Lead Frontend Engineer

Salary: Competitive salary + benefits

Lead Frontend Engineer | Vue.js | TypeScript | Christchurch

Join an established technology team as a Lead Frontend Engineer, where you’ll have genuine influence over frontend architecture, engineering standards and technical direction.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You’ll continue building software while working across the engineering function to solve complex problems, improve development practices and support other engineers. You’ll also work closely with product, design and business stakeholders to shape solutions and ensure technical decisions support wider business goals.

What you’ll be doing

• Set and influence frontend technical direction across products and projects
• Design and implement scalable frontend architectures
• Stay hands-on with development and solve complex technical problems
• Establish and champion standards for code quality and maintainability
• Provide technical guidance through code reviews and architecture discussions
• Mentor and support other engineers
• Work closely with UX and design teams to deliver intuitive, accessible interfaces
• Develop modern web applications using Vue.js and TypeScript
• Build and maintain automated unit and integration tests
• Evaluate technologies and approaches and recommend improvements
• Work closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders to shape solutions
• Identify and address technical debt and opportunities to improve development practices
• Make effective use of modern AI-assisted development tools

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for an experienced frontend engineer who is comfortable taking ownership of broader technical outcomes and influencing how engineering teams work.

You’ll have:

• 5+ years of commercial software development experience
• Strong commercial experience with Vue.js
• Excellent TypeScript and JavaScript skills
• Strong knowledge of frontend architecture and software design principles
• A proven ability to make and communicate sound technical decisions
• High standards around code quality, testing and maintainability
• Experience influencing engineering practices and technical direction
• Experience mentoring and developing other engineers
• Strong HTML, CSS and responsive web development skills
• Experience with Tailwind CSS
• Experience with Vitest, Jest or similar testing frameworks
• Good understanding of modern frontend build tooling
• Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical groups
• Experience working in an Agile environment

If your background is primarily in React or Angular but you have the engineering depth and are interested in moving to Vue, we’d still like to hear from you.

Nice to have

• Playwright or other E2E testing experience
• Storybook
• SASS/SCSS or PostCSS
• Experience working within a highly regulated or complex technology environment
• Experience with AI development tools such as Claude Code or GitHub Copilot

What’s on offer

• Competitive salary package
• Employer KiwiSaver contributions
• Healthcare benefits
• Birthday leave
• Additional annual leave based on tenure
• Paid volunteering day
• Office-based perks
• Wellbeing and mental health support

Interested?
If you’re a Lead Frontend Engineer looking for the opportunity to influence architecture, engineering standards and technical direction while remaining hands-on, apply now or reach out to Emma Howey at emma@potentia.co.nz for a confidential discussion.