The posting
About Forma.ai:
Forma.ai is a Series B startup that's revolutionizing how sales compensation is designed, managed and optimized. We handle billions in annual managed commissions for market leaders like Edmentum, Stryker, and Autodesk.
Our growth has been fuelled by our passion for fundamentally changing and shaping how companies use sales intelligence to drive business strategy.
We’re welcoming equally driven individuals who are excited about creating something big!
About the team
Engineers on this team build the application our customers and internal teams use to configure, operate, manage, and visualize complex incentive compensation workflows. There are many complex and difficult areas across the product, especially across frontend architecture and user experience, because of high data volumes, wide configurability, complex business logic, and mission-critical operational workflows. The work is not just about building screens; it is about helping users understand, act on, and trust complex compensation data and operational processes.
We are low on meetings and high on accountability. Most of the team is in the EST timezone, with some teammates in PST and Central. We are far from maintenance or simple progressive evolution in many areas; there is a lot of room to make a meaningful impact on the overall user experience, product architecture, and frontend design patterns.
What you’ll be doing
Reporting to the VP of Engineering, the Staff Frontend Engineer will play a critical role in shaping the technical direction, architecture, and long-term evolution of Forma’s customer-facing and internal operations experiences.
You’ll operate as a frontend technical leader, working across teams to drive alignment, set standards, and solve complex, ambiguous problems in a highly configurable, data-intensive product. You’ll partner closely with product, design, engineering, and leadership to define not just what we build, but how we build it — ensuring our frontend systems are scalable, consistent, and built for long-term velocity.
You will lead the design and development of foundational frontend systems, influence product and platform strategy, and help the team navigate complexity in workflows, automation, reporting, and data exploration at scale.
You will:
- Lead the architecture and evolution of Forma’s frontend systems, patterns, and best practices.
- Drive large, cross-cutting frontend initiatives spanning multiple product areas and teams.
- Translate complex compensation and operational workflows into scalable, extensible UI systems and abstractions.
- Define and standardize reusable frontend and data visualization patterns across the platform.
- Partner with product and design to shape ambiguous problem spaces into clear, scalable solutions.
- Improve frontend performance, reliability, accessibility, testing strategy, and developer experience at a systems level.
- Mentor and guide engineers across the team, raising the overall quality and consistency of frontend development.
- Influence technical strategy, roadmap planning, and prioritization decisions.
- Identify and address systemic frontend challenges, including architecture, state management, and data handling at scale.
- Bring strong product thinking, customer empathy, and operational awareness to complex problem spaces.
What we’re looking for
We’re looking for a highly experienced frontend engineer who thrives in ambiguous environments, enjoys solving system-level problems, and can influence both technical and product direction.
This role is for someone who goes beyond owning features — you own systems, patterns, and outcomes across teams. You should be able to connect business goals to technical strategy, guide teams through complexity, and make pragmatic decisions that balance scalability, usability, and delivery.
You have:
- Deep experience building and scaling production web applications with React, TypeScript, and JavaScript.
- Proven experience designing frontend architecture and systems for complex, data-heavy, configurable applications.
- Experience leading large frontend initiatives or platform-level efforts across teams.
- Strong expertise in component design, state management, performance optimization, and testing at scale.
- Experience building dashboards, BI tools, reporting, analytics, or data visualization platforms.
- Excellent judgment around UX, accessibility, information hierarchy, and visualization patterns.
- Strong product instincts and the ability to influence product direction through technical insight.
- Experience working with complex workflows, automation systems, APIs, or policy-driven platforms.
- A track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across a team or organization.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to align stakeholders and drive decisions across disciplines.
Nice to have
- Experience working on enterprise SaaS platforms at scale.
- Experience in compensation, finance, workflow automation, analytics, or operational tooling.
- Experience building or leading design systems, frontend platforms, or shared component libraries.
- Familiarity with backend systems (Python/Django, Java/Springboot, APIs, Postgres).
- Experience designing systems that support both internal operations teams and external customers.
- Experience influencing or defining engineering strategy at the team or org level.
Technologies we use
Frontend: JavaScript, React, TypeScript
Backend: Java/Springboot, Django, Postgres
Infrastructure: AWS, Docker
What success looks like: 30/60/90 days
First 30 days
You’ll focus on building deep context across the product, architecture, and organization.
By the end of your first 30 days, you will have:
- Developed a strong understanding of Forma.ai’s product, customers, and the sales compensation domain.
- Built a clear mental model of the frontend architecture, key systems, and areas of complexity.
- Formed relationships with engineering, product, design, and leadership stakeholders.
- Identified high-impact opportunities for frontend improvements across architecture, UX, and systems.
- Contributed to technical discussions and begun shaping frontend direction.
- Shipped targeted improvements while building broader context.
First 60 days
You’ll begin driving meaningful technical initiatives and influencing direction.
By the end of your first 60 days, you will have:
- Taken ownership of a cross-cutting frontend initiative or system-level improvement.
- Influenced product and technical decisions through strong architectural and product thinking.
- Introduced or improved frontend patterns, abstractions, or standards.
- Helped teams navigate complexity in workflows, data visualization, or state management.
- Begun mentoring engineers and raising the quality bar through reviews and guidance.
- Identified opportunities to improve consistency and reuse across the platform.
First 90 days
You’ll be operating as a trusted technical leader for frontend across the organization.
By the end of your first 90 days, you will have:
- Led the design and delivery of a major frontend initiative or architectural improvement.
- Established or significantly advanced frontend standards, patterns, or platform capabilities.
- Influenced roadmap decisions and helped align teams on scalable frontend approaches.
- Improved the performance, usability, and maintainability of key product areas.
- Mentored engineers and contributed to a stronger frontend culture across the team.
- Identified and begun executing on longer-term frontend investments.
- Demonstrated clear impact on both user experience and engineering velocity.
Additional Job Info:
- This position is for an existing vacancy
What you can expect from us
Meaningful compensation. In addition to your base salary, you’ll join our employee stock ownership plan to further recognize your contributions to Forma.ai’s success.
Healthcare coverage. We have a full benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, and a paid parental leave program.
Learning and development. Access the resources you want to help you grow in your role by utilizing our $750 yearly training stipend.
Growth. You’ll have a huge opportunity to build a career for yourself and gain the type of experience you’re looking for, whether that’s as an individual contributor or as a people leader.
Our Values:
- Work well, together. We’re real. We have kids and pets. Mortgages and student loans. We’re in this together, so no matter how brilliant any one of us is, we always play nice with one another – no exceptions.
- Be precise. Be relentless. We believe complacency breeds failure, so we set new goals as quickly as we achieve them. We persist in the face of adversity, learn from our mistakes, and push each other to continuously improve. The status-quo is kryptonite.
- Love our tech. Love our customers. Our platform solves a very complex problem in a currently underserved market. While everyone at Forma isn’t customer-facing, we’re all customer-focused. Maybe even slightly customer-obsessed.
Use of AI for Recruitment
Currently, Forma.ai does not use artificial intelligence as part of our recruitment process, specifically but not limited to the screening, filtering and shortlisting of applicants.
Our commitment to you:
Forma is a proud equal opportunity employer that is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Every effort to accommodate candidates for accessibility will be made upon request. Information received related to accommodations will be addressed confidentially. We know that applying to a new role takes a lot of effort. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. There are many paths to a successful career and we’re looking forward to reading yours.
We thank all candidates for their interest however only qualified applicants will be shortlisted.
