Frontend Engineer

We are seeking a Frontend Engineer to create impactful products that support partners at organizations like NASA in furthering their goals of making Earth observation data more accessible and enabling open science.

Development Seed is a unique and rewarding place to do this work. Over the past two decades, we have honed our approach of stewarding projects from opportunity to successful, impactful products. Our partners are working on interesting and important problems. Our technical teams are built of curious, empathetic people with high intrinsic motivation and a growth mindset. We open source a lot of our work, invest heavily in R&D that drives the field, and regularly reinvent the nature of our work.

As part of this team, you will build frontend web applications to visualize, analyze, and communicate Earth observation data for NASA and other partners. Your primary contribution will be readable, maintainable code, but you should be comfortable leading frontend development and communicating ideas about design and usability. You will help us continue to be our best by making framework and architectural recommendations, writing reusable components and interfaces, and utilizing open source libraries that improve the state-of-the-art.

This is a remote-first position with some travel opportunities.

As a Frontend Engineer, you will:

• Design and implement user-facing features in React and Next.js, creating intuitive interfaces for exploring satellite data
• Build and maintain state management solutions, selecting the best library for the job, and writing custom hooks for scalable and maintainable application logic
• Develop and optimize frontend components for geospatial data visualization using libraries like react-map-gl and maplibre-gl
• Handle responsive design and accessibility challenges to ensure applications provide a seamless experience across devices and user groups
• Integrate complex UI workflows, such as vendor data fetching and dynamic vendor filters
• Collaborate with engineers on API design to ensure proper data structures and workflows that meet the needs of API consumers
• Represent Development Seed in forums and meetings with partners

About youRequirements

Qualified candidates will have:

• 5+ years of professional software development experience
• 3+ years professional experience building robust frontend web applications in React.js
• Core Technologies:
• Advanced proficiency in modern JavaScript with ES6+ features and patterns, TypeScript, and modern CSS frameworks (Chakra, NextUI, Tailwind, styled-components)
• Strong understanding of responsive design and cross-browser compatibility
• State Management & Performance:
• Experience with state management solutions (Redux/Thunk, Zustand, React Query)
• Proficiency in client-side and server-side rendering optimization, performance optimization and debugging, code splitting and bundle optimization, memory leak prevention
• Architecture & Best Practices:
• Familiarity with component architecture and design patterns, clean code principles, and testing frameworks (Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress)
• Experience implementing accessibility standards (WCAG)
• Build & Deployment:
• Experience with build tooling (Webpack, Vite, Babel)
• Proficiency in CI/CD pipelines and environment configuration management
• A track record of leading frontend projects
• Experience with geospatial data and open standard APIs and data formats (STAC, GeoJSON, map tiles)
• Experience with Git, GitHub, and project management tools
• Strong ability to work collaboratively as part of a team and independently
• A pragmatic approach to agile development methodologies

Nice to Have

• Experience in web mapping with react-map-gl, maplibre-gl, deck-gl
• Experience in data visualization with charting libraries, D3, etc.
• Experience with backend technologies (Node.js, API development, Python, FastAPI), Docker containerization, Next.js, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Knowledge of web security best practices
• Experience with analytics and monitoring tools
• Understanding of UI/UX design principles
• Internationalization (i18n) experience
• ​​Experience working on scientific projects with non-technical stakeholders
• Experience leading technical meetings with external stakeholders and engineers

As a Development Seed team member, you:

• Collaborate — Working as a team makes us stronger than any individual developer. You write clear GitHub tickets and communicate effectively on Slack and in-person.
• Learn — We constantly evolve our technology stack and techniques to deliver the best work to our partners. You don't need to know any particular language or framework upfront but you need to demonstrate you're able and excited to learn new ways to build.
• Code — You write code focusing on both performance and maintainability. You write detailed documentation before and after writing code.
• Respect — We are a diverse team spread across the globe. You value others’ perspective, voice, and ideas. You treat everyone with dignity and professionalism.
• Care about the world and believe that we can do better — Social change is the foundation of everything we do. You are impatient about solving the world’s toughest challenges.

We have a comprehensive 5 step hiring process, designed to be thorough and engaging to ensure that you and our team have a clear understanding of how we can succeed together:

1. Application review
2. Introductory interview to get to know each other
3. Technical interview to talk about your skills for this position, prior experience, and answer hypothetical questions about how you’d approach future projects
4. Team fit interview to align with our team's culture and your longer term career goals
5. Paid full day virtual interview activity for you to collaborate directly with our team members

Not sure you tick all the boxes? We encourage you to apply. We have a culture of learning, and if this job description sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you.

Development Seed embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.