About Code Metal

Code Metal is redefining code translation for mission-critical industries, helping defense partners move more quickly and reliably from algorithm to silicon. Our platform accelerates deployment of DSP, RF, communications, and embedded signal processing algorithms onto heterogeneous compute targets, including GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and edge SoCs. We also support automotive, aerospace, and semiconductor partners deploying complex algorithms onto constrained hardware with speed and rigor.

Our Modeling & Simulation team is building the next-generation wargaming and decision-support platform that helps the DoW make multi-billion-dollar force-design decisions before those decisions are made in the real world. The team spans simulation and physics, backend and data systems, frontend and geospatial visualization, and AI systems, working together to turn operational questions into extensible, mission- and campaign-level simulations that government users can trust.

In this role, you will help own frontend architecture for our TypeScript/React application, set technical standards, and design scalable UI patterns for complex geospatial workflows (Cesium). This is a hands-on, coding-heavy role — you'll write production code daily while partnering with engineering leadership on priorities and mentoring engineers along the way. Scope of ownership, architectural authority, and mentorship responsibility scale with level — see “Level Expectations by Track” below.

The Role

• Set front-end architecture and technical standards for a TypeScript/React application.

• Design scalable UI patterns for complex geospatial workflows (Cesium) and surrounding app features.

• Establish best practices for state management, component architecture, performance, testing, and maintainability.

• Partner with engineering leadership to plan, prioritize, and deliver high-impact product work.

• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architecture discussions, and practical implementation guidance.

• Write production code daily and drive execution — this is a hands-on, coding-heavy role at every level, not a “pure strategy” position.

Required Requirements:

• Strong professional experience building and scaling front-end systems, with deep React and TypeScript expertise.

• Strong architectural judgment: comfortable balancing “build fast” with “don't paint us into a corner.”

• Track record leading complex UI work in interactive, data-heavy applications where performance matters.

• Experience working with design systems / component libraries (we're using MUI).

• Ability to operate in a fast-moving environment with minimal process overhead.

• Excellent communication skills; can align teammates around patterns and decisions without slowing delivery.

• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• GIS / geospatial domain experience (Cesium, mapping frameworks, geo interactions, coordinate systems, etc.).

• Experience with visualization libraries (not required; the product is more geospatial + UI workflows than pure D3).

• Backend familiarity (API design, debugging cross-stack issues).

• Prior work on simulation platforms, gaming-adjacent UI paradigms, or real-time systems.

• Active U.S. security clearance (Secret or Top Secret).

Level Expectations by Track

This role is open at Senior, Staff, or Principal level. The expectations below (from the CodeMetal Engineering – Functional Competencies framework) describe how scope, ownership, and technical leadership differ by level; candidates are evaluated against the level they are hired into.

Senior (P3 · Established)

• Years of Experience: 5+

• Engineering Craft & Code Quality: Writes clean, idiomatic, well-tested code and follows best practices; drives debugging of the team's hardest issues; ensures AI-assisted work is correct, modular, and fully tested.

• Architecture & Technical Knowledge: Designs and implements changes to single systems, collaborates on larger designs, and drives architecture reviews for multi-developer projects.

• Delivery, Scoping & De-risking: Works with Product to scope and de-risk work; provides reliable estimates for medium-sized projects with clear risk communication.

• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: A go-to technical reviewer for the team's codebase; mentors and onboards teammates; contributes to interviews and candidate experience.

Staff (P4 · Advanced)

• Years of Experience: 7+

• Engineering Craft & Code Quality: Defines and enforces the team's testing strategy, standards, and quality bar; ensures AI-generated output is tightly integrated into existing paradigms and robustly tested.

• Architecture & Technical Knowledge: Designs cross-cutting changes across the stack; provides architectural guidance across the team; owns design docs for major multi-service or multi-surface projects.

• Delivery, Scoping & De-risking: Owns technical scoping and execution strategy for complex, multi-sprint initiatives; audits requirements for technical risk and hidden dependencies before development begins.

• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: The primary technical gatekeeper for the team's codebase; reviews most high-impact work; leads technical grooming, design spikes, and RFCs; coordinates across pods when changes cross domain boundaries.

Principal (P5 · Strategic)

• Years of Experience: 10+

• Engineering Craft & Code Quality: Sets the quality and correctness bar across the department; their work is the example others learn from; improves the automated systems and practices that ensure quality department-wide.

• Architecture & Technical Knowledge: Provides architectural guidance across the department and invents paradigms that solve CodeMetal-specific domain problems (e.g., translation, optimization, deployment across target environments); a key resource on every major system.

• Delivery, Scoping & De-risking: A consistent contributor to the company's technical roadmap; gives reliable estimates for large cross-team initiatives; ensures pragmatic scoping toward the most valuable outcomes.

• Technical Leadership & Mentorship: An active driver of company-wide architectural reviews and proposals; mentors mid-level and senior staff at scale; influences others across departments toward the best technical outcome.

Benefits

• Pay depends on experience, but we strive to be at the upper end of the salary range

• Health care plan with 100% premium coverage, including medical, dental, and vision

• 401k with 5% matching

• Paid Time Off (uncapped vacation, plus sick and public holidays)

• Flexible hybrid or remote work arrangement

• Relocation assistance for qualifying employees

Wage Transparency - The salary range for this role is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as the final offer amount may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, individual proficiency, skills, experience, and location.

We are an equal opportunity employer. US Citizenship may be required for certain project assignments involving security clearance.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.