Lead , UI Software Engineer
📍 Job Overview
Job Title: Lead , UI Software Engineer
Company: S&P Global
Location: New York, NY & Princeton, NJ (Primary: New York, NY)
Job Type: FULL_TIME
Category: UI Engineering / Front-End Development
Date Posted: 2025-06-15T00:00:00
Experience Level: 8+ years (Lead Level)
Remote Status: Remote OK (Telecommute)
🎨 Role Summary
- Lead the design and development of complex, cutting-edge user interfaces, specifically focusing on generative AI and quantitative financial applications.
- Drive technical architecture decisions for front-end systems, including the adoption and implementation of micro front-end patterns for scalability and maintainability.
- Ensure exceptional user experiences through intuitive, responsive, and performant UI designs that effectively visualize complex data and AI outputs.
- Mentor and guide a team of UI developers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, code quality, and continuous learning within the front-end discipline.
🖼️ Primary Responsibilities
- Architect, design, develop, and deploy sophisticated user interfaces for generative AI and quantitative financial applications, prioritizing performance and scalability.
- Collaborate extensively with product managers, UX/UI designers, and back-end engineers to translate complex requirements into functional and visually compelling user interfaces.
- Establish and enforce front-end development standards, best practices, and code quality guidelines, including conducting thorough code reviews.
- Lead the technical design and implementation of UI architectures, potentially leveraging micro front-end approaches to support modular and independent development teams.
- Analyze and optimize UI performance across various devices and browsers, employing techniques for efficient rendering, data fetching, and state management.
- Create interactive prototypes and Proofs of Concept (POCs) using advanced front-end technologies to explore new features and visualization techniques.
- Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and support to other UI developers, contributing to their professional growth and the overall technical strength of the team.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a closely related technical field is required, demonstrating a strong foundation in software engineering principles.
Experience: A minimum of 8+ years of progressive experience in UI development and front-end engineering, with a significant track record of leading projects and mentoring junior developers. Experience designing and building complex, data-intensive applications is highly valued, particularly within the financial services or AI/ML domains. A strong portfolio showcasing advanced UI development skills and successful project leadership is expected.
Required Skills:
- Exceptional proficiency in modern JavaScript (ES6+), TypeScript, and core front-end technologies (HTML5, CSS3).
- Deep expertise in at least one major JavaScript framework/library: React, Angular, or Vue.js.
- Proven experience designing and implementing UI architectures, including micro front-end patterns and component-based design systems.
- Strong understanding of UI/UX principles, usability heuristics, and best practices for creating intuitive and accessible user interfaces.
- Experience with front-end build tools (e.g., Webpack, Parcel), package managers (npm, yarn), and version control systems (Git).
- Solid analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex UI issues and optimize application performance.
- Experience with unit, integration, and end-to-end testing frameworks for front-end applications (e.g., Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress).
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with data visualization libraries (e.g., D3.js, Highcharts, Chart.js) or graphics technologies like WebGL, Canvas, or SVG for creating dynamic and interactive visualizations.
- Familiarity with server-side rendering (SSR) or static site generation (SSG) concepts and frameworks (e.g., Next.js, Nuxt.js).
- Experience working with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI) for deploying front-end applications.
- Understanding of back-end technologies and APIs (REST, GraphQL) to effectively integrate front-end and back-end systems.
- Experience in the financial services or a related highly regulated industry.
🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- A strong portfolio or public code repository (e.g., GitHub) showcasing significant contributions to complex front-end applications.
- Include projects that demonstrate expertise in modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js) and architectural patterns.
- Highlight projects involving data visualization, interactive elements, or complex user workflows, particularly if relevant to financial or AI domains.
- Clearly articulate your specific role and contributions on team projects.
Process Documentation:
- For selected projects, provide brief case studies or descriptions outlining the problem addressed, your design and technical approach, challenges faced, and the final outcome.
- Explain your process for collaborating with designers, product managers, and back-end engineers.
- Describe your approach to performance optimization, testing, and ensuring code quality.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: $105,000 to $200,000 (Annual Base Salary). This range is provided by S&P Global and reflects the anticipated base salary based on geographic location (New York/Princeton area), experience level, skill set, training, licenses, and certifications. This range aligns with industry standards for Lead UI Software Engineer roles in major financial technology hubs in the United States, considering the required experience and technical expertise in complex domains like AI and financial services.
Benefits:
- Comprehensive Health & Wellness coverage, including medical, dental, and vision plans designed to support physical and mental well-being.
- Generous paid time off policy to ensure employees have ample opportunity for rest and rejuvenation.
- Access to continuous learning resources, including training programs, workshops, and educational assistance to support career growth and skill development in areas like advanced front-end techniques, AI integration, and financial technology.
- Robust retirement planning options, including a competitive 401(k) plan with company contributions to help secure your financial future.
- Financial wellness programs offering resources and guidance for personal financial management.
- Family-friendly benefits, such as parental leave, adoption assistance, and other programs supporting employees with families.
- Additional perks including retail discounts and employee referral incentive awards.
Working Hours: This is a full-time position, typically requiring approximately 40 hours per week. While core hours may be expected for team collaboration and meetings, there is likely some flexibility to accommodate creative workflows and personal needs, especially given the "Remote OK" nature of the role.
🎯Team & Company Context
🏢 Company & Design Culture
Industry: Financial Services / Financial Technology (FinTech). S&P Global is a world-renowned provider of market data, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions, operating at the intersection of finance and technology. The FinTech industry context implies a fast-paced environment focused on data accuracy, security, and delivering high-performance applications to sophisticated users.
Company Size: 10,001+ employees globally (LinkedIn data: 38,005). A large, established organization like S&P Global offers stability, extensive resources, and opportunities to work on large-scale, impactful projects. For design and engineering professionals, this often means working within structured teams and contributing to enterprise-level platforms.
Founded: While a specific founding date isn't provided, S&P Global has a long history, with roots dating back to the 19th century. This history implies a mature organization with established processes and a focus on long-term market leadership. The design and engineering culture within such an organization likely balances innovation with a need for reliability and adherence to financial industry standards.
Team Structure:
- Likely organized into cross-functional product teams, each focusing on specific financial products or domains (e.g., Generative AI applications, quantitative analysis platforms).
- UI Engineers will collaborate closely with Product Managers, UX/UI Designers, back-end Engineers, Data Scientists (especially for AI applications), and potentially financial analysts or domain experts.
- As a Lead, you will likely report to an Engineering Manager or Director and play a key role in guiding junior to mid-level UI engineers within your team or across multiple teams.
Methodology:
- Given the industry and company size, likely employs Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) for product development and iterative releases.
- Emphasis on rigorous testing, code reviews, and potentially adherence to financial industry compliance standards throughout the development lifecycle.
- Design processes likely involve user research, prototyping, usability testing, and close collaboration between design and engineering to ensure the technical feasibility and user-friendliness of complex financial tools.
Company Website: http://www.spglobal.com
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Design Career Level: This is a Lead level position, indicating a senior individual contributor or a technical leadership role with significant influence over architectural decisions, technical direction, and potentially mentorship of other engineers. It sits above Senior Engineer and is a stepping stone towards Principal Engineer, Engineering Manager, or Architect roles within the organization.
Reporting Structure: Likely reports to an Engineering Manager or Director within the technology or product development organization. You will likely lead technical initiatives and potentially provide technical guidance or direct mentorship to a team of UI engineers.
Design Impact: As a Lead UI Software Engineer, you will have a direct and significant impact on the user experience of critical financial applications, particularly those leveraging cutting-edge Generative AI and quantitative capabilities. Your work will directly influence how financial professionals interact with and derive insights from complex data and models, contributing to the core value proposition of S&P Global.
Growth Opportunities:
- Potential to advance to Principal Engineer, focusing on deep technical expertise and setting technical standards across multiple teams.
- Opportunities to move into Engineering Management, leading and developing a team of software engineers.
- Possibility of specializing in front-end architecture, becoming a subject matter expert on micro front-ends, performance optimization, or specific visualization technologies.
- Exposure to cutting-edge technologies in AI and financial modeling, offering opportunities to develop highly specialized skills in a high-demand domain.
🌐 Work Environment
Studio Type: This role is listed as "Remote OK (Telecommute)," indicating flexibility for remote work. While the primary location is listed as New York/Princeton, the "TELECOMMUTE" status suggests that working from a home office is a viable option. For those who prefer an office environment, S&P Global has established office locations in New York City and Princeton.
Office Location(s): US - NY NYC - 55 WATER ST and Princeton, NJ. The New York City office is located in the Financial District, a hub for financial technology firms. The Princeton location also offers a potential alternative work location.
Design Workspace Context:
- For remote workers, the environment is a home office, requiring self-discipline and effective remote collaboration tools.
- For those utilizing an office, expect a professional corporate environment, likely with dedicated workspaces, meeting rooms, and potentially collaborative areas designed to facilitate teamwork.
- Access to necessary hardware and software for high-performance front-end development and testing is expected, regardless of location.
Work Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours per week. The "Remote OK" status implies some flexibility in daily scheduling, though coordination with team members across different time zones or locations for meetings and collaborative sessions will be necessary.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Design Interview Process:
- Initial screening call with an HR recruiter to assess basic qualifications and fit.
- Technical interview(s) focusing on front-end engineering fundamentals, data structures, algorithms, and problem-solving skills, likely with coding exercises or live coding sessions.
- In-depth interview(s) with senior engineers or engineering leads covering architectural design, experience with specific frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js), performance optimization, and technical leadership scenarios.
- Interview(s) with a hiring manager or director to discuss experience, career goals, team fit, and leadership potential.
- Potential interview with a Product Manager or UX/UI Designer to assess collaboration skills and understanding of the product development lifecycle.
- Likely include a discussion or presentation of your portfolio or significant projects, focusing on your technical contributions and design rationale for complex UI challenges.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Curate your portfolio to highlight projects that demonstrate your expertise in building complex, data-driven user interfaces, especially those with advanced visualizations or interactive elements.
- For each project, provide context on the problem you solved, your technical approach, the technologies used, and the impact of your work.
- Be prepared to discuss the architectural decisions you made, challenges you overcame, and how you ensured performance and scalability.
- If possible, include examples of your code or contributions to open-source projects.
Challenge Preparation:
- Be prepared for potential coding challenges related to front-end development, focusing on framework proficiency, data manipulation, and building interactive UI components.
- Understand common algorithms and data structures relevant to front-end performance (e.g., efficient list rendering, state management).
- Practice explaining your thought process clearly during coding challenges.
- For architectural discussions, be ready to whiteboard or discuss design patterns for building scalable and maintainable front-end applications, including micro front-ends.
ATS Keywords: UI Development, Front-End Engineering, React, Angular, Vue.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, Micro Front-End Architecture, UI/UX Principles, Performance Optimization, Scalability, Responsive Design, WebGL, Canvas, SVG, Data Visualization, Financial Technology, Generative AI, Agile, Scrum, Git, CI/CD, AWS, Azure, SQL, NoSQL, Leadership, Mentorship, Code Review, Architectural Design, Problem Solving, Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Design Tools:
- While this is primarily an engineering role, familiarity with design collaboration tools used by the UI/UX team (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD) for reviewing designs and specifications would be beneficial.
- Core development will rely heavily on IDEs like VS Code or WebStorm.
Collaboration & Handoff:
- Collaboration tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or similar platforms for team communication and coordination.
- Project management tools like Jira or Asana for tracking tasks and sprints within an Agile framework.
- Code repositories and version control using Git (likely with platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket).
- Documentation platforms (e.g., Confluence) for sharing technical specifications, design patterns, and team knowledge.
Research & Testing:
- Unit testing frameworks (e.g., Jest, Mocha) and libraries (e.g., React Testing Library) for testing individual UI components and functions.
- Integration and end-to-end testing frameworks (e.g., Cypress, Selenium) for testing application flows and user interactions.
- Performance monitoring tools (e.g., browser developer tools, specialized APM tools) for identifying and resolving UI performance bottlenecks.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Design Values:
- Emphasis on delivering intuitive, user-friendly interfaces for complex financial applications, prioritizing clarity, efficiency, and reliability.
- Focus on data accuracy and secure handling of sensitive financial information, requiring meticulous attention to detail in UI implementation.
- Value placed on performance and responsiveness, ensuring applications can handle large datasets and complex interactions without lag.
- Likely a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging exploration of new technologies and techniques to enhance the user experience and development process.
Collaboration Style:
- Strong emphasis on cross-functional collaboration between UI Engineers, Product Managers, UX/UI Designers, and Back-end Engineers to ensure seamless integration and a unified product vision.
- Collaborative code review process to maintain code quality, share knowledge, and mentor team members.
- Regular team meetings, stand-ups, and planning sessions to coordinate efforts and address challenges in an Agile environment.
- Open communication and willingness to provide and receive constructive feedback to improve both the product and the team's processes.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Design Challenges:
- Building highly interactive and performant user interfaces capable of visualizing and interacting with large, complex financial datasets and generative AI outputs in real-time.
- Designing and implementing scalable front-end architectures, potentially involving the adoption and management of a micro front-end strategy across multiple teams.
- Ensuring consistency and usability across a suite of financial applications, potentially contributing to or leveraging a centralized design system.
- Staying current with rapidly evolving front-end technologies, AI capabilities, and financial industry regulations to build cutting-edge and compliant applications.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Opportunities to deepen expertise in specific front-end frameworks, architectural patterns, and performance optimization techniques through hands-on experience with complex projects.
- Exposure to and collaboration with experts in AI, machine learning, and quantitative finance, providing unique learning opportunities at the intersection of technology and finance.
- Potential for leadership development through mentoring junior engineers and leading technical initiatives.
- Access to company-sponsored training, conferences, and certifications in relevant technologies and domains.
💡 Interview Preparation
Design Process Questions:
- Be prepared to discuss your approach to designing and building scalable and maintainable front-end architectures, including your experience with micro front-ends or other architectural patterns.
- Explain your process for collaborating with UX/UI designers and back-end engineers throughout the development lifecycle.
- Describe how you approach performance optimization and debugging in complex front-end applications.
- Be ready to discuss your experience with front-end testing strategies and frameworks.
Company Culture Questions:
- Research S&P Global's values (Integrity, Discovery, Partnership) and be prepared to discuss how your own values and work style align with them.
- Ask questions about the specific team structure, how design and engineering collaborate, and the team's approach to technical decision-making.
- Inquire about opportunities for continuous learning and professional development within the engineering organization.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- Select 2-3 projects from your portfolio that best showcase your skills in building complex, data-driven UIs with modern frameworks.
- For each project, structure your presentation as a brief case study: problem, solution, your role, technical challenges, architectural decisions, and outcome.
- Be prepared to walk through code snippets or architectural diagrams if relevant to illustrate your technical approach.
- Focus on articulating your thought process and the rationale behind your technical choices.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this design position:
- Submit your application through this link on the S&P Global careers site.
- Customize your resume to highlight your experience in UI development, particularly with modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js), architectural patterns (micro front-ends), and relevant technologies (TypeScript, WebGL, etc.). Use keywords from the ATS Keywords section.
- Prepare your portfolio or a selection of project examples that demonstrate your ability to build complex, performant, and user-friendly interfaces, especially those involving data visualization or AI outputs. Be ready to discuss your technical contributions and architectural decisions.
- Research S&P Global, its work in financial technology and AI, and its company values to prepare for interviews and tailor your application.