Lead Software Engineer - Frontend

Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done.

There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works.

At Freshworks, we build uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Our enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive. Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency. And, over 4,500 Freshworks employees make this possible, all around the world.

Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Responsibilities

On a typical day at the office, you will:
 

• Develop complex widgets and features in our products and websites, which often involve multiple layers of nested components/modules.
• Develop reliable lower-order utilities and modules which will be used by other front-end engineers to build out higher-order components and widgets.
• Guide/Assist Front-end engineers in solving UI problems and debugging issues.
• Train Front-end engineers in advanced concepts and in new technologies being implemented in the team.
• Evaluate technical competencies of potential candidates for front-end engineering roles.
• Engage in code reviews and insist on high code standards from your colleagues.
• Provide good upward feedback to team leads and managers on technical and team-level issues.

Of all the qualities that we expect in our front-end engineers, the most important one is obsessive craftsmanship. We’re looking for the kind of people who would get seriously worked up by things like misalignment by a few pixels in the UI, verbose and unnecessarily complex code (even if it works), dirty/non-scalable hacks, unaddressed edge cases, etc.

Skills

The following skills are required for you to be able to carry out your duties effectively in this role,

 

• HTML5 - semantic components and benefits, knowledge of DOM APIs and other element APIs (like file, video, etc.), strong grasp of templating practices and organization of component markup into reusable partials/modules.
• CSS - familiarity with best practices for creating highly modular/lean CSS, ability to  create advanced grid-based web layouts, good knowledge of animations, transforms, and other visual touches, strong knowledge of creating adaptive layouts for different form factors.
• JS - solid grasp of language-specific features (execution stack, closures, promises, scoping, prototype object model), familiarity with common design patterns which involve encapsulation, strong understanding of async HTTP requests and related security measures, good understanding of data persistence measures on the front-end and the uses of each.
• Testing - Familiarity with test frameworks like Mocha, qUnit, etc. is a plus
• Programming - ability to write optimized programs using any language (JS, Ruby, PHP, Python, C++) with edge cases covered properly. Good understanding of asynchronous programs/procedures.
• Tooling and Workflows - Polished front-end development workflow and development practices, ability to configure tool chains and complex automation tasks using tools like Grunt, Gulp, etc., good understanding of code versioning best-practices
• Communication - Ability to communicate ideas clearly and objectively, solid documentation habits, ability to guide younger developers and set internal team benchmarks for professional behavior.

Additionally, to succeed in this role, you should be someone who
 

• Showcases expertise in front-end fundamentals.
• A minimum of 6 to 10 years of relevant experience in frontend technologies.
• Is capable of readily applying a variety of technical design patterns to different types of requirements to quickly converge on a production-ready solution, independently.
• Has some framework knowledge (Ember/React experience is a plus) along with a good understanding of the limitations and the internals of the framework.
• Has expertise with evaluating, testing and implementing different tools and workflow automation solutions to improve developer efficiency in the team.
• Has a systems-level perspective when developing features/systems to ensure that the code/solutions from the team integrate seamlessly into the larger systems that they will be a part of.
• Must be able to take complete ownership when requirements are given and provide strong solutions to problems quickly and independently.
• Must be able to balance between quality and predictable deliveries to ensure that deliverables are sent out regularly and are enhanced continuously.

At Freshworks, we have fostered an environment that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion, welcoming colleagues of all backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnicities. We are committed to providing equal opportunity and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer environment that boosts the goals of our employees, communities, and business. Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.