Senior Software Engineer - Core UI at Ironclad

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer - Core UI

Company: Ironclad

Location: San Francisco, California, United States (Remote)

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Software Engineering (with strong UI/UX focus)

Date Posted: 2025-06-13T00:00:00

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Remote OK (United States)

🎨 Role Summary

Architect, build, and verify software solutions for the core UI of Ironclad's contract lifecycle management platform, focusing on user experience and design system implementation.
Collaborate cross-functionally with design, product management, and other engineering teams to translate complex business problems into intuitive and scalable user interfaces.
Play a pivotal role in enhancing the platform's foundation, bringing a modern digital experience to the legal profession through high-quality UI/UX components and design system refinement.
Contribute to the growth of the engineering team by mentoring junior engineers and participating in the recruitment process, fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Senior Software Engineer," the description heavily emphasizes UI/UX components, design systems, and collaboration with design teams. This suggests a role where strong front-end engineering skills are paramount, coupled with a deep understanding of user interface design principles and the ability to translate design concepts into robust, reusable code. The role acts as a bridge between design and core engineering.

🖼️ Primary Responsibilities

Collaborate closely with UI/UX designers and product managers to define, design, and implement new features and system enhancements for the core user interface.
Architect and build scalable, performant, and reusable UI/UX components that adhere to established design system standards and can be easily integrated across various product areas.
Partner with quality engineers to develop and maintain comprehensive testing strategies for UI components and features, ensuring high quality and stability.
Lead technical projects related to the core UI, taking ownership from initial design and specification through to deployment and ongoing maintenance.
Mentor and provide constructive feedback to other engineers on the team, contributing to their technical growth and fostering a collaborative learning environment.
Contribute to the refinement and evolution of Ironclad's design system and component libraries, ensuring consistency and efficiency in UI development.
Actively participate in the technical interview process, helping to identify and recruit talented engineers who align with Ironclad's engineering culture and technical standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong focus on reusable components, design systems, and collaboration with designers, which are key aspects of modern UI engineering. The inclusion of mentorship and recruiting responsibilities indicates this is a true senior-level role with expectations beyond just technical execution. The emphasis on quality engineering partnership underscores a commitment to building reliable and maintainable UI.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: A formal degree is not strictly required; the focus is on demonstrated industry experience and a strong portfolio of work.

Experience: At least 4+ years of professional software engineering experience with a proven track record of architecting, building, launching, and maintaining complex systems, particularly those with a significant user interface component. Experience working closely with design teams and contributing to design systems is highly valued. A strong portfolio showcasing contributions to complex UI projects and reusable component development is essential.

Required Skills:

Extensive experience in software engineering, with a strong emphasis on front-end development and user interface architecture.
Proven ability to design, build, and maintain complex, scalable, and performant UI/UX components.
Deep understanding and practical experience with design systems and component libraries.
Proficiency in modern JavaScript/TypeScript and experience with a front-end framework like React.
Experience working with RESTful APIs and handling asynchronous data within a web application.
Solid understanding of best practices in cross-browser compatibility and web accessibility (WCAG standards).
Strong communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively partner with product managers, designers, and other engineers.
Experience leading technical projects and mentoring junior team members.

Preferred Skills:

Familiarity with UI/UX design tools such as Figma or Storybook.
Experience with Node.js for potential full-stack contributions or understanding of the back-end API layer.
Experience contributing to or maintaining a large-scale design system in a production environment.
Knowledge of performance optimization techniques for web applications and UI components.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "industry experience" over a formal degree aligns with modern tech hiring practices, particularly for senior roles where practical skills and a demonstrable track record are paramount. The specific mention of UI/UX design tools and design system implementation reinforces the strong design-adjacent nature of this engineering role. The preferred skills section adds valuable context regarding the desired technical breadth and specific tool familiarity.

🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

Showcase complex UI projects where you played a significant role in architecture and implementation, highlighting challenges faced and solutions developed.
Include examples of reusable UI components you have built or contributed to, demonstrating considerations for scalability, accessibility, and ease of integration.
Present case studies that illustrate your collaboration process with designers and product managers, showing how you translated design concepts and requirements into functional code.
Demonstrate technical proficiency in the required front-end technologies (React, TypeScript) through code samples or descriptions of technical implementations.

Process Documentation:

Detail your approach to understanding design requirements and collaborating with design teams during the discovery and ideation phases.
Explain your process for iterating on UI implementations based on feedback from designers, product managers, and quality engineers.
Describe your methods for ensuring the technical feasibility and performance of design concepts during the validation and testing stages.

📝 Enhancement Note: Since this is a software engineering role with a strong UI focus, the portfolio requirements are tailored to demonstrate not just coding skills but also the ability to work effectively with design assets, contribute to design systems, and collaborate across disciplines. The emphasis on process documentation highlights the importance of communication and iterative development in a collaborative environment.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $160,000 - $175,000 USD per year. This range is based on experience, skills, and location, specifically for the San Francisco headquarters, and serves as a guideline for this remote position based in the US. The final offer will depend on the candidate's qualifications and location within the United States.

Benefits:

Comprehensive Health, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage to support employee well-being.
401k retirement savings plan to help employees plan for their financial future.
Wellness reimbursement program to support healthy lifestyles and activities.
Flexible "Take What You Need" vacation policy, encouraging employees to take time off as needed for rest and rejuvenation.
Generous parental leave policy for both primary and secondary caregivers, supporting new parents.

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours, with flexibility expected to collaborate with a distributed team across different time zones within the United States, particularly aligning with Pacific Time for collaboration with the San Francisco team. The nature of software development and collaboration with design teams may require some flexibility to accommodate meetings and critical project phases.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is explicitly stated in the original job description and aligns with market rates for a Senior Software Engineer role with a UI focus in the US, particularly considering the San Francisco base. The benefits listed are standard for tech companies but are presented with a focus on employee well-being and work-life balance, which are attractive to design and engineering professionals.

🎯Team & Company Context

🏢 Company & Design Culture

Industry: Technology, Information, and Internet - specifically focused on Legal Tech and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM).

Company Size: 501-1,000 employees (approximately 655 based on LinkedIn data).

Founded: 2014.

Ironclad is a leader in the CLM space, bringing digital transformation to the legal profession. The company emphasizes innovation and a positive, inclusive work culture, recognized by various awards. While the role is engineering-focused, the strong emphasis on UI/UX and collaboration with design teams indicates a significant appreciation for design's role in creating a user-friendly and effective product for a historically non-technical user base (legal professionals). The design culture likely values usability, clarity, and efficiency in complex workflows.

Team Structure:

Engineering teams are likely structured around product areas or technical domains, with this role sitting within a team focused on the core user interface.
The role involves significant cross-functional collaboration with dedicated design and product management teams.
Reporting structure is likely to a Senior Engineering Manager or Director, depending on the specific team setup.

Methodology:

Given the focus on collaboration and iterative development, agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) are likely employed.
The design process likely involves user research, prototyping, user testing, and close collaboration between designers and engineers throughout the development lifecycle.
Emphasis on building reusable components suggests a commitment to developing and maintaining a robust design system, indicating a structured approach to UI development.

Company Website: https://ironcladapp.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Inferred information about the design culture and methodology is based on the company's focus on a user-friendly platform for legal professionals, the explicit mention of working with design teams, and the emphasis on design systems and reusable components in the job description. The company size and industry context suggest a structured but potentially fast-paced environment.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Design Career Level: This is positioned as a Senior Software Engineer role with a strong UI/UX focus. This level implies significant technical expertise, the ability to lead projects, mentor others, and contribute strategically to the product's user interface architecture and implementation. While not a design role itself, it offers significant opportunities for engineers interested in specializing in UI development, design system architecture, and the intersection of engineering and design.

Reporting Structure: Likely reports to an Engineering Manager or Director, with potential mentorship responsibilities for more junior engineers on the team. Close collaboration with Design Leads and Product Managers is expected.

Design Impact: This role has a direct and significant impact on the user experience of Ironclad's platform. By building high-quality, reusable UI components and contributing to the design system, the Senior Software Engineer directly influences the consistency, usability, and performance of the user interface, which is critical for user adoption and satisfaction in a B2B SaaS product for legal professionals. The work directly supports the company's mission to make contracting "beautiful and functional."

Growth Opportunities:

Advancement within the engineering track to roles like Staff or Principal Engineer, focusing on technical leadership and architectural contributions to the core UI or broader front-end architecture.
Opportunities to deepen expertise in design systems, front-end performance optimization, or specific UI technologies.
Potential for increased leadership responsibilities, such as leading larger projects, managing a small team, or taking on more formal mentorship roles.
Opportunities to contribute to the evolution of the development process and best practices within the team and the broader engineering organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: Analyzed career growth paths based on the senior-level positioning of the role and the technical specialization in UI/UX. While the title is not explicitly "Design Engineer," the responsibilities and required skills align closely with this specialization, offering a clear technical track focused on the intersection of engineering and design. The impact analysis highlights the critical nature of the role for the product's success.

🌐 Work Environment

Studio Type: Remote-first within the United States, with a headquarters in San Francisco. The work environment is designed to support remote collaboration while maintaining connections with the core team.

Office Location(s): San Francisco, California (Headquarters), New York, NY, Indianapolis, Indiana. This role is explicitly listed as remote, but these locations indicate potential hubs for team gatherings or collaboration if needed (though not specified as a requirement for this role).

Design Workspace Context:

As a remote role, the workspace is the employee's home office, requiring self-discipline and effective remote communication tools.
Collaboration with design and product teams will heavily rely on video conferencing, collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack, Notion), and design handoff tools (e.g., Figma, Storybook).
The company culture emphasizes collaboration and inclusion, suggesting efforts to maintain a connected team environment despite being distributed.

Work Schedule: Full-time, likely with core hours that overlap with the San Francisco team's business hours (Pacific Time) to facilitate real-time collaboration and meetings. Flexibility is expected to manage work effectively in a remote setting.

📝 Enhancement Note: Inferred details about the work environment based on the "Remote OK" status and the company's listed office locations. The emphasis on remote collaboration tools and the expectation of aligning with headquarters time zone are standard for remote roles interacting with a core on-site team. The "design workspace context" is tailored to the realities of a remote design/engineering collaboration.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Design Interview Process:

Initial screening call with a recruiter to discuss experience, fit, and remote work capabilities.
Technical interview(s) focusing on coding skills, data structures, algorithms, and potentially front-end specific challenges related to UI component development and architecture.
System design interview, potentially focusing on designing scalable and maintainable front-end systems and design systems.
Interview(s) with members of the engineering team, focusing on collaboration skills, problem-solving approaches, and cultural fit. This may include discussions about past projects and contributions to UI development or design systems.
Interview(s) with cross-functional partners, such as a Design Lead or Product Manager, to assess collaboration style, understanding of user needs, and ability to translate design into code. Expect questions about how you've worked with designers in the past and handled design handoffs or feedback.
Potential take-home coding challenge or live coding exercise focusing on building a UI component or implementing a design specification.
Final interview(s) with engineering leadership to discuss career goals, leadership potential, and strategic contributions.

Portfolio Review Tips:

Select portfolio pieces that specifically highlight your experience in building complex user interfaces and reusable UI components.
For each project, clearly articulate your role, the technical challenges you addressed, and the impact of your work on the user experience and development efficiency.
If you have contributed to a design system, be prepared to discuss your contributions, the technical architecture of the system, and how it improved consistency and developer workflow.
Showcase your ability to work from design mockups (e.g., Figma files) and implement them accurately while considering technical constraints and performance.

Challenge Preparation:

Review fundamental front-end development concepts, including React, TypeScript, and state management.
Practice building reusable UI components, focusing on modularity, testability, and adherence to design principles.
Be prepared to discuss your approach to handling asynchronous data, error handling, and performance optimization in front-end applications.
If a design challenge is provided, take the time to understand the requirements thoroughly, clarify any ambiguities, and focus on building a functional and well-structured solution within the given time constraints. Be ready to explain your design decisions and technical choices.

ATS Keywords: Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Front-end Engineer, UI Engineer, User Interface, UI/UX, React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, RESTful APIs, Asynchronous Data, Design Systems, Component Libraries, Figma, Storybook, Cross-Browser Compatibility, Web Accessibility (WCAG), Collaboration, Mentoring, Technical Leadership, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Testing Strategy, Unit Testing, Integration Testing, End-to-End Testing, Performance Optimization, Scalability, Reusable Components, Product Development, SaaS, Legal Tech, Contract Management, Problem Solving, Communication, Architecture, System Design, User Experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process and preparation tips are tailored to a senior software engineering role with a strong UI/UX component. Specific advice on portfolio content and challenge preparation focuses on demonstrating relevant technical skills, design system knowledge, and collaborative abilities. The ATS keywords list is comprehensive and includes both general engineering terms and those specific to the UI/UX and design system focus of the role.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Tools:

Figma: Used by the design team for creating UI mockups, prototypes, and potentially maintaining the design system documentation and assets. Proficiency in understanding and working with Figma files for design handoff is expected.
Storybook: Likely used for developing, documenting, and showcasing UI components in isolation, facilitating collaboration between design and engineering and serving as a living style guide for the component library.

Collaboration & Handoff:

Collaboration tools (e.g., Slack, Notion): Used for team communication, project management, and documentation.
Design handoff tools (potentially integrated with Figma): For developers to access design specifications, assets, and redlines.
Version Control (e.g., Git/GitHub/GitLab): Standard for code management and collaboration.

Research & Testing:

Unit testing frameworks (e.g., Jest, React Testing Library): For testing individual UI components.
Integration testing frameworks (e.g., Cypress, Playwright): For testing the interaction between components and system flows.
Familiarity with tools or processes for ensuring web accessibility (WCAG compliance).

Core Technologies: React, TypeScript, Node.js (likely for build tools or potential full-stack work), RESTful APIs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The tools and technology stack are inferred based on the job description's emphasis on React, TypeScript, design systems, and collaboration with design teams. Figma and Storybook are standard tools in modern UI development workflows and are strongly suggested by the requirements. The inclusion of testing tools aligns with the mention of collaborating with quality engineers.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Design Values:

User-Centered Design: A strong focus on understanding the needs of legal professionals and designing intuitive, efficient workflows for managing contracts.
Consistency and Scalability: Emphasis on building a cohesive and maintainable user interface through the use of design systems and reusable components.
Collaboration: A culture that values close partnership between engineering, design, and product teams to deliver high-quality product experiences.
Quality and Reliability: Commitment to building robust and well-tested UI components and features that legal professionals can rely on for critical tasks.

Collaboration Style:

Cross-functional collaboration is central, with engineers working closely with designers and product managers from ideation through implementation.
Likely involves regular design reviews, technical discussions, and feedback sessions to ensure alignment and quality.
A collaborative code review process is expected to maintain code quality and share knowledge within the engineering team.

📝 Enhancement Note: Inferred design values and collaboration style based on the company's mission (making contracting "beautiful and functional"), the explicit mention of collaborating with designers, and the focus on design systems and quality. The target user base (legal professionals) suggests a strong emphasis on usability and reliability.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Design Challenges:

Translating complex legal workflows and data structures into intuitive and user-friendly UI components and interactions.
Maintaining and evolving a large-scale design system and component library to support new features and product areas while ensuring backward compatibility and consistency.
Optimizing the performance of complex UI components and pages within a data-intensive application.
Ensuring web accessibility (WCAG compliance) across the entire platform for a diverse user base.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

Opportunity to deepen expertise in front-end architecture, design systems, and UI performance optimization.
Exposure to the legal tech industry and the unique challenges of designing and building software for legal professionals.
Mentorship opportunities both as a mentor to junior engineers and potentially from more senior technical leaders.
Potential for attending industry conferences or workshops related to front-end development, UI/UX, or design systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: Identified potential design-related challenges based on the nature of the product (complex legal workflows) and the technical requirements (large-scale UI, design systems, performance). The growth opportunities are tailored to a senior engineer specializing in UI, focusing on technical depth, leadership, and domain expertise.

💡 Interview Preparation

Design Process Questions:

"Describe a time you collaborated closely with a designer on a complex feature. How did you handle design handoff and iterative feedback?" (Preparation: Be ready to discuss specific projects from your portfolio where you worked with designers, detailing your communication methods and problem-solving approach.)
"How do you approach building reusable UI components? What factors do you consider to ensure scalability and maintainability?" (Preparation: Review design system principles and be prepared to discuss your experience with component architecture, props, state management, and documentation.)
"Tell me about your experience working with a design system. How did you contribute to its evolution or adoption?" (Preparation: If you have experience with design systems, be ready to share specific examples of your contributions and the impact they had.)

Company Culture Questions:

"How do you approach mentoring junior engineers or providing technical feedback to peers?" (Preparation: Reflect on your mentorship experiences and be ready to share examples of how you've helped others grow technically.)
"Describe a situation where you had to make trade-offs between product requirements and technical complexity. How did you communicate your recommendations to product managers or designers?" (Preparation: Think about projects where technical constraints or complexity influenced product or design decisions and how you navigated those discussions.)
"What interests you about working in the legal tech space and building a platform for legal professionals?" (Preparation: Research Ironclad's product and mission and articulate your genuine interest in the domain and the impact of technology on the legal industry.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

Focus on 2-3 key projects that best showcase your UI engineering skills, your experience with complex interfaces, and your ability to build reusable components.
For each project, clearly outline the problem you were solving, your specific contributions, the technologies used, and any interesting technical challenges you overcame.
If possible, include live demos or interactive examples of the UI components or features you built.
Dedicate time to discussing your collaboration process with design and product teams, highlighting how you translated design into code and incorporated feedback.

📝 Enhancement Note: Developed interview questions and preparation strategies specifically tailored to a senior UI-focused engineering role, incorporating aspects of technical skills, collaboration, design system knowledge, and cultural fit. The advice on portfolio presentation emphasizes highlighting relevant experience and demonstrating the ability to work effectively with design.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this design position:

Submit your application through this link
Tailor your resume to highlight your experience in front-end development, UI/UX component building, and design systems, using relevant keywords from the job description.
Prepare a portfolio or be ready to discuss projects that showcase your ability to build complex user interfaces, work with design teams, and contribute to scalable front-end architectures.
Research Ironclad, its product, and its mission to understand the context of the role and be prepared to discuss your interest in the legal tech space.
Practice explaining your technical decisions and collaboration process clearly, particularly in the context of working with designers and product managers.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and design industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

Senior Software Engineer - Core UI