Lead Front-End Engineer

Xapien; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative tech company is seeking a Lead Front End Engineer to spearhead the complete rebuild of their front-end application. This hands-on leadership role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver a seamless user experience, while also shaping the design system and driving front-end best practices. Join a dynamic team that values ownership, transparency, and continuous learning, and make a significant impact in the realm of AI-driven technology. If you're passionate about clean code and mentoring others, this is the perfect opportunity for you to shine.

Benefits

Equity in the business

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Professional development fund

High-spec MacBook

Regular team lunches and social events

Flexible working hours

X day off annually

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with React.js and state management using Redux.
• Proven track record in leading the architecture of modern front-end applications.
• Strong understanding of front-end performance and optimization techniques.

Responsibilities

• Owning the architecture and implementation of the new front-end application.
• Building a high-performance, scalable, and maintainable React + Redux application.
• Mentoring and guiding other engineers in modern front-end development.

Skills

React.js

Redux

Mobile-first design

Front-end performance optimization

Agile development

Strong communication skills

Tools

GitHub

Storybook

Figma

CI/CD pipelines

AWS

Job description

Xapien is one of the brightest and most exciting tech companies to appear over the last few years. The AI-powered automated research platform is redefining background research and gaining critical success from clients.

Every business in the world, in every sector, needs to know who they are engaging with and Xapien helps them answer that question – quickly and accurately. We use deep Natural Language Processing, AI and huge scale cloud infrastructure to automate human research.

We locate, collect, read, distil and assimilate hundreds of thousands of fragments of information – allowing us to understand a person or company like a human would.

We deliver daily insight to major financial institutions, industry regulators, charities and commercial organisations – and the potential market for the solution is enormous.

Founded in 2018 by experts in national intelligence and anti-money laundering, Xapien aims to revolutionise business due diligence with its AI-driven technology. Since securing Series A funding, our team has grown to 70, and we've achieved notable recognitions, including ranking 33rd globally in Chartis Research’s FCC50 and winning the Entity Management award.

The Role

As Lead Front End Engineer, you’ll be responsible for designing and executing the complete rebuild of our front-end application. You’ll work closely with product, design, and back-end engineering teams to deliver a seamless, performant, and scalable user experience. You’ll also play a critical role in shaping our design system, driving front-end best practices, and mentoring the wider engineering team.

This is a hands-on leadership role—one where you’ll write code, make architectural decisions, and guide the front-end direction of the company.

Core Responsibilities

• Owning the architecture and implementation of the new front-end application.
• Building a high-performance, scalable, and maintainable React + Redux application.
• Designing and documenting a reusable, accessible, and elegant design system in collaboration with the design team.
• Leading front-end technical decision making, establishing best practices and tooling.
• Mentoring and guiding other engineers in modern front-end development.
• Improving developer experience and tooling across the front-end codebase.
• Collaborating with product managers, back-end engineers, and designers to ensure smooth and scalable delivery of new features.
• Driving performance improvements and usability enhancements across the UI.
• Supporting internal stakeholders (e.g. marketing, customer success) with front-end requirements like analytics, tracking, and landing pages
• Extensive experience with React.js and state management using Redux (or similar).
• Demonstrated experience applying mobile-first design principles to create responsive and accessible UIs.
• Proven track record in leading the architecture of modern front-end applications.
• Strong understanding of front-end performance and optimisation techniques.
• Experience building and maintaining a reusable component library or design system.
• Comfortable working in Agile teams, conducting code reviews, and participating in pair programming.
• Strong communication skills—capable of articulating technical decisions clearly and collaborating across functions.
• A desire to lead, mentor, and help others grow.
• Familiarity with tools such as Storybook, Figma, CI/CD pipelines, and GitHub workflows.
• Solid awareness of back-end integration (experience with Go is a plus).
• Experience scaling front-end applications in a growing SaaS environment.
• Familiarity with AWS tooling relevant to front-end infrastructure.
• Exposure to accessibility standards and inclusive design practices.
• Enthusiasm for clean, well-documented, and testable code.
• A thoughtful approach to refactoring legacy systems.

**Please note, we cannot offer sponsorship to applicants (or transfer existing visas) at present**

Salary: up to £110,000 + bonus + equity (dependent on experience)

Additional Information

• Equity in the business in the form of shares – You will own a meaningful part of the business through our employee shares & equity programme
• Unlimited Paid Time Off for you to take time to recharge. ️
• A professional development fund of £1,000 per year – we invest in our people and always encourage growth!
• High-spec MacBook + £200 for equipment setup
• Regular team lunches and social events, from go-karting to mini golf to karaoke to rounders in the park
• X day – one whole company day off every year so we can all switch off Slack and reset
• Flexible working + flexible hours (2 days per week in our WeWork in Moorgate)

Our Values

• Take ownership – We keep our organisation simple, valuing people over policies. We encourage ownership and decision-making.
• Better together – We care about each other and go out of our way to help colleagues succeed. We value relationships and take a genuine interest.
• Transparent – Our business is creating transparency in business relationships; so internally we are ‘default share’, even when it feels uncomfortable.
• Glass-half-full – This is about being real but still choosing to be optimistic. We celebrate wins and encourage each other to build forward.
• Be pioneers – We are leaders not followers – bold, ambitious and can-do. We don’t start with what’s possible, we start with what we want to achieve, then ask ‘what has to be true’?
• Move fast – This is our moment to make our mark on the world. So we work to ambitious deadlines, launch fast and iterate, always streamline, and remain decisive amid huge uncertainty.
• Value learning – We are all learning, always. We take time to explain, even if it’s quicker to do it ourselves.
• Always decent – We are polite, thankful and straightforward. Everyone is down-to-earth, informal and approachable.
• A players – Working here should be stretching and exhilarating. We only hire, and keep, the best, enquiring people that will keep us on our toes.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Information Technology

• Industries

  Software Development and Research Services

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