Staff Engineer, Frontend

An Introduction to Primer

Primer is the unified infrastructure for global payments. We give finance and payments teams the visibility and control to reduce complexity, improve performance, and capture more revenue - all from a single platform. Backed by Sofina, Peak XV Partners, ICONIQ, Tencent, Accel, and Balderton, we're building the payments layer the world's best companies rely on.

Which team will you be joining?

The merchant experience is only as good as the platform behind it — and most of that experience is the interface itself. The Account Experience team builds and owns the full platform merchants use to interact with Primer — from initial setup through to day-to-day operations, and increasingly through Primer AI Companion as a first-class interface. The team spans several connected areas: Primer Companion, Merchant Account Setup, Monitors, Workflows, Auditing, and the cross-cutting concerns that keep the whole merchant experience cohesive.

As Staff Engineer you'll set front-end technical direction across these areas, not within a single one. You'll work across 2-3 teams, partner with multiple stakeholders, and stay hands-on in the implementation that matters most. The team runs a 'you build it, you own it' model: engineers own their work from design through to production.

The stack includes TypeScript, React, and modern front-end tooling, sitting on top of services in Python, AWS, Kubernetes, and Terraform.

What will you be doing?

• Setting and driving front-end technical strategy across the Account Experience teams, from architecture and component-system decisions through to hands-on implementation where it counts.
• Owning the architecture of a complex, data-dense merchant platform — the patterns, state management, and performance characteristics that hold up as the surface area grows.
• Shaping how Primer AI Companion matures as a first-class merchant interface, including the front-end architecture that makes a conversational surface feel native to the platform.
• Holding the experience coherent across Account Setup, Monitors, Workflows, and Auditing — building the shared component and design-system foundations that stop the areas drifting apart.
• Leading engineers across teams without direct authority, through code, design reviews, and technical mentorship that raises the front-end bar around you.
• Owning the things that are easy to neglect: accessibility, performance budgets, and front-end observability as first-class concerns, not afterthoughts.
• Partnering with Product and Design, and with backend engineers across teams, to shape decisions where front-end constraints or opportunities are material.

What We're Looking For

• Demonstrable experience operating at staff or principal level: setting front-end technical direction across multiple teams, not just within one.
• Deep front-end engineering expertise with TypeScript and React, and a track record of architecting complex, long-lived web applications.
• Real fluency in the things that separate good front-end from great: state management at scale, performance, accessibility, and component-system design.
• The kind of judgment that earns trust fast — engineers follow your technical lead because you're right, not because of your title.
• Enough comfort across the stack to reason about the APIs and services your front-end depends on, and to partner with backend engineers as an equal.
• Strong written and verbal communication, including making complex technical decisions legible to Product, Design, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfort working in payments, fintech, or platform contexts is welcome, though depth of engineering matters more than the specific industry.

You May Not Like It Here If

• You prefer a defined lane — at Staff level you'll be expected to find and shape the work across several teams, not wait for it to be handed to you.
• You think of front-end as the layer that just renders what the backend sends — here it's a first-class engineering discipline with real architectural weight.
• You want a QA team to catch your bugs — we don't have one, and we don't plan to.
• Remote-first feels like a compromise to you — for us it's deliberate, and it demands real discipline and strong async habits.

A typical interview process

• An initial intro call with a Talent Partner.
• An interview with the Hiring Manager.
• Challenge Stage - Contextualised to the role.
• A final, values-alignment interview.

What's the culture like at Primer?

We're building a culture where people can do their best work and be proud of the impact they have. You'll be working with people who are mission-driven, smart, and reflective, and who are genuinely invested in building exceptional products and delivering success for our merchants.

We work remotely, and have done since day one. We believe that building a successful, profitable company goes beyond proximity. We invest in our relationships through great remote working practices and thoughtfully designed face-to-face time, including workations, our annual company retreat, and access to co-working spaces across most major cities.

The work is challenging. Scaleups are a challenge, and building category-defining products is a challenge. But there's a meaningful difference between a challenge and a struggle. At Primer, the right challenge comes with the right support: strong onboarding, a collaborative environment, and a team that is genuinely invested in your success. It's never something you face alone.

Our benefits

• We are fully remote and globally distributed; and have been since day one.
• Competitive share options.
• Uncapped holiday, with 25 days minimum to be taken.
• Co-working space access across major cities.
• Workations & Company Retreat.
• The best equipment for your role.
• £500 towards your home office setup.
• Generous learning budget.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• A broad set of additional perks and benefits (depending on location).

Don’t meet every single requirement?

At Primer, we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification listed, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this or other roles.

Primer is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, regardless of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, or any other background or belief.