Lead Associate - React

The Lead Associate - Front End Engineering is a hands-on senior engineering role, equivalent in scope and expectations to a UK Senior Engineer. The role is responsible for building high-quality user-facing software solutions across Consulting & Technology estate. The role provides strong squad-level technical contribution across the React ecosystem, including TypeScript, component architecture, state management, automated front-end testing, accessibility, performance, and integration with modern API-driven services. Working closely with architects and lead engineers, the role helps translate technical direction into maintainable implementation, supports engineering standards, and raises overall delivery quality through good engineering practice. This role is ideal for an experienced front-end engineer who can operate independently, support less experienced developers, contribute to technical design, and deliver robust web applications in Agile engineering squads. Key Responsibilities Front End Design & Development • Design, develop, and maintain high-quality React and TypeScript applications aligned to agreed architecture and squad delivery priorities. • Build reusable components, shared UI patterns, and design-system-aligned experiences that support consistency and maintainability. • Contribute to client-side architecture decisions including routing, state management, data fetching, forms, validation, error handling, and API integration. • Write clean, maintainable, secure front-end code following modern React patterns and agreed engineering standards. • Work with UX/UI colleagues and Product Owners to deliver responsive, accessible, intuitive user experiences. Engineering Quality, Testing & DevOps • Create and maintain automated tests across unit, component, integration, and end-to-end layers using tools such as Jest / Vitest, React Testing Library, Playwright. • Contribute to CI/CD pipelines for front-end applications, including build quality gates, test automation, static analysis, and deployment readiness. • Support front-end performance optimisation, observability, resilience, and maintainability across browser-based applications. • Apply secure coding practices across authentication flows, authorisation boundaries, API consumption, data handling, and dependency management. Technical Contribution & Mentoring • Act as a senior engineer within the squad, modelling good engineering discipline, ownership, and pragmatic problem-solving. • Support and mentor junior and mid-level developers through code reviews, pairing, design discussion, and constructive technical guidance. • Contribute to shared front-end standards, templates, component patterns, and engineering practices. • Support recruitment and onboarding activities where front-end engineering input is required. Problem Solving & Support • Diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve complex front-end issues affecting delivery, quality, performance, or production stability. • Work with Architects, Lead Engineers, Backend Engineers, QA, and Platform Engineers to resolve cross-cutting technical problems. • Contribute to improvements in shared front-end libraries, frameworks, and platform components where required. Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement • Work closely with Architects, Product Owners, Platform Engineers, Backend Engineers, and QA teams to ensure technical solutions meet business and user needs. • Liaise with 3rd-party software partners during design, build, support, and maintenance activities where required. • Participate actively in Agile ceremonies, contributing to planning, refinement, retrospectives, technical discovery, and continuous improvement. Continuous Improvement & Innovation • Identify practical opportunities to improve developer experience, front-end quality, accessibility, performance, and delivery effectiveness. • Keep up to date with relevant React, TypeScript, testing, and web platform developments. • Contribute to continuous learning and engineering improvement across the squad and wider engineering community. Skills, Knowledge and Expertise Mandatory: • 8–12+ years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent capability demonstrated through delivery experience. • Strong relevant experience delivering modern React and TypeScript applications in commercial or enterprise environments. • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Technology, or equivalent practical experience. • React ecosystem including hooks, component composition, routing, forms, and modern application architecture. • TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, responsive design, and front-end build tooling such as Vite or Webpack. • State management and data-fetching patterns such as Redux, Zustand, TanStack Query, or equivalent approaches. • REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger, authentication and authorisation flows, and secure client-side integration patterns. • Automated test tooling such as Jest / Vitest, React Testing Library, Playwright, or equivalent. • Accessibility standards such as WCAG, semantic HTML, browser compatibility, and front-end performance optimisation. • CI/CD pipelines, Azure DevOps or equivalent tooling, dependency management, and quality gates. Non Negotiables: • Strong hands-on proficiency in React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. • Experience designing maintainable front-end application structures, reusable components, and consistent UI patterns. • Proven experience integrating front-end applications with REST APIs and secure authentication/authorisation patterns. • Good automated testing capability across unit, component, integration, and end-to-end testing. • Experience with CI/CD pipelines, code quality tooling, and modern DevOps practices. • Good understanding of accessibility, browser performance, responsive design, and user-centred engineering. • Secure coding practices and familiarity with OWASP principles. Nice to have : • C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Web APIs, background services, and modern back-end engineering patterns. • SQL Server, Entity Framework Core, data modelling, query optimisation, and transactional consistency.