Senior Frontend Engineer

at Faire

Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Canada

About Faire

Faire is an online wholesale marketplace built on the belief that the future is local — independent retailers around the globe are doing more revenue than Walmart and Amazon combined, but individually, they are small compared to these massive entities. At Faire, we're using the power of tech, data, and machine learning to connect this thriving community of entrepreneurs across the globe. Picture your favorite boutique in town — we help them discover the best products from around the world to sell in their stores. With the right tools and insights, we believe that we can level the playing field so that small businesses everywhere can compete with these big box and e-commerce giants.

By supporting the growth of independent businesses, Faire is driving positive economic impact in local communities, globally. We’re looking for smart, resourceful and passionate people to join us as we power the shop local movement. If you believe in community, come join ours.

About this role:

You will help shape the next generation of Faire’s Search experience. The Search UX team partners closely with Algorithms, Infra, and Design to make search more dynamic, brand-aware, and intent-driven. As a senior engineer, you’ll be a key force behind initiatives like brand-evaluation modules, brand-centric layouts, Natural Language Search UX, and the migration of Search to a Server-Driven UI (SDUI) with dynamic layouts and components. You’ll enable retailers to evaluate brands with confidence, refine results seamlessly, and experience search that “just gets them” while laying foundations for AI-driven layouts and multimodal exploration.

What you’ll do:

Systems analysis & requirements: Analyze retailer and brand use cases, search intent, and business processes; translate findings into functional specs, UI contracts, and system designs for SDUI-based pages and components.
Solution design & documentation: Design front-end system architecture (components, sections, schemas, data contracts), author design/tech specs, sequence diagrams, and runbooks to guide implementation and maintenance.
Implementation & integration: Build high-quality, reusable React/Next.js (incl. RSC) components and SDUI sections; integrate with backend services (REST/Streaming/Kotlin) in partnership with Algorithms and Infra.
Performance & reliability: Define and execute performance strategies (Core Web Vitals, RUM, profiling, caching, RSC boundaries), capacity planning, and resiliency patterns; track results and drive iterative improvements.
Framework development: Contribute to the technical direction of our SDUI framework and design system alignment (Slate). Establish conventions that ensure scalability, consistency, and broad adoption across surfaces.
Roadmapping & ownership: Co-own the Search UX roadmap; evaluate feasibility, perform impact/risk analysis, and lead multi-month projects that materially improve usability, performance, and maintainability.
Quality engineering: Establish testing strategies (unit, contract, integration, e2e with Playwright), code quality gates, and release/rollback procedures; conduct design and code reviews.
Stakeholder advising: Partner with PM, Design, Data Science, and Infra to recommend system changes, evaluate third-party tools, and communicate trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders.
Post-implementation support: Validate releases, monitor, triage, and perform root-cause analysis; propose remediation and preventive controls; maintain clear, up-to-date documentation.
Mentorship & leadership: Mentor engineers, share best practices, and help elevate team standards for analysis, design, and implementation.

Qualifications:

5+ years of experience
Proficient in HTML, CSS, Typescript, and frameworks/libraries like React
Extensive experience in frontend development, with a strong understanding of modern web technologies.
Strong understanding of web performance optimization techniques
Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.
Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects, from conception through execution.
A passion for creating high-quality, scalable, and performant code.
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or equivalent industry experience

Salary range:

Canada: the pay range for this role is $156,000 - $214,500 per year.

This role will also be eligible for equity and benefits. Actual base pay will be determined based on permissible factors such as transferable skills, work experience, market demands, and primary work location. The base pay range provided is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

Hybrid Faire employees currently go into the office 2 days per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Effective starting in January 2026, employees will be expected to go into the office on a third flex day of their choosing (Monday, Wednesday, or Friday). Additionally, hybrid in-office roles will have the flexibility to work remotely up to 4 weeks per year. Specific Workplace and Information Technology positions may require onsite attendance 5 days per week as will be indicated in the job posting.

Applications for this position will be accepted for a minimum of 30 days from the posting date.

Why you’ll love working at Faire

We are entrepreneurs: Faire is being built for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. We believe entrepreneurship is a calling and our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to chase their dreams. Every member of our team is taking part in the founding process.
We are using technology and data to level the playing field: We are leveraging the power of product innovation and machine learning to connect brands and boutiques from all over the world, building a growing community of more than 350,000 small business owners.
We build products our customers love: Everything we do is ultimately in the service of helping our customers grow their business because our goal is to grow the pie - not steal a piece from it. Running a small business is hard work, but using Faire makes it easy.
We are curious and resourceful: Inquisitive by default, we explore every possibility, test every assumption, and develop creative solutions to the challenges at hand. We lead with curiosity and data in our decision making, and reason from a first principles mentality.

Faire was founded in 2017 by a team of early product and engineering leads from Square. We’re backed by some of the top investors in retail and tech including: Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and DST Global. We have headquarters in San Francisco and Kitchener-Waterloo, and a global employee presence across offices in Toronto, London, and New York. To learn more about Faire and our customers, you can read more on our blog.

Faire provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Faire is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process and applicants with a disability may request to be accommodated throughout the recruitment process. We will work with all applicants to accommodate their individual accessibility needs. To request reasonable accommodation, please fill out our Accommodation Request Form (https://bit.ly/faire-form)