Founding Frontend Engineer

We are building a world where everyone can feel the joy of creating music, together, in real time. More than 300k users love us, from grandmas using Vibe sessions to Grammy winners using the Studio. Music is having its first explosive moment of creation-driven consumption, and we aspire to shape that world while preserving the social and fun elements of music creation. We've raised over $7m from Balderton Capital (backers of Revolut) and Silicon Valley legends like Kevin Hartz (ex-Eventbrite CEO), Emery Wells (ex Frame.io CEO), backers of Uber, Spotify, Reddit, and other massive consumer outcomes. It takes one hell of a team to bring the joy of music creation to everyone in the world, and we’re building it from our London office. We operate with high ownership, high velocity, and low-ego. We are all specialist generalists who work hard, learn fast, and ship relentlessly. We care deeply, and we're here to build something that outlives us. About the Role You'll own the whole frontend, especially the “backend of the frontend”: the architecture, state management, rendering and delivery systems behind a real-time, multiplayer music creation platform in the browser –> WebGL rendering, WASM audio, background jobs, collaborative state, social features. This is not a forms-and-dashboards product. You'll own our hybrid client- and server-side rendering architecture, keep state management clean and stable as the product grows, and build the code delivery pipeline that keeps web and mobile apps always in sync. You will also own and ship major product features end-to-end. This is an intense, in-person role, built for people who want massive impact and grow their careers faster than anywhere else. What You'll Do Own our client- and server-side rendering architecture. Data fetching, streaming, caching, chunking, and the typed client–server boundaryOwn the state management architecture.Own the delivery pipeline. CI/CD across web and mobile, feature flags and canary deploys –> users never run stale code against new APIsMake production observable. Readable stack traces, useful errors, and monitoring that separates engineering signal from product analyticsPropose and lead the refactors that matter. Read the codebase, name the structural changes we need, and execute them with AI agents and the verification systems necessaryOwn frontend testing. The right kind of test at every layer –> from component stories to visual canvas checks –> and lead our agentic end-to-end testing for the frontendShip product end-to-end. Real features with taste, instrumentation and fast iteration based on real user signal What We're Looking For React depth. You've architected and refactored large React codebases, including design systems, and understand React's internals and trade-offs beyond the APIState management. You've designed production store architectures (e.g., Zustand, Redux, Jotai), kept state predictable at scale, and chosen the right update strategy for each operationSSR in production. You've shipped and operated SSR (e.g., TanStack Start, Next.js) and understand hydration, streaming, caching, and framework trade-offsServer-push architecture. You’ve build systems where the server reliably drives the client → background jobs finishing, collaborators acting, the database changingBrowser mastery. You know the ins and outs ofChrome DevTools, you know the client-storage layers and their quirks (localStorage, sessionStorage, IndexedDB), and you build UIs that survive disconnects and resume in-flight work cleanlyDelivery infrastructure. Feature flags, canary deploys, CI/CD across platforms, and production-grade source mapsRefactor leadership. You read large codebases fast, identify the structural changes that matter, and lead migrations to completion, with AI agents as a daily toolTesting judgment. You know a pure function, a store, a canvas renderer, and a user flow each deserve a different kind of test, you’ve implemented all at scale, including agentic E2E tests that run in CIAgent-native. You think in agentic workflows and build software that is operable and verifiable by agents, not just humansTruth seeker. You talk to users, watch sessions, and read analytics –> chasing what users need, not what you assumeProduct taste. You have strong opinions about motion, sound, and feel, and can defend design decisions on their meritsHigh ownership, low ego. You ship fast, own outcomes after release, and do whatever needs doing5+ years of professional experience Nice-To-Haves WebGL and canvas rendering (e.g., PixiJS, Three.js, shaders)React Native (Expo), Swift, or KotlinExperience shipping consumer products –> you know how building for consumers differs from B2BCRDT and multiplayer-state experience (e.g., Yjs, presence, conflict resolution)Media-heavy or audio-streaming frontendsYou make music – listening, exploring, producing. A big plus.Experience working at an early stage startup or fast-paced environment. A big plus as well. Perks & Benefits Significant EquityOffice in Central LondonMedical & Health InsuranceFrive Meal PrepGym MembershipMacBook of your choiceWork on a product you'll be using!