Staff Frontend Engineer / Frontend Architect (m/f/d)
fact-finder · Berlin · hybrid
Teaser
Two products, two backends, one frontend vision: build the AI-first frontend platform and design system that lets our engineers, product managers and designers ship UI at speed. A senior hands-on role with architect-level influence, no people management, and our CPTO as your executive sponsor.
Role at a glance
- Level: Staff/Principal-level individual contributor – technical leadership, no direct reports
- Reporting line: VP Engineering. Executive sponsor: our CPTO
- Products: FactFinder NG (React on a Java backend) and Infinity (React on a .NET/F# backend)
- Stack you'll shape: React, TypeScript, Web Components, design tokens, Storybook, AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP-based tooling)
- Team: Product & Technology organization of around 25 people, led by our CPTO, working in a product trio model with product and design
- Location: Berlin; Munich, Pforzheim or Stockholm possible – hybrid with 2–3 office days per week; occasional travel (
About FactFinder
FactFinder is one of the leading product discovery platforms for European eCommerce. For more than 20 years we've applied AI and machine learning to product search, navigation, personalization and recommendations. Our Product Discovery Experience (PDX) spans two products: FactFinder NG, an exact and highly configurable search, and Infinity, a self-learning, behavioral discovery engine. More than 2,000 customers generate over €160 billion in annual GMV on our platform.
We're around 90 people with a new management team, a clear growth plan and reknown investors behind us. Right now we're rebuilding our product and tech organization around an AI-first way of working and agentic commerce – and this role sits at the center of it.
Why this role exists
Our two products run two React frontends with very different technical roots. We need a vision, an architect, and an owner — someone who will unify them into a single, efficient system, build the shared design system on top, and enable product managers and designers to prototype and ship production-grade UI themselves with AI tooling. Incrementally, without a big-bang rewrite, and while both products keep shipping.
What you'll do
- Define and drive the target frontend architecture across both React products – one consistent, efficient React-based system, migrated step by step
- Build and own our shared design system: tokens, component library and Web Components for embeddable shop UI, tightly aligned with Product Design
- Create an AI-first prototyping and contribution framework – design system, AI coding tools, guardrails, automated review and CI – so product managers and designers can prototype and contribute production-grade UI
- Stay hands-on: write a significant share of the critical code, set standards, and pair with and level up our frontend engineers
- Work with a clear operating split: after architecture-focused first stints, spend around 80% of your time hands-on coding and 20% on architecture, design-system leadership and enablement
What success looks like
- After 90 days: frontend audit of both products done, target architecture and migration roadmap agreed, design-system tokens and core components live, and the first prototype built and shipped by a product manager or designer on the new framework
- After 12 months: both products run on the shared design system, the frontend rework shows measurable efficiency gains, and product and design prototype independently as a routine – frontend is no longer the bottleneck
Must-have
- Expert-level React and TypeScript, proven in complex production SaaS frontends
- A real AI-first engineering practice: you use AI coding tools and agents daily and have built workflows or frameworks that others use – not just "I use Copilot"
- Design-system architecture: you've built or led a design system (tokens, component library, Storybook or similar) that was adopted across multiple teams or products
- Web Components (Custom Elements, Shadow DOM, embedding in third-party environments) plus a frontend architecture track record: you've modernized or migrated a frontend stack at least once, ideally several times
- 6+ years in frontend or software engineering, including 3+ years at Staff, Lead or Architect level – setting technical direction across teams, not just within your own
- Hands-on today: you write production code yourself – this is not a concept-only architect position
- Business-fluent English (C1); no formal degree required, your track record counts
Nice-to-have
- Technical leadership without line management: you've led a SaaS frontend team through a major technology change
- Meta-frameworks such as Next.js and/or Astro – and a clear view on when to use which
- Design-to-code and prototyping tooling: Figma workflows, design-token pipelines, AI UI generation (v0, Claude Code, Cursor, MCP-based tooling)
- eCommerce, search or product discovery frontends (search UIs, embeddable shop widgets)
- React on non-JavaScript backends (Java/Spring, .NET); Fable/Feliz or Ant Design
- Good German language skills
Who thrives here
- Builders who ship code themselves and lead by example
- Pragmatic simplifiers: incremental migration over big-bang rewrites, no over-engineering
- Change agents with strong opinions, weakly held – able to transform an organization without burning it out
- Enablers who enjoy making product managers and designers productive and treat them as peers
Probably not for you if you'd rather produce architecture concepts than running code, want to go deep on one product and leave the cross-product system to others, or are looking for a people-management role.
What we offer
- Real ownership with executive backing: you shape the frontend of two products end to end. You report to our VP Engineering; our CPTO is the executive sponsor of this role – both agree the target architecture and migration roadmap with you, and the CPTO reviews your 90-day goals and holds your final interview. A company-level priority, not a side project
- AI-first as a leadership priority, with the tooling budget to match: Claude Code, Cursor or whatever makes you fastest
- Impact without switching to management: a Staff/Principal IC track on our career ladder toward Principal/Distinguished – with the option to move into engineering management later if you want to
- A product trio culture: engineering, product and design as co-owners, outcomes over outputs
- Competitive compensation that reflects the Staff level of this role
- Training and conference budget, 30 days of vacation, modern equipment, mobility offers and a company pension plan
- Hybrid work with 2–3 office days per week in Berlin, Munich, Pforzheim or Stockholm
How we hire
Remote, with feedback within 48 hours after every step:
1. 30-minute intro call with our Recruiter Mirko
2. 60-minute technical interview with our VP Engineering (your future manager) and an engineering lead: one frontend modernization you led, your design-system story, and how you use AI day to day
3. Case study: a hands-on part (AI tools explicitly welcome – walk us through how you used them) and a 45-minute architecture session
4. Team panel and a 45-minute conversation with our CPTO – optionally on site
FAQ
Is this a people-management role? No. It's a senior individual-contributor role: you lead through architecture, standards and enablement, without direct reports.
Who will I report to? Our VP Engineering. The role is sponsored by our CPTO: the frontend platform is one of the CPTO's top priorities, you agree the target architecture and migration roadmap together, and the CPTO holds your final interview.
Which tech stack will I work with? React and TypeScript on both products. FactFinder NG runs on a Java backend, Infinity on .NET/F# (with Fable/Feliz on the frontend). Backend, F# and our search domain are things you can learn here – React expertise, Web Compo