Senior Front-End Engineer (React/Tailwind/shadcn) - Part-time - EU

Why this role

Helical is professionalizing its front end. We’re looking for a senior freelancer who’s part architect, part hands-on builder: set up a scalable design system, structure the codebase correctly, mentor a junior FE dev, and help ship production features for a SaaS platform used by engineers, biologists, and ML scientists.

You will have to share work samples:

• Links to shipped apps (not just Dribbble/behance), or
• Code samples showing component patterns, state mgmt, Storybook usage.

What you’ll do

Front-end architecture

• Define app structure, routing patterns, data-fetching strategy, and state management (e.g., TanStack Query + Zustand/Redux).
• Establish design tokens, theming, and accessibility standards.

Design system & components

• Stand up Storybook and a reusable component library with React + Tailwind + shadcn/ui.
• Document usage patterns, props, and interaction contracts.

Hands-on product work

• Translate Figma designs into production-ready screens and flows.
• Own performance budgets (Lighthouse/Web Vitals), responsiveness, and accessibility.

Quality & testing

• Implement testing strategy (e.g., Vitest/Jest, React Testing Library, Playwright).
• Improve DX: linting/formatting, commit conventions, CI checks, preview envs.

Mentorship & collaboration

• Pair with and coach a junior FE developer (code reviews, implementation plans).
• Partner with backend/ML teams on API contracts and data models; collaborate with domain experts (biologists/ML scientists) to ship production-quality tools.

DevOps alignment

• Work with the platform team to integrate FE into CI/CD (GitHub Actions or similar) and deploy to AWS (e.g., S3/CloudFront). Light Docker involvement as needed.

Must-have experience

• Senior-level React (hooks, composition patterns) with TypeScript, Tailwind, and shadcn/ui.
• Proven track record shipping SaaS apps; strong component design and state management.
• Setting up and maintaining Storybook, testing pipelines, and CI for front end.
• Solid web fundamentals (HTML/CSS/JS) and accessibility best practices.
• Excellent communication; comfortable mentoring and working across disciplines.

Nice to have

• Node.js for tooling and light APIs; familiarity with REST/GraphQL contracts.
• Exposure to AWS, Docker/Kubernetes, and static asset pipelines.
• Data-viz chops (e.g., Charting libs) and performance profiling experience.

Tech stack (current/target)

• React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, Storybook
• State/query: TanStack Query + Zustand/Redux (to be finalized)
• Tests: Vitest/Jest, RTL, Playwright
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions (or similar); deploy to AWS (S3/CloudFront)
• Environment: Dockerized; backend services on AWS