Lead Frontend Engineer Lisbon

Lead Frontend Engineer
Lisboa

JOB DESCRIPTION 

Job Title: Lead Frontend Engineer

Location: Lisbon

Job Type: Full-Time

Team: Engineering – Frontend

Career opportunity with a fast-growing tech startup operating in Europe & Asia

UMAI provides restaurants with a CRM that helps them to get their customers back more often, save

time and increase revenues by automating manual tasks.

The team has extensive experience in building internet companies and has been part of building some

of the largest e-commerce ventures in the Asia Pacific Region. Founded by the former MD of

Foodpanda. sg, the largest food delivery service in Singapore, and a member of the founding-team of

Nova Founders Capital, one of the largest company builders in South-East Asia.

About the Role

We are looking for a Lead Frontend Engineer to spearhead the development of our core platform's

web applications. This role is pivotal in shaping the architecture, user experience, and engineering

culture of our frontend team.

You’ll lead a team of developers building scalable, maintainable, and high-performance interfaces

using React. js, Next. js, and TypeScript. You will be at the intersection of product innovation, design

excellence, and modern engineering, ensuring our frontend applications meet the highest standards of

performance, accessibility, and user experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and mentor a team of frontend engineers, fostering technical growth and team

collaboration.

• Translate business and product requirements into robust, scalable, and user-friendly web

applications.

• Drive frontend architectural decisions, design patterns, and codebase modularity.

• Ensure delivery of high-quality, testable, and maintainable code through rigorous code

reviews and best engineering practices.

• Work closely with Product, Design, Backend, QA, and DevOps to deliver end-to-end

solutions.

• Implement and advocate for modern engineering practices such as CI/CD, TDD, code linting,

code splitting, lazy loading, and performance monitoring.

• Set and uphold frontend coding standards, documentation practices, and contribute to team

onboarding.

• Identify and resolve complex issues related to frontend logic, browser compatibility, and

third-party integrations.

• Ensure applications meet accessibility standards (WCAG), are responsive, and support

internationalization (i18n).

• Collaborate with stakeholders to define and refine technical requirements, ensuring feasibility

and delivery within deadlines.

• Track team progress using agile methodologies (e. g. , standups, sprint planning,

retrospectives).

• Represent the frontend team in leadership and technical strategy discussions.

• Evaluate and integrate AI tools (e. g. , GitHub Copilot, AI-based testing tools, content

generators) to enhance engineering productivity and product experience.

• Explore how AI-driven features can be integrated into the product to create smarter, more

efficient user experiences.

Candidate Requirements

Technical Skills

• Strong proficiency in React. js, Next. js, TypeScript, and component-based architecture.

• Experience with server-side rendering (SSR) and client-side rendering (CSR) concepts.

• Deep understanding of responsive design, performance optimization, and frontend

security best practices.

• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git, and frontend testing frameworks (unit and

integration).

• Familiarity with frontend build tools (e. g. , Webpack, Vite) and package managers (npm,

Yarn).

• Ability to architect and deliver accessible (WCAG-compliant) and internationalized (i18n)

user interfaces.

• Experience integrating with RESTful APIs and working closely with backend teams.

• Comfortable with cloud-based infrastructure and deployment workflows.

• Familiarity with debugging tools (e. g. , Chrome DevTools, Sentry) and performance analysis

tools (e. g. , Lighthouse).

Leadership & Communication

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage project deliverables end-to

end.

• Proven track record of mentoring engineers at all levels and fostering a strong feedback

culture.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills – can articulate complex ideas to

technical and non-technical audiences.

• Ability to represent frontend engineering in strategic leadership meetings.

• Awareness and practical application of AI tools in development workflows (e. g. , Copilot, AI

linters, performance analyzers).

• Ability to drive the integration of AI features into product experience and internal tools.

• Curiosity and adaptability to stay current with emerging AI technologies relevant to frontend

engineering.

Nice to Have

• Experience working in fast-paced startup environments.

• Exposure to design systems and component libraries (e. g. , Storybook, Tailwind, Chakra

UI).

• Understanding of analytics tools, A/B testing frameworks, and feature flag management.

• Experience collaborating with third-party vendors or external APIs (e. g. , Maxio, AWS,

Auth0).

What we offer:

• A dynamic and highly motivated team with flat hierarchies

• Great working atmosphere with an international team coming from 14 nationalities

• Challenging and diversified tasks with direct responsibility

• You will work on the company’s further improvement and development while working

together closely with the CEO – thereby acquiring insight into the entrepreneurial life

Salary: xxx onwards (dependent on experience)

UMAI is one of the fastest growing F&B tech startups in South East Asia & Europe. If you’d like to

become part of UMAI and change the future of the hospitality industry, we urge you to apply!