Lead Front End Engineer Sydney – a React.js / Next.js role on an AI transformation, placed by Big Wave Digital. We are hiring a Lead Front End Engineer in Sydney to lead the front-end build.
This is not a role where you build what’s handed to you. This is where you define what great looks like.
Lead Front End Engineer Sydney: The Opportunity
You’re stepping into an established, globally operating tech business that’s already performing strongly, and now entering a serious AI transformation phase. Not hype. Not theory. A real shift in how the product works.
AI is being embedded into how users discover, onboard, and interact. And frontend? Frontend is where that transformation is felt first.
Your Role in That – Lead Front End Engineer
You are the owner of the customer-facing experience. The front door. First impression, onboarding, SSO, acquisition flows. Everything a user sees before they become a customer, and everything that determines whether they stay.
You’re not just building UI. You’re shaping how the product feels, performs, and converts.
If You’re Into AI
This is where it gets interesting. If you’ve been exploring how AI changes user journeys, thinking about intelligent interfaces, or curious how AI should actually show up in web experiences, this team wants that thinking. You’ll play a key role in connecting AI capability with real frontend experience.
What You’ll Own
This is a high-ownership, high-influence position. You set the bar, technically and experientially.
- The frontend quality bar across all customer-facing touchpoints
- Technical direction for frontend within your squad and beyond
- How AI-driven features translate into real, usable web experiences
- Performance, accessibility, and responsiveness at scale
- Building in React.js and Next.js, properly
- Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse scores as a baseline, not a target
- Accessibility (WCAG, ARIA) as standard, not optional
- Architecture for real-world conditions: low-powered devices, poor connections, edge cases most teams ignore
- Headless CMS-driven experiences without sacrificing performance
- The subtle things: layout shift, interaction latency, animation jank. The difference between good and exceptional.
What Makes This Role Different
Most frontend roles sit downstream. This one sits at the point of impact.
- Influence product and design decisions directly
- Work alongside UX and Product, not downstream from them
- Set standards others follow
- Help define how AI integrates into the frontend experience
No team reporting into you. But a genuine seat at the table.
The Kind of Engineer This Suits
You care about frontend as a craft. Not just how it looks: how it performs, how it feels, how it converts.
You’ve:
- Built production apps in React.js / Next.js at scale
- Improved Core Web Vitals in real environments (not just audits)
- Built accessible, responsive interfaces properly
- Worked across the full device and network spectrum
- Partnered closely with design and product to shape experiences
And increasingly, you’re thinking about:
- How AI enhances frontend interactions
- How to remove friction from user journeys
- How to build experiences that feel fast, intelligent, and seamless
The Mindset
You don’t just implement. You question. You refine. You improve. You think in terms of experience quality, conversion impact, performance under pressure, and how AI should actually show up in a product.
Why This Role Stands Out
- You’ll own frontend as a discipline, not execute someone else’s vision
- You’ll shape how AI becomes part of the user experience
- You’ll work on high-impact, customer-facing systems
- You’ll influence decisions that directly affect growth
This is where frontend craft meets product impact and AI evolution.
The Environment
High energy. Fast decisions. Strong engineers. Sydney, 5 days in the office. Highly collaborative, real-time problem solving, no slow-moving layers.
Salary: $200,000 + super + bonus
Location: Sydney, NSW
Employment Type: Full-time, 5 days per week on-site
About Big Wave Digital
This role is exclusively represented by Big Wave Digital: one of Sydney’s most established specialists in frontend, mobile, AI, and digital recruitment. Deep networks, long-standing relationships, and a reputation for placing engineers into roles where they genuinely make an impact.
If this sounds like your kind of role, let’s talk.
For independent salary and market data on this kind of role, see SEEK career advice.
Apply now via Big Wave Digital for this Lead Front End Engineer Sydney role. A Big Wave Digital consultant will be in touch about this Lead Front End Engineer position.
If you are a Lead Front End Engineer ready to lead, this Lead Front End Engineer role offers real ownership. We place Lead Front End Engineer talent across Sydney and Australia.
This Lead Front End Engineer role is a standout opportunity. As Lead Front End Engineer you will set the front-end direction, and a Lead Front End Engineer with React and Next.js depth will thrive here. We place Lead Front End Engineer talent across Sydney.
