Principal Software Engineer, Front End (UX/UI)

Principal Software Engineer, Front End (UX/UI)

Location: Remote (US) | Type: Contract | Experience: 10+ years | Pay: $70-$80/hr

About the Role

We're hiring a Principal Software Engineer to lead the front end of modernized, cloud-native applications for large enterprise clients. You'll own the React architecture and the user experience, making sure what gets built is fast, intuitive, and polished, while setting technical direction for how the UI connects to microservices and enterprise platforms behind it.

This is an 8-month contract with extensions on the app modernization practice of an AWS-focused cloud services consultancy. You'll often join blended teams alongside client engineers, step into existing codebases, and raise the bar on both quality and velocity. That takes someone who can present to a CTO in the morning and pair with a junior developer in the afternoon.

If you care about how an application feels to use as much as how it's architected, this is your kind of role.

What You'll Do

• Own front-end architecture in React 18+ and TypeScript, including component design, state management, and performance tuning
• Turn business requirements into clean, accessible, user-centered interfaces, and hold a high bar for interaction and visual detail
• Build responsive UI with HTML5 and CSS (Tailwind CSS v4 preferred)
• Connect interfaces to backend services and third-party enterprise platforms through REST and WebSocket APIs
• Serve as technical lead on client engagements, making key design decisions and assessing in-flight projects for their biggest opportunities
• Help define paths from legacy monoliths to cloud-native microservices
• Use AI development tools to move faster, validate what they produce, and coach the team to do the same
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and hands-on coaching
• Contribute to story refinement, estimation, and the occasional pre-sales technical conversation

Qualifications

Core Experience

• 10+ years building and shipping production applications from design through release
• Expert-level React 18+ and TypeScript, with deep experience in component architecture and state management
• A strong UX/UI eye, backed by a track record (or portfolio) of polished, user-friendly interfaces
• Experience architecting and leading microservice-based systems in production
• Integration experience with complex enterprise platforms via APIs
• Quick to ramp on unfamiliar codebases, team structures, and business domains

Nice to Have

• Python backend experience, especially FastAPI
• Client-facing consulting or professional services background
• Testing with Jest and/or PyTest
• Docker, Kubernetes (EKS), and Terraform or CloudFormation
• AWS services such as Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, EventBridge, and DynamoDB; AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification
• Financial services or regulated-environment experience
• Hands-on work with LLM integrations or agentic workflows

Why Join Us

You'll be the senior voice on engagements where enterprise clients are rebuilding systems their businesses run on, and where the interface is often what decides whether a modernization effort lands. The practice values engineers whose fundamentals are strong enough that AI tools make them faster, and it gives principals real ownership over technical direction.

The 8-month runway with extensions means time to see your architecture and design decisions through, not hand them off after a sprint or two.