Staff Frontend Engineer

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China—from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.

Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status—proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.

About the role

Vannevar is seeking an experienced frontend engineer to advance the design and implementation of our Decision Advantage product. This critical platform enables defense and intelligence operators to gain comprehensive situational awareness of the information environment, helping them understand and counter adversary influence operations and information warfare tactics. You will build the applications our warfighters and intelligence analysts use daily for mission-critical work, developing advanced interfaces for information distillation, analysis, and visualization that enable rapid assessment of the information environment. Working alongside designers, engineers, subject matter experts, and operational users, you will transform complex intelligence requirements into intuitive, mission-ready UIs that directly support national security objectives.

In this role, you will work in a small cross-functional team focused on delivering Decision Advantage capabilities to defense customers engaged in strategic competition with near-peer adversaries. You will serve as a technical expert on the team and shape frontend development practices across the organization.

What you’ll do

• Design, build, and ship cutting edge defense tech applications and features using TypeScript, React, Tailwind, and Node.js

• Partner with customers, mission owners, designers, and other engineers to understand user workflows and create the best possible solutions for their problems

• Contribute improvements to core libraries and frontend tooling for the broader organization

• Mentor and guide other engineers in the art of frontend development

• Help define and shape the future of the product

What we look for

• 11+ years of professional experience in frontend software development

• Expertise in TypeScript and React. You know how to write code and components that compose well and can be maintained by others in the future. You’re familiar with advanced topics like state management, performance optimization, approaches for integrating disparate applications into a single cohesive experience, etc.

• Eye for design and attention to detail. You produce elegant, consumer-grade UIs that users can understand without specific training.

• Customer obsession and keen product intuition. You think in workflows and end user experience, not just code.

• Prior experience as a senior engineer or tech lead and demonstrated ability to mentor and guide more junior engineers.

Nice to have

• Ability to work on backend APIs as needed to support frontend work. Familiarity with Node, Postgres, and OpenSearch is helpful.

• Active Security clearance (or ability to obtain one) and willingness to travel onsite at least quarterly to perform user research and help debug issues.

What we offer

Competitive Salary

The salary range for this position is $170,000 - $225,000 + equity. Within the range, individual pay is determined by experience, relevant education, and/or training.

Comprehensive Benefits

We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Remote friendly with WeWork access

• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year

• 401(k) match

• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends

• Salary top-up during military reserve duty

• Fully paid parental leave

• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you!

IMPORTANT NOTICE
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams.