Senior Frontend Engineer - KICK Creator Tools & Engagement

About this role

<p><strong>What is Kick?</strong></p> <p>Kick is a global live-streaming platform for all types of entertainment content. Our mission is to empower content creators, event organisers, and content rights holders by providing them with the tools and revenue-sharing structures they need to monetise and grow their audiences.&nbsp;</p> <p>As a result, we are quickly becoming a household name, attracting top-tier creators and expanding rapidly worldwide. You may have seen us in the UFC octagon or on the side of an F1 car, as we seize every opportunity that comes our way.&nbsp;</p> <p>Kick is now recognised in the big four of live streaming platforms globally, standing tall alongside YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. In 3 years, we’ve already made a significant impact and have plenty more to achieve. We’re at the beginning of an exciting journey and are looking for brilliant minds to join us.</p> <p><strong>About the team</strong></p> <p>Join the team behind Kick's Creator Tools and Engagement features - the real-time, high-volume systems that power seamless live-stream viewing, rapid-fire live chat, and the interactive moments that make Kick, <em>Kick</em>. You'll be part of a globally distributed product team building and scaling a high-performance front-end architecture capable of handling hundreds of real-time events per second, from massive global events (think 4M+ concurrent viewers) to everyday chat and engagement features that need to stay smooth under extreme load. This role goes beyond framework usage - it requires a deep, fundamental understanding of React's rendering model, server-side rendering, performance optimisation, and modern frontend architecture.</p> <p><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong></p> <ul> <li>Architect and design scalable, high-performance front-end systems in alignment with Kick's product requirements and engineering standards</li> <li>Handle high-frequency, real-time updates (WebSockets / event streams) that power live chat, viewer counts, and engagement features</li> <li>Minimise re-renders in complex component trees and optimise existing systems for performance, scalability, and reliability</li> <li>Scale cleanly using modular, domain-driven frontend architecture</li> <li>Apply advanced techniques such as virtualisation, selective subscriptions, batched updates, and state normalisation</li> <li>Own features end-to-end, from requirement gathering through to release, following a "you build it, you run it" approach</li> <li>Use metrics and quantifiable data to guide architectural decisions, drive optimisations, and establish release readiness</li> <li>Collaborate with stakeholders, product managers, and engineering teams to communicate technical concepts clearly</li> <li>Push for improvements and drive constructive changes to enhance team performance and efficiency</li> <li>Provide technical guidance and mentor mid-level engineers on the team</li> </ul> <p><strong>Minimum Qualifications</strong></p> <ul> <li>Bachelor's/Master's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience</li> <li>6-7+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with a focus on scalable system design and UI development</li> <li>Proficiency in TypeScript, React, Next.js, GraphQL, and Tailwind CSS</li> <li>Strong understanding of code architecture and design principles</li> <li>Experience with Figma and a pixel-perfect implementation mindset</li> <li>Comfortable using data and metrics to inform technical decisions and evaluate release readiness</li> <li>Excellent communication skills for effective collaboration across teams and stakeholders</li> <li>Proven track record of building successful design systems and/or complex user interfaces spanning multiple platforms</li> <li>Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment</li> </ul> <p><strong>Preferred Qualifications</strong></p> <ul> <li>Render lifecycle &amp; reconciliation, memoization strategies (useMemo, useCallback, React.memo), concurrent rendering &amp; scheduling concepts</li> <li>Performance profiling &amp; debugging</li> <li>Radix UI, component-driven development mindset</li> <li>Turborepo / monorepo workflows, isolated component development, visual regression workflows</li> <li>Experience debugging production applications at scale</li> <li>Proven experience leading feature development end-to-end in a previous role, with a metric-driven approach that delivers measurable improvement and impact to the product</li> <li>Positive attitude and eagerness to learn new technologies</li> <li>Strong architectural ownership mindset, comfortable challenging technical decisions constructively</li> </ul> <p><strong>Some of the perks of working for us:&nbsp;</strong></p> <ul> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Champion Engineering Excellence to influence cultural change across the organisation.</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Work alongside the top 5% of engineering talent in Australia, using a vast cloud native tech stack including AWS, Microservices, Large-Scale Distributed Systems, Kafka, K8's, React, Next.js, NX, Golang, ArgoCD, Datadog &amp; Cloudflare.</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Exposure to building global, large-scale volume products which operate at thousands per second frequency (3 Billion Requests per day!)</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Access to over 9,000 courses across our Learning and Development Platform</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">EAP access for you and your family</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Be rewarded with lucrative annual bonuses</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Give back with a paid volunteer day</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Fuel your day with daily breakfast and open pantries brimming with unlimited snacks and refreshments, all on the house</li> <li data-renderer-start-pos="3869">Break up the week with on site remedial massage Wednesdays</li> <li>In house full-time barista’s providing you your dai