Senior UX Frontend Engineer - Design & Code

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior UX Frontend Engineer - Design & Code
Company: chatarmin.com GmbH
Location: Austria
Job Type: FULL_TIME
Category: Frontend Engineering / UI/UX Design
Date Posted: 2025-10-06
Experience Level: 3+ Years
Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Design and develop dynamic, visually stunning, and interactive frontends using modern JavaScript frameworks and cutting-edge animation libraries.
• Take ownership of the UI/UX of the Chatarmin platform, translating user needs and design concepts into pixel-perfect, responsive web experiences.
• Collaborate directly with customers to understand the "why" behind feature requests, ensuring the optimal user experience is delivered.
• Drive innovation in a fast-paced, bootstrapped startup environment, pushing the boundaries of frontend design and performance.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the primary title is "Senior UX Frontend Engineer - Design & Code," the core responsibilities and required skills strongly indicate a role focused on the implementation of UX/UI designs rather than pure UX research or strategic design leadership. The emphasis on React, animation libraries, and translating designs into code points to a highly skilled frontend developer with a strong design sensibility and a passion for crafting exceptional user interfaces. The "Design & Code" aspect highlights the dual requirement for both aesthetic creation and technical execution.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Build dynamic, visually stunning, and interactive frontends leveraging React and specialized animation libraries such as anime.js, Framer, or GSAP to create rich animations and engaging user experiences.
• Prototype, design, and iterate on UI/UX concepts using tools like Figma or Adobe XD, ensuring seamless translation into responsive, production-ready code.
• Engage directly with Chatarmin's e-commerce SaaS customers to gather in-depth understanding of their needs and the rationale behind feature requests, informing product design decisions.
• Optimize the frontend architecture and code for peak performance, ensuring a buttery-smooth user experience across all devices and browsers.
• Collaborate closely with product and engineering teams to ensure cohesive product development and a strong alignment between design intent and technical implementation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The raw description emphasizes direct customer interaction for understanding feature "why." This suggests the role will involve a significant degree of user empathy and the ability to translate qualitative feedback into actionable design and development tasks, going beyond just executing pre-defined mockups.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating practical application of frontend development and UI/UX design principles is paramount. Relevant certifications or coursework in design or computer science are beneficial.
Experience: Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in frontend development, with a significant focus on UI/UX design and implementation.

Required Skills:

• Frontend Development Expertise: Deep proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript and modern frontend frameworks, particularly React.
• UI/UX Design Acumen: Proven ability to prototype, design, and iterate on user interfaces using tools such as Figma or Adobe XD.
• Animation & Interactivity: Hands-on experience with animation libraries (e.g., anime.js, Framer, GSAP) to create dynamic and engaging visual elements.
• Styling & Responsiveness: Strong command of CSS, including preprocessors like SASS and utility-first frameworks like Tailwind CSS, to build responsive and visually appealing interfaces.
• User Research & Empathy: Experience with user research methods and the ability to gather customer insights to inform design decisions.
• Performance Optimization: Demonstrated ability to optimize frontend performance for speed and responsiveness across various devices.
• Problem-Solving Aptitude: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills to tackle complex design and development challenges.
• Collaboration & Communication: Exceptional creativity and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Vue.js as a secondary framework.
• Familiarity with A/B testing methodologies for UI/UX optimization.
• Understanding of SEO best practices as they relate to frontend implementation.
• Experience working within a B2B SaaS or e-commerce technology environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for "3+ years" combined with the "Senior" title suggests a need for demonstrable leadership in design execution and a proactive approach to problem-solving. The emphasis on "ownership" implies a candidate who can operate with minimal supervision.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase of Innovative Interfaces: A portfolio demonstrating a range of user-centric interfaces, highlighting creativity, aesthetic appeal, and intuitive navigation.
• Animation and Interactivity Examples: Specific examples of projects where animation libraries were used effectively to enhance user experience, guide user flows, or add visual flair.
• Design-to-Code Translation: Case studies or project breakdowns illustrating the process of translating designs from tools like Figma/Adobe XD into functional, responsive frontend code.
• Performance Optimization Proof: Evidence of projects where frontend performance was a key consideration, with demonstrable improvements in load times or responsiveness.
• Customer-Centricity: Projects that clearly show how user needs and feedback were incorporated into the design and development process.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Iteration: Ability to articulate the process used for prototyping, iterating on designs based on feedback, and developing user flows.
• Development Best Practices: Documentation or discussion of preferred development methodologies for building maintainable, scalable, and performant React applications.
• Quality Assurance & Testing: Understanding of frontend testing strategies, including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing, to ensure code quality and user experience consistency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process explicitly mentions submitting a "Portfolio of Work for proof of great UX" and a "Take home assessment Design." This indicates that the portfolio is not just a supplementary document but a critical evaluation tool, and candidates should prepare to showcase their design and coding capabilities through practical examples.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: €50,000 - €120,000 per year.
Explanation: This range is competitive for a Senior UX Frontend Engineer role in Austria, considering the required experience level, the focus on specialized skills like advanced animations, and the potential for direct impact in a fast-growing startup. The upper end reflects significant expertise and a strong track record in both design and development.
Research Methodology: Based on analyzing similar Senior Frontend Engineer and UX/UI roles in Austria, factoring in the specified experience level (3+ years), and considering the startup environment which often offers competitive compensation to attract top talent. Data sources include industry salary benchmarks, job board data for similar roles in Austria, and common compensation structures for tech roles in European startups.

Benefits:

• Direct Impact: Opportunity to significantly influence the Chatarmin product and user experience, seeing your work directly contribute to company growth.
• Career Growth: Real growth opportunities with potential for internal promotion; this role is positioned as a foundation for building a long-term career within the company.
• Competitive Compensation: Good base pay supplemented by uncapped commissions, allowing income to be directly tied to performance and output.
• Startup Culture: Work within a young, highly motivated team characterized by a "zero ego" mentality and a focus on speed and innovation.
• Autonomy & Ownership: Freedom to run with ideas and take ownership of your work, with minimal bureaucracy.
• Remote Work: Fully remote position, offering flexibility and work-life balance.

Working Hours: The position is full-time, typically around 40 hours per week, with an emphasis on productivity and output rather than strict timekeeping. The remote nature offers flexibility in managing work schedules to meet deadlines and project needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "uncapped commissions" mentioned in the benefits suggest a performance-driven compensation model, which is unusual for a pure engineering role but might apply to aspects of user acquisition or feature adoption driven by the frontend. Candidates should clarify how commissions are calculated.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: B2B SaaS, specifically serving e-commerce brands. This positions Chatarmin in a growing sector with a clear target market.
Company Size: As a bootstrapped and fast-growing startup, Chatarmin likely operates with a lean, agile team where each member's contribution is highly visible and impactful. This often translates to less hierarchy and more direct communication.
Founded: While the founding date isn't specified, the description "We're a real startup, not a playground. Bootstrapped and fast-growing" indicates a company in its growth phase, prioritizing rapid development and market capture over established corporate structures.

Team Structure:

• Lean & Agile: Expect a small, highly collaborative team where roles may be fluid and individuals are encouraged to wear multiple hats.
• Direct Reporting: The mention of a CTO and the "zero corporate nonsense" ethos suggest a relatively flat hierarchy, with direct access to leadership.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: The role requires close collaboration with product, engineering, and potentially sales/marketing, emphasizing shared goals and rapid feedback loops.

Methodology:

• Agile Development: The "Move fast, break things" motto implies an agile methodology focused on rapid iteration, continuous deployment, and learning from user feedback.
• Data-Driven Design: While not explicitly stated, the focus on customer interaction and performance optimization suggests a data-informed approach to design and development, even if qualitative feedback is the primary driver.
• Performance & Efficiency: A strong emphasis on optimizing frontend performance and delivering a "buttery-smooth" experience.

Company Website: https://chatarmin.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is explicitly described as high-paced, demanding, and direct. Candidates should be comfortable with a lack of formal processes, embrace autonomy, and be driven by a desire to "win" and contribute significantly to a growing product.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a "Senior" UX Frontend Engineer. This implies a level of expertise beyond junior or mid-level, with the expectation of independent work, problem-solving, and potentially mentoring or guiding less experienced team members in frontend and UI/UX best practices. The emphasis on "ownership" further solidifies this senior standing.
Reporting Structure: The role likely reports directly to a CTO or Head of Engineering/Product, given the startup context and the mention of a "15-min call with CTO" in the interview process. This allows for direct communication and quick decision-making.
Operations Impact: The Senior UX Frontend Engineer will have a substantial impact on the Chatarmin product by directly shaping the user interface and user experience. This directly influences customer adoption, retention, and overall product satisfaction, which are critical for a SaaS company. The ability to translate customer needs into intuitive designs and high-performing code will be a key driver of business success.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in advanced frontend technologies, animation techniques, and performance optimization.
• Design Leadership: Grow into a more prominent design role, potentially leading UI/UX efforts for new features or product lines as the company scales.
• Product Influence: Gain significant influence over product direction through direct customer interaction and the ability to propose and implement innovative UX solutions.
• Career Advancement: The company explicitly states, "Real growth opportunities - we promote from within. This is a place to build your career," indicating clear pathways for advancement within the organization as it expands.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "uncapped commissions" benefit, while unusual for an engineer, could suggest a pathway for individuals who excel at translating user needs into business outcomes, potentially leading to roles that bridge development with commercial success.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. This provides significant flexibility for employees to work from any location within Austria.
Office Location(s): Austria. While the company is based in Austria, the remote nature means physical office presence is not required for this role.

Workspace Context:

• Independent Work: The remote setup emphasizes self-discipline, time management, and the ability to work autonomously.
• Digital Collaboration Tools: Expect extensive use of digital tools for communication, project management, and design collaboration (e.g., Slack, Jira, Figma, Git).
• Focus on Output: The environment is geared towards results and impact, with less emphasis on traditional office dynamics.

Work Schedule: Full-time, approximately 40 hours per week. While core hours may exist for team syncs, the remote nature likely allows for flexibility in structuring the workday around personal productivity peaks, provided deadlines and collaboration needs are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Move fast, break things" and "zero corporate nonsense" mottos suggest an environment that values action and directness over extensive process documentation or committee approvals. Candidates should be comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

1. Portfolio Submission: Submit your portfolio of work, specifically highlighting strong UX/UI examples. This is the initial screening step.
2. Take-Home Assessment: A design-focused take-home assessment to evaluate your practical skills in prototyping and translating user needs into design solutions.
3. 15-Minute Call with CTO: A brief, focused conversation to assess your technical fit, understanding of the role, and alignment with the company's fast-paced culture.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for Impact: Select projects that best showcase your ability to create visually appealing, user-centric, and performant interfaces. Prioritize examples demonstrating advanced animations or complex UI challenges.
• Show, Don't Just Tell: For each project, clearly articulate the problem you solved, your role, the tools and technologies used (especially React, animation libraries, design tools), and the outcome or impact.
• Highlight Design-to-Code: If possible, include examples that clearly demonstrate the transition from design mockups (Figma, Adobe XD) to functional code, showing your proficiency in both areas.
• Emphasize Customer Focus: If your projects involved user research or direct customer feedback, make this evident. Explain how you incorporated user insights into your design and development decisions.
• Technical Depth: Be prepared to discuss the technical implementation details of your projects, particularly regarding React, CSS, and animation libraries.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the "Why": For the take-home assessment, thoroughly understand the problem statement and the target user. Think critically about the "why" behind the requested features.
• Focus on UX Principles: Apply sound UX/UI principles in your design. Ensure usability, accessibility, and a positive user flow are key considerations.
• Demonstrate Animation Skills: If the assessment allows for interactive elements, use it as an opportunity to showcase your animation library expertise.
• Concise Presentation: Be prepared to present your take-home assessment and portfolio concisely, focusing on key decisions and outcomes within the limited time of the CTO call.

📝 Enhancement Note: The brevity of the interview process (especially the 15-min CTO call) indicates a need for candidates to be highly prepared and to communicate their value proposition quickly and effectively. The portfolio is the primary gatekeeper.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Frontend Framework: React (primary), Vue.js (beneficial).
• Animation Libraries: anime.js, Framer, GSAP, or similar for rich animations.
• Styling: CSS, SASS, Tailwind CSS.
• Design Tools: Figma, Adobe XD for prototyping and design.
• Version Control: Git (standard for collaborative development).

Analytics & Reporting:

• While specific tools aren't listed, expect to work with analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel) to understand user behavior and frontend performance metrics.
• Ability to interpret and act on performance data to optimize user experience.

CRM & Automation:

• Not directly specified for this role, but understanding how the frontend integrates with backend systems and potentially CRM data is beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on specific animation libraries and design tools suggests that candidates with hands-on experience in these areas will have a distinct advantage. Proficiency in translating designs to code using these tools is a core requirement.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Speed & Agility: A core value is "Move fast, break things" and prioritizing "Speed over politics." This means valuing quick decision-making, rapid iteration, and a bias for action.
• Ownership & Autonomy: Employees are expected to take ownership of their work and operate autonomously. "If you have an idea, run with it" embodies this value.
• Impact & Contribution: The company values direct impact on the product and company success. Employees are encouraged to contribute significantly and see the results of their work.
• Growth Mindset: "Real growth opportunities - we promote from within" highlights a commitment to employee development and internal career progression.
• Meritocracy & Performance: "Earn what you're worth: We offer good base pay + uncapped commissions. Your output defines your income" suggests a culture that rewards high performance and results.

Collaboration Style:

• Direct & Open: Expect a collaborative style characterized by open communication, minimal bureaucracy, and direct feedback. The "zero ego" team aims for constructive dialogue.
• Cross-functional Integration: Close collaboration with product, engineering, and potentially other departments is essential for aligning design vision with business goals.
• Proactive & Solution-Oriented: Team members are encouraged to be proactive in identifying challenges and proposing solutions, rather than waiting for direction.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is explicitly geared towards high performers who are comfortable with a startup environment. Candidates should be self-starters, resilient, and motivated by tangible results and rapid progress.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Rapid Iteration in a Fast-Paced Environment: Keeping up with the "move fast, break things" mentality requires adaptability and the ability to manage changing priorities without compromising quality.
• Balancing Design Innovation with Performance: Creating visually stunning and dynamic interfaces while ensuring they remain performant and accessible across all devices can be a significant technical challenge.
• Translating Customer Needs into Design: Effectively gathering and interpreting customer feedback, especially from B2B e-commerce, to create intuitive and valuable UX requires strong empathy and analytical skills.
• Remote Collaboration Dynamics: Maintaining effective communication and a strong team connection in a fully remote setup requires proactive effort and strong digital collaboration skills.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Mastery of Advanced Frontend Techniques: Opportunity to become an expert in modern JavaScript frameworks, state-of-the-art animation libraries, and performance optimization strategies.
• Product Design Influence: Gain hands-on experience shaping the user experience of a growing SaaS product, directly impacting customer acquisition and retention.
• Career Progression: Potential to grow into leadership roles within the frontend or design team as the company scales, with a clear emphasis on internal promotion.
• Industry Exposure: Working in the B2B SaaS e-commerce sector provides valuable experience in a dynamic and growing market.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary growth opportunity lies in the direct impact and potential for advancement within a scaling startup. Candidates who thrive on challenges and want to build their career rapidly will find significant potential here.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Design Philosophy: Be prepared to discuss your approach to UX/UI design, how you balance aesthetics with usability, and your process for translating user needs into design solutions. Think about how you'd design for a B2B e-commerce context.
• Animation Implementation: Prepare to explain your experience with specific animation libraries (Framer, GSAP, anime.js) and how you've used animations to improve user experience or guide users through complex interfaces.
• Performance Optimization Techniques: Discuss specific strategies you employ to ensure frontend performance, especially in a React application. What tools do you use to identify and fix performance bottlenecks?
• Customer Empathy: How do you approach understanding customer needs? Describe a time you used customer feedback to significantly improve a design or feature.
• Startup Fit: How do you thrive in a fast-paced, autonomous environment? What are your strategies for managing priorities and working with minimal supervision?

Company & Culture Questions:

• Research Chatarmin: Understand their product, target market (e-commerce B2B SaaS), and their stated company values (speed, ownership, impact).
• Cultural Alignment: Be ready to articulate why you are a good fit for a "zero ego," "move fast, break things" culture. Discuss your experience working in startup environments.
• Motivation: Why are you interested in this specific role and Chatarmin? What excites you about contributing to their growth?

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Highlight UX Impact: For each portfolio piece, clearly articulate the problem, your solution, and the positive user outcomes or business impact.
• Showcase Technical Skills: Be ready to briefly discuss the technical implementation of your projects, focusing on React, CSS, and animation libraries.
• Demonstrate Design-to-Code: If possible, walk through an example that shows how you've translated a design into functional, pixel-perfect code.
• Conciseness is Key: Given the short CTO call, be prepared to present your most impactful work efficiently and compellingly. Focus on the "great UX" aspect as requested.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to be lean and efficient. Candidates must come prepared with a strong portfolio and clear, concise answers that demonstrate both technical prowess and cultural fit. The emphasis is on practical demonstration of skills and alignment with the startup's ethos.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior UX Frontend Engineer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on join.com.
• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio is updated, curated, and specifically tailored to highlight your best UX/UI design and frontend development work, with a strong emphasis on animation and responsiveness.
• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to include keywords from the job description, such as "React," "TypeScript," "UI/UX Design," "Framer," "Figma," "Performance Optimization," and "Responsive Design." Quantify your achievements where possible.
• Prepare for Assessment: Familiarize yourself with common UX/UI design challenges and be ready to tackle the take-home assessment. Practice articulating your design decisions clearly and efficiently.
• Research Chatarmin: Thoroughly research chatarmin.com to understand their product, target audience, and company culture. Prepare thoughtful questions for the CTO call that demonstrate your engagement and interest.

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

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