Staff Frontend Engineer (Toronto)

About the Team

Engineers on this team build the application our customers and internal teams use to configure, operate, manage, and visualize complex incentive compensation workflows. The work involves building screens and designing user experiences that help users understand, act on, and trust complex compensation data and operational processes.

What you’ll be doing

Reporting to the VP of Engineering, the Staff Frontend Engineer will shape the technical direction, architecture, and long‑term evolution of Forma’s customer‑facing and internal operations experiences.

You’ll operate as a frontend technical leader, working across teams to align, set standards, and solve complex, ambiguous problems in a highly configurable, data‑intensive product. You’ll partner closely with product, design, engineering, and leadership to define what we build and how we build it—ensuring our frontend systems are scalable, consistent, and built for long‑term velocity.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and evolution of Forma’s frontend systems, patterns, and best practices.
• Drive large, cross‑cutting frontend initiatives spanning multiple product areas and teams.
• Translate complex compensation and operational workflows into scalable, extensible UI systems and abstractions.
• Define and standardize reusable frontend and data visualization patterns across the platform.
• Partner with product and design to shape ambiguous problem spaces into clear, scalable solutions.
• Improve frontend performance, reliability, accessibility, testing strategy, and developer experience at a systems level.
• Mentor and guide engineers across the team, raising the overall quality and consistency of frontend development.
• Influence technical strategy, roadmap planning, and prioritization decisions.
• Identify and address systemic frontend challenges, including architecture, state management, and data handling at scale.
• Bring strong product thinking, customer empathy, and operational awareness to complex problem spaces.

What we’re looking for

We’re searching for a highly experienced frontend engineer who thrives in ambiguous environments, enjoys solving system‑level problems, and can influence both technical and product direction.

Qualifications

• Deep experience building and scaling production web applications with React, TypeScript, and JavaScript.
• Proven experience designing frontend architecture and systems for complex, data‑heavy, configurable applications.
• Experience leading large frontend initiatives or platform‑level efforts across teams.
• Strong expertise in component design, state management, performance optimization, and testing at scale.
• Experience building dashboards, BI tools, reporting, analytics, or data visualization platforms.
• Excellent judgment around UX, accessibility, information hierarchy, and visualization patterns.
• Strong product instincts and the ability to influence product direction through technical insight.
• Experience working with complex workflows, automation systems, APIs, or policy‑driven platforms.
• A track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across a team or organization.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to align stakeholders and drive decisions across disciplines.

Nice to have

• Experience on enterprise SaaS platforms at scale.
• Experience in compensation, finance, workflow automation, analytics, or operational tooling.
• Experience building or leading design systems, frontend platforms, or shared component libraries.
• Familiarity with backend systems (Python/Django, Java/Springboot, APIs, Postgres).
• Experience building systems that support both internal operations teams and external customers.
• Experience influencing or defining engineering strategy at the team or org level.

Technologies We Use

• Frontend: JavaScript, React, TypeScript
• Backend: Java/Springboot, Django, Postgres
• Infrastructure: AWS, Docker

What Success Looks Like: 30/60/90 Days

First 30 Days

• Develop a strong understanding of Forma’s product, customers, and the sales compensation domain.
• Build a clear mental model of the frontend architecture, key systems, and areas of complexity.
• Form relationships with engineering, product, design, and leadership stakeholders.
• Identify high-impact opportunities for frontend improvements across architecture, UX, and systems.
• Contribute to technical discussions and shape frontend direction.
• Ship targeted improvements while building broader context.

First 60 Days

• Take ownership of a cross-cutting frontend initiative or system-level improvement.
• Influence product and technical decisions through robust architectural and product thinking.
• Introduce or improve frontend patterns, abstractions, or standards.
• Help teams navigate complexity in workflows, data visualization, or state management.
• Begin mentoring engineers and raising the quality bar through reviews and guidance.
• Identify opportunities to improve consistency and reuse across the platform.

First 90 Days

• Lead the design and delivery of a major frontend initiative or architectural improvement.
• Establish or significantly advance frontend standards, patterns, or platform capabilities.
• Influence roadmap decisions and help align teams on scalable frontend approaches.
• Improve the performance, usability, and maintainability of key product areas.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to a stronger frontend culture across the team.
• Identify and begin executing on longer-term frontend investments.
• Demonstrate clear impact on both user experience and engineering velocity.

What You Can Expect From Us

• Meaningful compensation plus an employee stock ownership plan.
• Full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, and paid parental leave.
• Access to learning and development resources, including a yearly $750 training stipend.
• Opportunities to build a career as an individual contributor or people leader.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Forma is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Every effort to accommodate candidates for accessibility will be made upon request. Qualified applicants will be shortlisted.