Full Stack Engineer

Photon; Newark (DE); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Photon in Newark, DE seeks an experienced Full Stack Technical Lead to drive design, development, and delivery of scalable applications with a front-end and API focus.

You will lead architecture decisions around React/TypeScript, micro-frontend, REST APIs, and security best practices, while mentoring engineers and ensuring quality through CI/CD and Playwright-based testing.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software development with front-end/full-stack emphasis.
• Expert hands-on React/TypeScript and micro-frontend experience.
• Strong REST API design and OpenAPI 3.0 knowledge.
• Experience with Webpack, Module Federation, and UI design systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end technical design and development of full-stack apps with focus on UI platform and APIs.
• Own micro-frontend strategy, module boundaries, and Webpack/Module Federation across teams.
• Define UI design system, tokens, and Figma handoffs to code.
• Set standards for state management and CSS architecture at scale.
• Ensure accessibility (ARIA/WCAG) compliance across UI surfaces.
• Design and manage RESTful APIs, versioning, testing, and integration.
• Mentor engineers, perform code reviews, and drive delivery planning.

Job description

• We are seeking an experienced Full Stack Technical Lead, front-end and API-focused, to lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable, high-performance applications.
• The ideal candidate has expert-level command of React/TypeScript and micro-frontend (MFE) architecture, strong REST API design skills, and the technical leadership skills to guide engineering teams and drive best practices.
• Python and AWS experience are valued but not the primary focus of the role.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end technical design and development of full-stack applications, with emphasis on the front-end/UI platform and its supporting APIs.
• Own the micro-frontend (MFE) strategy — module boundaries, shared shell, and Webpack & Module Federation setup across teams.
• Define the UI design system — component libraries, design tokens, and how they're sourced from Figma and propagated to code.
• Set standards for state management across React applications and for CSS architecture at scale.
• Own accessibility (ARIA/WCAG) compliance delivery across all UI surfaces.
• Define UI performance budgets and drive performance/error monitoring rollout in production.
• Design, build, and manage robust RESTful APIs (OpenAPI 3.0) and service integrations, including versioning, lifecycle, and governance.
• Set the strategy for contract testing across producing and consuming teams.
• Direct authentication/authorization delivery using OAuth/OIDC and enforce OWASP security standards for both UI and APIs.
• Design and optimize database queries, indexing, and data access strategies (schema/data modelling not required for this role).
• Set the test automation strategy (Playwright) and quality gates for UI/API releases.
• Ensure application scalability, availability, reliability, and security.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, DevOps, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Provide technical leadership, code reviews, and mentorship to development team members; run day-to-day delivery of the team including sprint commitments and real-time unblocking.
• Drive engineering best practices including clean code, testing, CI/CD, monitoring, and documentation.
• Champion effective use of AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot) across the SDLC — coding, code review, testing, and documentation — and set adoption practices for the team.
• Identify technical risks, bottlenecks, and architectural improvements and provide effective solutions.
• Participate in effort estimation, sprint planning, technical roadmaps, and delivery planning.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of overall software development experience, with significant experience in front-end/full-stack development, React/TypeScript, micro-frontend architecture, and API design/development.
• Expert, hands-on React and TypeScript skills — non-negotiable.
• Proven, hands-on experience with micro-frontend architecture using Webpack and Module Federation — non-negotiable.
• Understanding of software architecture, including scalable, API-based, service-oriented system design.
• Strong hands-on Node.js experience for API and backend services.
• Strong experience designing and developing REST APIs (OpenAPI 3.0) and integrating third-party services; API versioning, security, documentation, and performance best practices.
• Experience with state management patterns (Redux, Context, signals, or equivalent) and CSS architecture at scale.
• Experience working with a UI design system (component libraries, design tokens) and Figma hand-off workflows.
• Working knowledge of ARIA/accessibility (WCAG) standards.
• Solid understanding of OAuth/OIDC and OWASP security practices for both front-end and APIs.
• Experience writing contract tests for APIs.
• Comfortable writing and optimizing SQL queries against relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) — data modelling/schema design not required.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing (Playwright or similar), and production deployment practices.
• Practical, hands-on experience using AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot) in day-to-day development and across the SDLC.
• Experience mentoring and guiding software engineers.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Python for backend/API development (added advantage, not required) — frameworks such as FastAPI, Django, or Flask.
• Working knowledge of AWS (compute, storage, database, networking, security, monitoring services) — preferred, not mandatory.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience implementing UI A/B testing.
• Exposure to error/performance monitoring tooling (DynaTrace RUM, or similar).
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum development environments.
• Prior work in a regulated or enterprise design-system environment.