Torchora
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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Front End Manager

💰 $150,000 - $220,000

Engineering ManagementTechnologyFront End DevelopmentUI/UX

🎯 Role Definition

As a Front End Manager, you are the cornerstone of our user interface development efforts. You will be a servant leader, responsible for guiding a team of talented front-end engineers, setting the technical vision for our web platforms, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, scalable, and performant user experiences. This role is a unique blend of people leadership, technical-architectural oversight, and strategic collaboration. You will partner closely with Product, Design, and Backend teams to translate ambitious ideas into tangible, world-class products that delight our users and drive business growth. Your success will be measured by your team's health, happiness, and productivity, as well as the quality and impact of the software they ship.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior or Lead Front End Engineer
  • Staff UI/UX Engineer
  • Technical Lead (Front End Focus)

Advancement To:

  • Director of Front End Engineering
  • Senior Engineering Manager
  • Head of Engineering

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Manager
  • Solutions Architect

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead, mentor, and manage a team of front-end engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
  • Oversee the career development and performance management of your team members through regular 1:1s, goal setting, and constructive feedback.
  • Drive the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process to attract and retain top-tier front-end engineering talent.
  • Define and execute the long-term technical roadmap and architectural vision for the company's front-end ecosystem, including frameworks, libraries, and design systems.
  • Champion and enforce best practices for front-end development, including code quality, testing standards, accessibility (a11y), and performance optimization.
  • Collaborate closely with product managers, UX/UI designers, and other engineering leaders to define project requirements, scope, and timelines.
  • Act as the key technical stakeholder for all front-end initiatives, ensuring alignment between business objectives and engineering execution.
  • Guide the team in making critical architectural decisions, evaluating new technologies, and resolving complex technical challenges.
  • Facilitate agile development processes, including sprint planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives, to ensure predictable and timely delivery of features.
  • Own the operational health of our web applications, including monitoring, alerting, and incident response for front-end systems.
  • Conduct thorough and insightful code reviews to maintain high standards of quality, consistency, and maintainability across the codebase.
  • Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and engineering metrics to monitor team velocity, code quality, and application performance (e.g., Core Web Vitals).
  • Manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables, effectively communicating status, risks, and dependencies to all stakeholders.
  • Foster a deep understanding of the user experience and advocate for user-centric design principles within the engineering team.
  • Drive the creation and maintenance of a robust, scalable, and reusable component library or design system.
  • Ensure all user-facing applications meet stringent accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) and are usable by people of all abilities.
  • Lead technical discovery and proof-of-concept projects to de-risk new initiatives and evaluate emerging front-end technologies.
  • Cultivate strong relationships with cross-functional partners to create a seamless and efficient product development lifecycle.
  • Champion a DevOps mindset within the team, improving CI/CD pipelines, build processes, and deployment strategies for front-end applications.
  • Manage the technical debt backlog, prioritizing and planning for refactoring and architectural improvements.
  • Serve as a tie-breaker in technical debates, making informed decisions that balance short-term needs with long-term strategic goals.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis related to user behavior and application performance.
  • Contribute to the organization's overall engineering strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs and user feedback into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies for adjacent engineering teams to ensure cross-functional alignment.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep expertise in modern JavaScript (ES6+), TypeScript, HTML5, and CSS3.
  • Proven experience with at least one major front-end framework like React, Vue.js, or Angular.
  • Strong understanding of state management patterns and libraries (e.g., Redux, MobX, Vuex, Context API).
  • Experience with modern front-end build tooling, such as Webpack, Vite, Rollup, and package managers like npm or Yarn.
  • Proficient in writing and maintaining comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests using frameworks like Jest, Cypress, or Playwright.
  • Solid knowledge of web performance optimization techniques, Core Web Vitals, and browser rendering behavior.
  • Experience designing, consuming, and versioning RESTful or GraphQL APIs.
  • Familiarity with CI/CD principles and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
  • In-depth knowledge of web accessibility standards (WCAG) and assistive technologies.
  • Experience with design systems, component libraries, and tools like Storybook.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional leadership and people management skills, with a passion for mentoring and developing talent.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strategic thinking and the ability to align technical decisions with business goals.
  • Strong project management and organizational abilities.
  • High emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills.
  • A collaborative spirit and the ability to build strong cross-functional partnerships.
  • Adept at problem-solving and navigating ambiguity in a fast-paced environment.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in a technical field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in a relevant field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8+ years of professional experience in front-end development, with at least 3 years in a formal leadership or management role (e.g., Team Lead, Engineering Manager).

Preferred:

  • Experience scaling a front-end team in a high-growth or startup environment.
  • Demonstrated experience leading the architecture and delivery of large-scale, complex web applications.
  • A history of successfully hiring, managing, and retaining high-performing engineers.
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