• Business-fluent English (C1); no formal degree required, your track record counts

Nice-to-have

• Technical leadership without line management: you've led a SaaS frontend team through a major technology change
• Meta-frameworks such as Next.js and/or Astro - and a clear view on when to use which
• Design-to-code and prototyping tooling: Figma workflows, design-token pipelines, AI UI generation (v0, Claude Code, Cursor, MCP-based tooling)
• eCommerce, search or product discovery frontends (search UIs, embeddable shop widgets)
• React on non-JavaScript backends (Java/Spring, .NET); Fable/Feliz or Ant Design