Founding Frontend Engineer

Flick (YC F25); Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Flick, a YC-backed technology company in Sunnyvale, CA, is seeking a founding front‑end engineer to craft the core editing experience of Flick’s canvas, timeline, and tools. You will own the editor UI architecture and drive performance and UX across cutting‑edge features.

You’ll collaborate with design, product, and AI backend teams to shape the end‑to‑end user experience and help set engineering practices for rapid iteration in a fast‑moving startup environment.

Qualifications

• Experience owning and leading technical initiatives on high‑performance web applications.
• Strong expertise with modern front‑end tooling (React, TypeScript, build systems, CI/CD).
• Deep experience optimizing complex UX interactions in editors, canvases, or multimedia tools.
• Ability to design scalable UI architectures and manage large client‑side state.
• Startup mindset: thrive in fast‑moving environments and own problems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and development of the editor UI (canvas, timeline, node graph, playback).
• Prototype and iterate on new creative workflows to validate ideas and UX.
• Establish best practices for code quality, performance, testing, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with design, product, and AI backend teams to shape the end‑to‑end UX.
• Drive technical and product decisions as part of the founding engineering team.

Skills

Leadership

Frontend architecture

React

TypeScript

Performance UX

CI/CD

Tools

React

TypeScript

Build systems

CI/CD

Job description

Base pay range

$100,000.00/yr - $200,000.00/yr

The Role

As our founding front-end engineer, you’ll build and ship the core editing experience of Flick — our canvas, timeline, and creative tooling.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the architecture and development of our editor UI from the ground up (canvas, timeline, node graph, playback).
• Rapidly prototype and iterate on new creative workflows to validate ideas and user experience.
• Establish best practices for code quality, performance, testing, and maintainability.
• Collaborate closely with design, product, and AI backend teams to shape the end‑to‑end user experience.
• Drive key technical and product decisions as part of the founding engineering team.

Requirements

• Experience owning and leading technical initiatives on high‑performance web applications.
• Strong expertise with modern front‑end tooling (React, TypeScript, build systems, CI/CD).
• Deep experience optimizing complex UX interactions, especially in editors, canvases, visual builders, or multimedia tools.
• Ability to design scalable UI architectures and manage large, dynamic client‑side state.
• A passion for creating fast, intuitive, and beautiful creative interfaces.
• Startup mindset: you thrive in fast‑moving environments, take ownership, and solve ambiguous problems at scale.

Nice‑to‑have

• Experience with video editors, creative canvas, animation/keyframe systems, design tools, node‑graph editors, or similar.
• Love films and art.
• Have contributed in open‑source projects, and coding for fun outside of regular work.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Engineering and Information Technology

Industries

Technology, Information and Internet