Principal Engineer - UI/UX

The Opportunity At Certa, we are building the AI-native Operating System for global enterprise relationships. We have the clients (Fortune 100/500) and the robust backend technology. Now, under the guidance of our new Head of Design, we are elevating our experience to match the best consumer products in the world. We are looking for our First Design Engineer. You are the "missing link" between our pragmatic engineering requirements and our ambitious design vision. You won't just implement tickets; you will define how our product feels.

The Role This is not a standard Frontend Engineer role, nor is it a Product Designer role. This role is equal parts: Craft-focused Frontend Engineering: You write production-grade code, but you obsess over the details that others miss. Systems Thinking: You don't just build components; you build the architecture (Design System) that allows the rest of the team to build beautiful UI faster. Figma-to-Code Mastery: You bridge the gap between static Figma files and dynamic browser realities, moving fluidly between design and implementation.

What You Will Do

1. Architect the Design System & UI Patterns Take ownership of our internal design system. You will treat it as an internal product, creating a type-safe, accessible, and composable library in React & TypeScript. Manage the tokens, components, patterns, documentation, and governance required to scale design across a remote engineering team. Bridge the gap between Figma Variables/Tokens and code, ensuring a single source of truth for our visual language.
2. Make AI-Native UX Feel Trustworthy & Human Implement interaction patterns specifically for AI workflows: streaming states, progressive disclosure, and optimistic UI. Build for "explainability" and human-in-the-loop controls, ensuring users trust the system even when it automates complex tasks. Make complexity feel simple—especially when the system is performing sophisticated "smart" operations in the background.
3. Maximize Output with AI-Assisted Tooling Hyper-automate the mundane: Use AI coding assistants (Cursor, Copilot, etc.) to handle boilerplate and scaffolding, allowing you to spend 80% of your time on the 20% of the "feel" and "craft." Build tooling and guardrails (linting rules, visual checks, component playground workflows) that help the team ship high-fidelity UI consistently.
4. Bridge Design & Code (Figma-First) Live in Figma: You are expected to be as comfortable in Figma as you are in VS Code. You’ll tweak layouts, design missing states, and refine prototypes yourself. Push performance beyond just metrics: focus on rendering, bundle size, perceived speed, and interaction responsiveness. Raise the bar on accessibility and cross-browser behavior, ensuring the product is usable by everyone.

Must Haves

1. Expert Figma Skills: This is a primary requirement. You should be fluent in auto-layout, components, variables, and prototyping. You view Figma as a design environment and a technical spec.
2. AI-Assisted Workflow: You are a "power user" of AI tools (Cursor, Copilot, v0, etc.). You know how to leverage AI to move faster without sacrificing the quality of the final output.
3. Strong Frontend Foundation: Deep expertise in React + TypeScript with a track record of shipping complex, data-heavy UIs in production.
4. Demonstrated UI Craft: A portfolio showing obsession with spacing, typography, interaction detail, and motion. You likely have a "Folder of Inspiration" from the best apps in the world.
5. Design System Experience: Strong experience building and maintaining a design system: tokens, components, patterns, and documentation.
6. Accessibility Expertise: You build keyboard-first UX, understand screen reader behavior, and enforce correct ARIA usage by default.
7. Modern Tooling: Experience with Vite and modern frontend tooling; comfortable setting up and customizing JS tooling/build systems.

Why You? (The "Craft" Factor)

1. You are inspired by the design-engineering cultures of companies like Linear, Vercel, Family, or Arc (The Browser Company).
2. You get annoyed when a modal closes without an exit animation.
3. You understand that latency is a UX problem, and you use optimistic UI updates to make the app feel instant.
4. You believe enterprise software doesn't have to look like a spreadsheet from 2005—it should feel as fluid as the best consumer apps.
5. You are an "AI-augmented" engineer who uses modern tools to do the work of three people while maintaining the taste of an artisan.

**TL;DR:** Seeking an experienced Front-end Developer proficient in React and Next.js to build user-friendly interfaces for Proof of Skill, a blockchain-based protocol for skill verification and credentialing.

Proof of Skill protocol is a decentralized system where industry experts (Validators) evaluate candidates' skills and issue verifiable Skill Credentials. Organizations can then shortlist candidates based on these credentials.

**Qualifications and Skills:**

5+ years of experience in front-end development, with a strong focus on React and Next.js

Proficiency in JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, and related front-end technologies

Solid understanding of React ecosystem, including Redux, React Router, and React Hooks

Experience with Next.js and its server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) capabilities

Familiarity with modern front-end build tools and workflows (e.g., Webpack, Babel, ESLint)

Knowledge of responsive design and cross-browser compatibility

Experience with RESTful APIs and integration with back-end services

Familiarity with web accessibility standards (WCAG) and best practices

Understanding of blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps) is a plus

**Responsibilities:**

Design and develop user-friendly interfaces for the Proof of Skill platform using React and Next.js

Implement reusable and modular front-end components following best practices

Integrate with blockchain-based back-end services and decentralized data sources

Optimize performance, scalability, and security of the front-end applications

Collaborate with the design team to ensure pixel-perfect implementation of UI/UX designs

Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code

Participate in code reviews and ensure adherence to coding standards

Stay up-to-date with the latest front-end technologies, frameworks, and industry trends

**Ideal Candidate Traits:**

Strong problem-solving and analytical skills

Excellent communication and collaboration abilities

Attention to detail and commitment to writing clean, efficient code

Passion for creating intuitive and engaging user experiences

Entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to take ownership

Curiosity and eagerness to learn and grow in a dynamic environment

Experience building for crypto is a huge plus

• Develop new user-facing features
• Build reusable code and libraries for future use
• Ensure the technical feasibility of UI/UX designs
• Optimize application for maximum speed and scalability
• Assure that all user input is validated before submitting to back-end
• Collaborate with other team members and stakeholders

• Proficient understanding of web markup, including HTML5, CSS3
• Basic understanding of server-side CSS pre-processing platforms, such as LESS and SASS
• Proficient understanding of client-side scripting and JavaScript frameworks, including jQuery
• Good understanding and knowledge of advanced JavaScript libraries and frameworks, such as AngularJS, KnockoutJS, BackboneJS, ReactJS, DurandalJS etc.
• Good understanding of asynchronous request handling, partial page updates, and AJAX
• Basic knowledge of image authoring tools, to be able to crop, resize, or perform small adjustments on an image
• Proficient understanding of cross-browser compatibility issues and ways to work around them.
• Proficient understanding of code versioning tools, such as Git
• Good understanding of SEO principles and ensuring that application will adhere to them

Must Have: 

• Must have Javascript and React.js 

Responsibilities: 

• Use markup languages like HTML to create user-friendly web pages 

• Maintain and improve website 
• Optimize applications for maximum speed 
• Design mobile-based features 
• Collaborate with back-end developers and web designers to improve the usability 
• Get feedback from, and build solutions for, users and customers   

• Write functional requirement documents and guides 
• Create quality mockups and prototypes 
• Help back-end developers with coding and troubleshooting. 
• Ensure high-quality graphic standards and brand consistency 

Skills looking for: 

• Understanding of key design principles. 
• Proficiency in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React.js. 
• Should be good at CSS and sound knowledge about Tailwind and Material UI. 

• Understanding of server-side CSS. 
• Understanding of SEO principles. 
• Good problem-solving skills. 
• Excellent verbal communication skills. 
• Good interpersonal skills. 

Good to Have: 

• Experience in Next.js and AngularJS is highly preferred 

Opportunity in the Role: 

• Experienced founding team. 

• Right to win - The founding team knows the business & its secrets inside out. We are starting with a significant head start and a precise plan of action. 
• Barriers to entry - This is a specialized play with natural barriers to entry, allowing for significant value creation for all equity holders. 
• Backed by marquee global investors. 
• Exposure to all aspects of company building - exposure to investors, fund-raising, decision making, building the team & culture. 
• All of the above perks of joining a high potential company very early, along with a competitive market salary. 

• Developer/Senior Developer Role in Javascript/React
• Design and Develop Libraries for React
• Strong analytical skills - ability to turn business requirements into technical concepts and code
  • Minimum 3 years of experience in React (at least 3 projects) and familiar with modern React (Hooks, Context API)
  • At least one PWA project
  • Deep knowledge of Typescript (at least 2 years)
  • Excellent problem solving and communication skill
  • Used to writing automated tests with tools like Jest & Cypress
  • Working with a ticket tool like Jira
  • Experience with SCRUM/Agile Development
  • Experiences with NodeJS is a plus
  • Experiences with Monorepositorys and Nx is a plus