Lead Frontend Engineer; React

Lead Frontend Engineer (React)

EMPIRE is a premier and dynamic music company that prides itself on the development and support of independent artists. We are the largest independent record label in the U.S. with a significant global presence covering Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and both North and South America. Our services span original content, marketing, distribution, and recordings, fueling a large portfolio across multiple genres.

This senior, hands‑on role reports directly to the VP of Engineering and is based in our downtown San Francisco office. You will own the design, development, and scaling of the frontend for our internal and customer‑facing SaaS platforms, ensuring performant, intuitive, and scalable user experiences. You’ll partner closely with product managers, designers, and backend engineers to translate requirements into elegant and efficient solutions.

Experience leading frontend teams, especially in high‑growth or startup environments, is essential.

• Own the architecture, design, and implementation of robust, scalable frontend applications using React and modern JavaScript.
• Drive frontend performance, responsiveness and reliability across browsers and devices.
• Establish and enforce best practices in code quality, component reusability, state management and automated testing.
• Mentor and guide frontend engineers, providing technical direction and career growth support.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with product, design, backend and data teams to deliver seamless, user‑centered solutions.
• Lead evaluation and adoption of frontend tooling.
• Promote a user‑centric culture by advocating for excellent UI/UX and educating internal teams on frontend capabilities and trends.
• Contribute to technical strategy and long‑term planning for application infrastructure to support company growth.

• 5+ years of professional frontend engineering experience, including at least 2+ years leading React development.
• Strong hands‑on experience with React, JavaScript (ES6+), Type Script, HTML5, and CSS
  3.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor technical teams.
• Expertise in component‑based architecture, state management (Redux, Context API or equivalent) and modern frontend build pipelines (Webpack, Vite, Babel).
• Experience building and maintaining design systems or shared component libraries.
• Proficiency in automated testing frameworks (Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress).
• Experience integrating with RESTful and/or Graph
  
  QL APIs.
• Comfortable context switching between legacy code (HTML/jQuery) and modern codebases.
• Familiarity with server‑side rendered pages and MVC patterns.
• Strong leadership, collaboration and communication skills in cross‑functional environments.

• Background in UX/UI design principles and user testing methodologies.
• Experience with data visualization libraries (D3.js, Chart.js, Recharts) and technology (Super Set).
• Full‑stack experience with PHP (Laravel or Symfony) and MySQL.
• Knowledge of Dev Ops practices, CI/CD pipelines and containerization (Docker, Terraform).
• Prior experience in compliance‑heavy environments (PII, GDPR, SOC 2).
• Domain knowledge of the music industry or digital media flows (royalties, rights management, DSPs).

Pay Range: $120,000 – $160,000 annual salary + benefits + discretionary bonus + profit sharing program. The base pay offered will account for internal equity, market location, job‑related knowledge, skills and experience. Total compensation may include additional elements depending on the position offered.

• Competitive Compensation Package
• Competitive Benefits Package
• Company‑Paid Life Insurance, Short‑Term Disability, and Long‑Term Disability Insurance
• Company‑Paid Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution
• Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Paid Time Off (Holidays, Vacation, and Sick)
• Company 401(k) Plan
• Wellness Resources
• Commuter Allowance
• Cell Phone Allowance

At EMPIRE, we value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual…