Principal Frontend Engineer – Real-Time Geospatial Maps

HavocAI; Rhode Island; On-site; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental and Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

401(k) Matching

Unlimited PTO

Equity

Stipend for Work/Home Office

Global Entry

Parental Leave (16 weeks)

Wellness Stipend

Job summary

HavocAI is seeking a Principal Frontend Engineer to architect, build, and scale real-time geospatial interfaces for autonomous systems across domains. You will work directly with the Head of Frontend, shaping engineering decisions and mentoring a senior team to handle growth in data and vehicles.

You will drive patterns for high-frequency telemetry, map rendering performance, and degraded connectivity handling, while delivering scalable frontend solutions in a fast-paced, security-conscious

Qualifications

• 10+ years of frontend engineering experience, including leadership at staff/principal level
• Production experience building and scaling high-volume real‑time apps
• Expert-level React and TypeScript with an understanding of rendering models and performance
• Geospatial apps using MapLibre, Mapbox GL, Deck.gl, or equivalent
• Experience optimizing large/dynamic geospatial feature sets
• Hands-on scaling of real‑time apps through growth in entities/data
• Experience with real‑time protocols such as WebSockets, MQTT, gRPC-web, SSE
• Strong browser performance across rendering, memory, CPU, networking, GPU
• Client-side data architectures with workers, batching, caching, and state boundaries
• Designing for degraded/intermittent connectivity and state reconciliation
• Solid software architecture and ability to sequence architectural changes
• Strong communication skills to influence direction without formal authority
• High ownership in fast-moving, ambiguous environments

Responsibilities

• Design and implement frontend architecture for high-frequency telemetry in real-time geospatial apps
• Guide the map layer system: lifecycle, interaction state, feature identity, performance
• Collaborate with Head of Frontend on scalable architectural decisions
• Code alongside the team, tackling hard parts and ensuring maintainability at scale
• Identify performance and architectural risks early to prevent incidents
• Explain technical decisions through reviews, proposals, and code with minimal process overhead
• Mentor senior engineers in real-time and geospatial engineering

Skills

Frontend engineering

React

TypeScript

Real-time systems

Geospatial interfaces

WebSockets/MQTT/grpc-web

Map libraries (MapLibre/Mapbox/Deck.gl

Performance optimization

Architectural design

Mentorship

Tools

MapLibre

Mapbox GL

Deck.gl

WebGL

Job description

HavocAI is seeking a Principal Frontend Engineer to architect, build, and scale real-time geospatial interfaces for autonomous systems across domains. You will work directly with the Head of Frontend, shaping engineering decisions and mentoring a senior team to handle growth in data and vehicles.

You will drive patterns for high-frequency telemetry, map rendering performance, and degraded connectivity handling, while delivering scalable frontend solutions in a fast-paced, security-conscious