Lead UI Developer​/UI Architect - Financial Services

UI Architect

Blink is the user experience firm for the world's leading companies. We use evidence-driven design to create products that people use, love and remember. With studios in Boston, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, Blink brings two decades of experience to research, design, and strategy for clients such as Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, NASA, Starbucks, and USAA.

This opportunity is a part of Blink's Embedded practice which supports long-term opportunities with some of Blink's largest client partners.

Duration: 6 months to start - ongoing contract

Location:

Jersey City, NJ - this opportunity is 100% onsite - 5 days per week

What you'll be doing

We are looking for a UI Architect who can collaborate with the Product team to capture requirements, translate those into UI architecture, create user stories, and lead 5 to 7 front-end React + Type Script engineers.

This role involves reviewing team work products and presenting completed work to business and engineering leadership for sign-off. The Architect will keep stakeholders informed on progress, roadblocks, and status through regular updates. This person is expected to quickly learn the existing application(s) in scope, applicable web standards, and component libraries - taking ownership and running the project independently with the engineering team to deliver on schedule.

The role is front-end focused, partnering closely with Product, UX, and backend/platform teams to deliver high-quality UI capabilities and set engineering standards.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead development of complex, user-facing web applications using React + Type Script, owning the front-end architecture and delivery approach.
• Partner with UX/Product to translate designs into polished experiences; influence requirements with feasibility, performance, and accessibility considerations.
• Establish and evolve front-end standards: component architecture, state management, routing, code conventions, and testing practices.
• Build using established UI foundations: design system/component library, theming, responsive layouts, and cross-browser compatibility.
• Drive performance and quality: page load speed, bundle optimization, rendering strategies, caching, and runtime monitoring.
• Implement advanced UI capabilities such as rich data visualization, real-time updates, offline-friendly patterns, and robust form/workflow experiences.
• Ensure secure client-side patterns: safe authentication flows, token handling guidance, secure storage, and protection against common web vulnerabilities.
• Collaborate with backend teams on API contracts (GraphQL/REST) and advocate for front-end-friendly patterns (pagination, filtering, error models).

Your background

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years professional software engineering experience with significant depth in front-end web development.
• Expert-level React proficiency (hooks, component composition, context, rendering behavior, concurrency-related patterns where applicable).
• Strong Type Script skills (types-as-design, generics, strictness strategies) and modern JavaScript fundamentals.
• Deep experience with modern front-end tooling:
  Vite/Webpack, Babel/SWC, npm/pnpm/yarn, monorepos (optional), and build/release pipelines.
• Strong CSS skills: responsive design, CSS architecture (CSS Modules, CSS-in-JS, or utility frameworks), theming, and consistent styling at scale.
• Advanced testing practices:
  Jest/Vitest, React Testing Library, Playwright/Cypress for end-to-end testing; test strategy ownership.
• Accessibility expertise: WCAG/ARIA, keyboard navigation, screen-reader considerations, and automated plus manual accessibility testing.
• Performance engineering: profiling, bundle splitting, server-side/client-side rendering trade-offs, caching strategies, and page speed optimization.
• API integration expertise with GraphQL and REST (schema-driven development, error handling, pagination, caching, and client state strategies).
• Security awareness for web apps: XSS/CSRF prevention, dependency hygiene, secure authentication/session patterns (OIDC awareness a plus).
• Observability for the front end: client-side logging/metrics, error reporting, and debugging production issues.
• Required…