6 templates for the mid-level frontend hire most small teams actually make: standard, React and TypeScript, first frontend hire, marketing and ecommerce, contract, and a title-flexible posting. With the FLSA note and the pay data. Download as DOCX.
The first frontend job description I wrote was copied from a company two thousand people larger than mine. It listed nine technologies we did not use, asked for five years of experience in a framework that had existed for three, and said nothing about what the person would actually do on a Tuesday. We got forty applications and none of them were right.
The problem was not the writing. It was that I had not decided what I was hiring. A frontend engineer at a small company is a specific thing: a mid-level individual contributor who ships features on the browser side, works inside patterns someone else set, and spends a real share of the week on maintenance nobody puts in the posting.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without a recruiting team. The six below cover the standard mid-level hire, a React and TypeScript codebase, a first frontend hire at a small business, a marketing site or storefront, a contract engagement, and a title-flexible posting for the widest candidate pool.
TL;DR
A frontend engineer builds the browser side of a product: components, state, data fetching, styling, and accessibility. The mid-level bar is two to five years, owning features inside patterns someone else set. The nearest BLS median is $135,980 for software developers and $92,650 for web developers (OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Frontend Engineer Does
A frontend engineer builds and maintains everything that runs in the browser: components, state, data fetching, styling, and accessibility. At a mid-level the person owns features end to end on the front end while working inside architecture decisions the team has already made.
The half that rarely appears in a posting is maintenance. In an established codebase, defect fixes, dependency upgrades, review of other engineers, and keeping the test suite green take a serious share of the week. Candidates who expect greenfield work and find maintenance instead tend to leave inside a year.
The features customers touch
Most of the week
Screens, forms, tables, flows. The work is turning a design and a requirement into something that behaves correctly on every state the API can return, including the empty one and the failed one.
The component layer
Shared, not per-screen
Reusable components, styling conventions, and the state and data patterns the codebase follows. A mid-level engineer extends these consistently. A senior one decides what they should be.
Performance and accessibility
On the pages they touch
Bundle size, render cost, Core Web Vitals, keyboard navigation, and screen reader behavior. Held for their own work, with the standard set by someone more senior or by you.
Review and maintenance
The half nobody advertises
Reviewing other people’s pull requests, fixing defects reported by customers, upgrading dependencies, and keeping the test suite green. Say what share of the job this is in the posting.
State the Feature-to-Maintenance Split in the Posting
Write the actual number. Sixty percent new features and forty percent maintenance is a normal, honest split for a product with real customers, and saying so costs you nothing with the candidates you want. The engineers who walk away from that sentence were going to walk away in month eight anyway, at far greater expense. The ones who stay are the ones who have maintained something before and know what they are signing up for.
Frontend Engineer vs the Other Three Titles
Frontend engineer, front end developer, UI engineer, and web developer describe overlapping work, and at most small companies the first two are the same job. The difference that matters is not the title but where the role sits between design and backend.
Treating these as four separate roles costs you candidates. People search for the title their last employer used, so a posting locked to one spelling is invisible to a third of the qualified pool. Naming the variants in the posting is a cheap fix, and the sixth template below does exactly that.
Title
Where it sits
Typical emphasis
Use it when
Frontend engineer
Product engineering team
Components, state, data, testing, performance
You build a web application and want engineering practice included
You have a design system or a designer handing off constantly
Web developer
Marketing site, CMS, storefront
Templates, CMS, SEO, page speed
The work is sites and storefronts rather than an application
Full stack developer
Across the whole product
Front end plus API and database
One person has to cover both sides and you accept the tradeoff
If the role is genuinely design-system centered, the UI engineer templates fit better. If your industry uses the spaced spelling, the front end developer templates carry the same structure under that title.
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
Hire mid-level when someone else can set technical direction and review the work, and senior when nobody can. That test decides the level more reliably than budget does, because a mid-level engineer without a reviewer produces architecture you will pay to unwind.
The distinction is worth being blunt about because job titles inflate. Plenty of postings say senior and describe mid-level work, which wastes the time of the people who read carefully. Write the level you mean and the years that go with it.
Junior frontend engineer
0 to 2 years
Ships scoped tickets with review on everything. Needs a senior person nearby to be productive. Hire at this level when you already have someone to teach and review, not when the hire is your only frontend person.
Frontend engineer
2 to 5 years, this page
Owns features end to end on the front end, works inside patterns the team has already agreed, and reviews other people’s code. The default hire for most small teams and the level these six templates describe.
Senior frontend engineer
5+ years
Sets the patterns rather than following them, holds performance and accessibility under deadline pressure, and raises the people around them. Costs meaningfully more and is the right call when nobody else can make the call.
Frontend team lead
Leads people
Still technical, but the output is a functioning team: planning, review standards, one-to-ones, and hiring. A different job with a different posting, not a promotion badge on the same one.
The templates on this page are written for the middle two rows. For the level above, the senior frontend engineer templates cover the seniority bar and the higher pay band. If you need someone to run a team rather than a codebase, the frontend team lead templates describe that job instead.
What Belongs in the Posting
A frontend job description does four jobs at once: it describes the work accurately, it filters people who would not enjoy it, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most postings do only the first, and half of them do that badly.
What candidates read first
The stack, named precisely, including versions where they matter
What the product is and who uses it
Team size and who the engineer works with daily
Remote, hybrid, or in-office, with the time zone band
What actually filters applicants
Years of production experience, stated as a range
The split between new features and maintenance
Accessibility and performance expectations
The interview process and how many hours it takes
What protects you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
IP assignment and confidentiality mentioned up front
Essential functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement
What wins the hire
A real salary range, not a placeholder
Equity, benefits, and learning budget
Who reviews the code and how decisions get made
A named person to apply to and a real timeline
The most common failure at a small company is the technology laundry list: fifteen tools named when four are used. It filters out honest candidates who count themselves out and attracts the ones who apply to everything. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth.
6 Frontend Engineer Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you rewrite.
Download All 6 Frontend Engineer Job Description Templates
Standard, React and TypeScript, first frontend hire, marketing and ecommerce, contract, and title-flexible. All in one download.
Standard
Any stack, mid-level
The framework-agnostic baseline for a mid-level individual contributor. Start here and swap in your stack.
React and TypeScript
Stack-specific
For a typed React codebase, with the data layer, component library, and testing expectations spelled out.
First Frontend Hire
Small business
For the company whose front end was built by a founder or an agency and now needs an owner. Includes the first 90 days.
Marketing Site and Ecommerce
Revenue-facing
For a storefront or marketing site: Core Web Vitals targets, experiments, checkout paths, and analytics.
Contract or Part-Time
Defined scope
For a fixed engagement, with the deliverables, the handover, and the contractor classification warning written in.
Title-Flexible Posting
Widest candidate pool
One posting that also names front end developer, UI engineer, and web developer, so search-matching candidates still find you.
Template 1: Frontend Engineer (Standard)
The framework-agnostic baseline for a mid-level individual contributor. Swap in your stack, set the experience range, and state the maintenance share honestly.
Frontend Engineer Job Description (Standard)
FRONTEND ENGINEER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote [time zone band])
Reports to: [Engineering Manager / Senior Frontend Engineer / CTO]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (computer employee exemption; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] builds [product] for [customer]. We are a team of [number] people
with [number] engineers. We are hiring a Frontend Engineer to build and maintain
the interface our customers use every day, working from designs and product
requirements that already exist.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Frontend Engineer builds features in the client side of [product], keeps the
existing interface working as it grows, writes tests, and reviews the work of
other engineers. This is a mid-level individual contributor role: you own
features end to end on the front end, with architecture decisions made together
with the team.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build and ship user-facing features in [React / Vue / Svelte / Angular] and
[TypeScript / JavaScript]
•Translate designs from [Figma / your design tool] into accessible, responsive
interfaces that match on every supported screen size
•Integrate with our [REST / GraphQL] API and handle loading, empty, and error
states properly rather than leaving them for later
•Write and maintain unit and component tests, and keep the suite green
•Review pull requests from other engineers and respond to review on your own
•Fix defects reported by customers and support, with a written root cause on
anything that reached production
•Keep an eye on bundle size, render performance, and Core Web Vitals for the
pages you touch
•Follow our accessibility standard [WCAG 2.1 AA or your stated bar] on new work
•Take part in planning, estimation, and retrospectives
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2 to 5] years building production web interfaces
•Strong JavaScript fundamentals, plus HTML and CSS you can write without a
framework holding your hand
•Working knowledge of [React / your framework] and its state and data patterns
•Git, code review, and a modern build toolchain
•Comfortable reading an API contract and asking for changes when it is wrong
•Clear written communication in a [remote / hybrid / in-office] team
NICE TO HAVE
•TypeScript in a codebase of meaningful size
•Testing with [Vitest / Jest / Playwright / Cypress]
•Accessibility experience beyond the automated checker
•Some backend or infrastructure exposure
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
A frontend engineer generally meets the FLSA computer employee exemption when
the primary duty is systems analysis, program design, or software development
and pay is at least $684 per week on a salary basis, or at least $27.63 per hour.
The exemption turns on actual duties and pay, not on the title. State law can set
a higher bar than the federal rule, so confirm your state before you classify.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [equity, benefits, learning
budget, home office allowance]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a link to something
you built.
Template 2: Frontend Engineer, React and TypeScript
For a typed React codebase, with the data layer, the component library, and the testing expectations named. If your product also needs API and database work from the same person, the full stack developer templates cover that scope.
Frontend Engineer, React and TypeScript Job Description
FRONTEND ENGINEER (REACT AND TYPESCRIPT) JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote [time zone band])
Reports to: [Engineering Manager / Tech Lead]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (computer employee exemption; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Our product runs on [React version] with TypeScript, [Next.js / Remix / Vite],
and [your state and data layer]. We are hiring a Frontend Engineer who already
works in that stack, so the first month is spent on our product rather than on
the framework.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Frontend Engineer builds typed, tested React features across [product area],
extends our shared component library rather than working around it, and keeps
data fetching and state predictable as the application grows.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build React components and screens in TypeScript with types that describe the
real data, not any
•Use our data layer [React Query / SWR / RTK Query / Apollo] consistently, with
cache invalidation you can explain
•Extend the shared component library instead of forking a one-off variant, and
document what you add
•Handle forms, validation, and error states with our chosen approach rather
than a new one per screen
•Write component and integration tests with [Vitest / Jest / React Testing
Library / Playwright]
•Profile and fix render performance problems: unnecessary re-renders, oversized
bundles, slow lists
•Keep server and client boundaries clear in [Next.js App Router / your setup]
•Review pull requests with an eye on typing, accessibility, and consistency
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2 to 5] years shipping React in production
•TypeScript in a real codebase, including generics you wrote yourself
•Solid grasp of hooks, effects, and when a component should not re-render
•Testing habits that survive a deadline
•Git, code review, and CI
NICE TO HAVE
•Server-side rendering or static generation at scale
•Design system or component library maintenance
•Node.js for a backend-for-frontend layer
•Accessibility testing with a screen reader
HOW WE INTERVIEW
[Number]-step process: a [30] minute conversation, a [paid] working session on a
real problem from our repository, and a final conversation with [role]. No
whiteboard algorithms. Total time asked of you: about [number] hours.
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
This role is classified as exempt under the FLSA computer employee exemption,
which requires a primary duty of systems analysis, program design, or software
development plus at least $684 per week on a salary basis or $27.63 per hour.
Confirm your state rules, which can be stricter than the federal test. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [equity, benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a repository or
product you worked on.
Template 3: Frontend Engineer, First Frontend Hire
For the company whose front end was built by a founder or an agency and now needs an owner. It includes a first 90 days section, because inheriting a codebase is a different job from joining a team.
Frontend Engineer, First Frontend Hire Job Description
•Small-company speed: a decision this week, not next quarter
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
A first frontend hire is normally an exempt computer employee under the FLSA
when the primary duty is software development and pay meets the salary or hourly
threshold. Do not classify this person as an independent contractor if you set
the schedule, the tools, and the priorities: that is an employee. Get an
IP-assignment and confidentiality agreement signed before the first commit. This
is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [equity, benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one thing you built
and then had to maintain.
Template 4: Frontend Engineer, Marketing Site and Ecommerce
For a storefront or marketing site, with Core Web Vitals targets, experiments, checkout paths, and analytics written in. Pair it with the back end developer templates if the platform work is split across two people.
Frontend Engineer, Marketing Site and Ecommerce Job Description
FRONTEND ENGINEER (MARKETING SITE AND ECOMMERCE) JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote)
Reports to: [Head of Marketing / Ecommerce Manager / Engineering Manager]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (computer employee exemption; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Our revenue comes through [our storefront / our marketing site], built on
[Shopify / your platform / a custom stack]. We are hiring a Frontend Engineer to
own the code behind it: page speed, conversion-critical templates, and the
experiments the marketing team wants to run.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Frontend Engineer builds and maintains the customer-facing site, keeps it
fast on real devices and real networks, and ships changes quickly enough that
marketing stops routing around engineering.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build and maintain templates, components, and landing pages on [platform]
•Hold Core Web Vitals inside target: [LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS
under 0.1] on [named key pages]
•Ship A/B tests and marketing experiments without breaking the base experience
•Keep the checkout and cart paths working on every supported browser and device
•Integrate [analytics, tag management, consent management] correctly, including
the consent side of it
•Work with [designers, marketers, merchandisers] on scope before the build
rather than after
•Keep the site accessible: a store that a screen reader cannot check out from is
a legal and commercial problem
•Monitor errors and page speed after release, not only before
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2 to 5] years building customer-facing web experiences
•Strong HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with real performance work behind you
•Experience with [Shopify / your platform] or a comparable commerce or CMS stack
•Understanding of SEO fundamentals that live in the code: markup, metadata,
rendering, structured data
•Ability to explain a technical constraint to a marketer in plain language
NICE TO HAVE
•[Liquid / your template language] or a headless commerce setup
•Image and font optimization at scale
•Email template development
•Working with a CDN and edge caching
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Classify on duties. A frontend engineer whose primary duty is development is
generally exempt under the FLSA computer employee exemption at $684 per week
salaried or $27.63 per hour. Someone whose day is mostly merchandising, content
entry, or campaign scheduling is doing a different job and may be non-exempt.
Confirm your state test as well as the federal one. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [benefits, bonus tied to
site performance]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a site you made
measurably faster.
Template 5: Contract or Part-Time Frontend Engineer
For a fixed engagement with a finish line, including the deliverables, the handover requirements, and a plainly worded contractor classification warning.
Contract or Part-Time Frontend Engineer Job Description
One posting that also names front end developer, UI engineer, and web developer, so candidates searching any of those phrases still find you. Useful when your candidate pool spans agencies and product companies.
Also posted as: Front End Developer, UI Engineer, Web Developer
Company: __ ([City, State] or Remote)
Reports to: [Engineering Manager / CTO / Founder]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (computer employee exemption; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
WHY THIS POSTING LISTS SEVERAL TITLES
The same job is advertised under four different names across the market, and
candidates search for the one their last employer used. We describe the work
here and let you decide whether your title matches. If you have been a front end
developer, a UI engineer, or a web developer doing this work, apply.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Frontend Engineer builds and maintains the browser side of [product or
site]: the components, the state, the data fetching, the styling, and the
accessibility. You work from designs and requirements, and you own quality on
everything you ship.
WHAT THE JOB ACTUALLY INVOLVES
•Building features in [React / Vue / Svelte / Angular] and [TypeScript /
JavaScript]
•Writing HTML and CSS that hold up on real devices, not only in the design file
•Connecting to [REST / GraphQL] endpoints and handling every state the API can
return
•Meeting our accessibility bar [WCAG 2.1 AA or your stated standard]
•Testing, code review, and defect fixing as part of the job rather than a
separate phase
•[Percentage] of the time on new features, [percentage] on maintenance: we are
telling you this up front
WHAT THE JOB DOES NOT INVOLVE
•[Visual design in Figma / backend services / mobile native / DevOps: cross out
what does not apply and keep the rest, so candidates self-select honestly]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2 to 5] years building production web interfaces under any of these titles
•Strong JavaScript, HTML, and CSS fundamentals
•Working knowledge of at least one modern component framework
•Git and code review
•Written communication that works in a [remote / hybrid] team
HOW WE EVALUATE
We evaluate the work, not the title on the resume. The process is [number]
steps: a conversation, a [paid] working session on a real problem, and a final
conversation with [role].
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
The title on the posting does not decide overtime status. A frontend engineer,
front end developer, or UI engineer whose primary duty is software development
and who is paid at least $684 per week on a salary basis, or $27.63 per hour, is
generally exempt under the FLSA computer employee exemption. Classify on the
actual duties and pay, and check whether your state applies a higher threshold.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, plus [equity, benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a link to your work.
Tell us which title you have used and we will not hold it against you.
Classification, IP, and Accessibility
A frontend engineer is normally exempt from overtime under the FLSA computer employee exemption, which requires a primary duty of software development plus pay of at least $684 per week on a salary basis or at least $27.63 per hour. The exemption turns on duties and pay, never on the title.
The computer employee exemption has two pay routes
The federal computer employee exemption is unusual in offering an hourly alternative to the salary test. An exempt computer employee must be paid at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis, or at least $27.63 per hour, and the primary duty must be systems analysis, program design, development, documentation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs. That covers a working frontend engineer comfortably. It does not cover someone whose day is content entry, campaign scheduling, or manual QA with no development in it. The salary threshold is the pre-2024 figure: the Department of Labor rule that would have raised it was vacated by a federal court in November 2024 and formally rescinded in May 2026, so $684 per week is the operative number. This is general information, not legal advice.
IP assignment belongs in onboarding, not in a later conversation
Frontend work produces copyrightable code, and ownership of that code should be settled in writing before the first commit rather than during a dispute. Get an invention assignment and confidentiality agreement signed as part of onboarding, alongside the offer letter, and store it where you can find it years later. The same applies with more force to contractors: absent a written assignment, a contractor may retain rights in work you paid for, which is a problem that surfaces at exactly the wrong moment, usually during due diligence. Include the agreement in the offer packet so the candidate sees it before accepting rather than on day one, when refusing to sign has become expensive for everyone.
Accessibility is an expectation you have to state
If you do not name an accessibility standard in the job description, you will hire someone who treats it as optional, and you will discover the gap when a customer cannot use your product or when a demand letter arrives. The Department of Justice has published guidance on web accessibility for businesses and state and local governments, and the practical bar most teams adopt is WCAG 2.1 AA. Write the standard into the posting, ask about it in the interview, and include an accessibility check in code review. This costs almost nothing when it is part of how the team works and a great deal when it is retrofitted across a product that is already shipped.
Contractor status is decided by the relationship
Hiring a frontend engineer as a contractor because it is faster is one of the most common expensive mistakes small companies make. If you set the hours, direct the work day to day, supply the equipment, and the work is ongoing and central to your business, that is an employee under the federal test and under most state tests, several of which are stricter than the federal one. The contract heading does not decide it. A genuine contractor engagement has a defined scope, a finish line, their own tools, and their own method. Misclassification exposes you to back taxes, unpaid overtime, and penalties, and the risk sits with you rather than with the person you hired. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do Not Hire a Frontend Engineer as a Contractor for Convenience
The most expensive shortcut in small-company hiring is engaging an ongoing frontend engineer as a contractor because it skips payroll setup. If you set the hours, direct the work, supply the laptop, and the work is central and continuing, that person is an employee under the federal test and under most state tests. The heading on the agreement changes nothing. Back taxes, unpaid overtime, and penalties all land on you, and they land years later when the relationship has already ended badly.
Requirements That Filter Honestly
Requirements should filter on what the job needs, not on what sounds impressive. Four categories cover almost every mid-level frontend hire: fundamentals, framework knowledge, working practice, and product judgment. Everything else belongs under nice to have.
Be careful with years of experience. A hard number is a blunt instrument that screens out strong career changers and lets weak candidates through on tenure alone. A range paired with a description of what the person should already have done works better.
Requirement
How to write it
What it actually filters
JavaScript fundamentals
Ask for JavaScript, HTML, and CSS without a framework
Candidates who only know one framework and break when it changes
Framework knowledge
Name the framework and the patterns you use with it
People who list it on a resume but never shipped with it
TypeScript
State whether it is required or nice to have, and mean it
Nothing, if you mark it required and then do not use it
Years of experience
A range such as 2 to 5, not a hard minimum
Fewer good candidates than a hard number does
Testing
Name the tools and say tests are expected with features
Engineers who treat testing as somebody else’s phase
Accessibility
Name a standard such as WCAG 2.1 AA
People who have never used a screen reader on their own work
Performance
Give a target: Core Web Vitals, bundle size, render budget
Candidates who have never measured anything they built
Communication
Describe the team shape and the written work involved
Poor fits for remote or cross-functional work
One thing worth adding that almost nobody includes: what the job is not. Naming the work that is out of scope, whether that is visual design, backend services, or DevOps, makes candidates self-select honestly and prevents the role drift that loses good hires in month nine.
What to Pay a Frontend Engineer
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called frontend engineer, because BLS classifies by occupation rather than by job title. Frontend work splits across three classifications, and which one fits depends on whether the person builds a product application or builds sites and storefronts.
National Medians for the Nearest Occupations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), median annual wages were $135,980 for software developers, $92,650 for web developers, and $104,000 for web and digital interface designers. A mid-level engineer typically sits between the 25th percentile and the median: $105,210 to $135,980 for software developers and $64,230 to $92,650 for web developers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Percentile
Software developers
Web developers
Web and digital interface designers
10th
$82,460
$48,100
$53,750
25th
$105,210
$64,230
$73,290
50th (median)
$135,980
$92,650
$104,000
75th
$171,980
$126,230
$158,820
90th
$214,670
$162,290
$201,550
Median hourly
$65.38
$44.54
$50.00
Read the table as a shape rather than a target. A mid-level engineer on a product application benchmarks to the software developer column, usually between the 25th percentile and the median depending on your market and stage. A role centered on storefronts and marketing sites benchmarks to the web developer column. Our guide to salary benchmarking covers turning national figures into a defensible range.
Demand supports the numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of web developers and digital designers to grow 7 percent from 2024 to 2034, more than twice the 3 percent average across all occupations, with about 14,500 openings projected each year. Publish a range where pay transparency laws require it, and publish it anyway where they do not.
Companies Using FirstHR Onboard 3x Faster
Join hundreds of small businesses who transformed their new hire experience.
Split the evaluation into the parts you can judge and the parts you cannot, then buy the second half. You can assess communication, ownership, and product judgment yourself. You cannot assess code quality, and pretending otherwise is how bad hires get made at small companies.
For the technical half, a paid two-hour working session against a real problem from your repository, watched by someone competent, beats a take-home exercise and a whiteboard test combined. It respects the candidate enough that good people will actually do it, and it shows you how they work rather than how they memorize.
Signal
How to check it
Who can judge it
Code quality
Paid working session on a real problem from your repo
A trusted engineer, advisor, or paid technical screener
Ownership
Ask about something they built and then had to maintain
You
Product judgment
Ask which feature they argued against, and why
You
Communication
Have them explain a technical decision to you in plain language
You
Accessibility
Ask how they test with a keyboard and a screen reader
You, by whether the answer is specific
Debugging
Ask them to walk through the worst defect they diagnosed
A technical reviewer, though the story tells you a lot
Team fit
Ask what kind of review they want on their own work
You
Keep the process to three steps and tell candidates how many hours it will take. Engineers compare hiring processes across offers, and a vague or bloated one loses exactly the candidates who have other options.
Hiring a Frontend Engineer Without an HR Department
Small-company engineering hires fail in three predictable places: the posting describes a job the company cannot evaluate, the role drifts because nobody wrote down where it ends, and the first week is a scramble. Each has a fix that costs less than the failure.
You are hiring for a stack you cannot evaluate yourself
At a company without an engineering leader, the person writing the frontend job description is usually a founder or an operations lead who has never written a component. The instinct is to copy a posting from a large tech company, which produces a list of technologies nobody on your team can discuss and a candidate pool that filters itself on the wrong signal. A better approach is to describe the product, the problems, and the working conditions honestly, then borrow technical judgment for the evaluation: a trusted engineer from your network, an advisor, or a paid technical screener for two hours. You are not required to assess the code personally. You are required to make sure somebody competent does before you make an offer.
The role drifts because nobody wrote down where it ends
A frontend engineer at a small company gets asked to fix the CRM integration, write the marketing emails, and set up analytics, because they are the person nearest to a computer when the question comes up. Some of that is reasonable and some of it is how you lose a good hire in nine months. The fix is a posting that states the boundaries: what share of the time is new features versus maintenance, whether backend or infrastructure work is in scope, and what is explicitly not part of the job. Write it before the hire, revisit it at 90 days, and treat a permanent change to the boundary as a conversation about the role rather than a favor.
The offer is accepted and then nothing is ready
Engineering hires notice operational sloppiness faster than most candidates, because their first week is made of accounts, access, and repositories that either work or do not. Repository access, a working local environment, the IP-assignment agreement, the handbook, payroll forms, benefits enrollment, and a first ticket that ships in week one all have to be ready before the start date. FirstHR was built for that. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, e-signature handles the offer letter and the IP and confidentiality agreements, document management stores the signed copies against the employee profile, and training modules cover security and code-of-conduct orientation before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work moves to a repeatable onboarding checklist, and for engineering hires specifically our developer onboarding guide covers the sequence from repository access through the first shipped ticket.
For the roles next to this one, the hiring templates library carries job descriptions for the rest of a small engineering team, including backend, full stack, and the senior and lead levels above this role.
Key Takeaways
A frontend engineer builds the browser side of a product: components, state, data fetching, styling, and accessibility, with a real share of the week spent on maintenance.
Frontend engineer and front end developer describe the same job at most small companies, so name the title variants in the posting rather than locking to one spelling.
Hire mid-level when someone else can set technical direction and review the work, and senior when nobody can. Budget is the second question, not the first.
The FLSA computer employee exemption applies at $684 per week salaried or $27.63 per hour with a development primary duty, and several states set a higher bar.
The nearest BLS medians are $135,980 for software developers and $92,650 for web developers (OEWS, May 2025), with mid-level roles usually between the 25th percentile and the median.
Get IP assignment and confidentiality signed as part of onboarding rather than later, and never engage an ongoing frontend engineer as a contractor for convenience.
Engineering hires judge you on the first week. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer letter and the IP and confidentiality agreements, document storage against each employee profile, and training modules for security orientation before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a frontend engineer do?
A frontend engineer builds and maintains the part of a product that runs in the browser: the components, the state, the data fetching from your API, the styling, and the accessibility. Day to day that means turning designs and requirements into working screens, handling every state the API can return including the empty and failed ones, writing tests, reviewing other engineers’ code, and fixing defects that reach customers. At a mid-level the person works inside patterns the team has already agreed rather than setting them. Roughly half the job at an established codebase is maintenance: dependency upgrades, defect fixes, and keeping the test suite green. Say what that split looks like in your posting, because candidates who expect greenfield work and get maintenance tend to leave within a year.
What is the difference between a frontend engineer and a front end developer?
In practice there is no consistent difference, and treating them as separate roles will cost you candidates. The two titles describe the same work at most companies, with engineer more common at product and software companies and developer more common at agencies, ecommerce businesses, and older organizations. Where a distinction exists it is usually about scope rather than skill: engineer implies more involvement in architecture, testing, and system design, while developer implies working to a specification someone else wrote. Neither implication is reliable enough to build a hiring decision on. Write the responsibilities out instead of relying on the title to carry meaning, and consider naming both titles in the posting so candidates searching either phrase find you.
Is a frontend engineer exempt from overtime?
Usually yes, under the FLSA computer employee exemption. The exemption requires a primary duty of systems analysis, program design, development, documentation, testing, or modification of computer systems or programs, plus pay of at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis or at least $27.63 per hour. A working frontend engineer building software meets the duties test comfortably. The salary threshold is the pre-2024 figure because the Department of Labor rule that would have raised it was vacated by a federal court in November 2024 and formally rescinded in May 2026. Two cautions: several states apply a higher threshold or a stricter duties test than the federal rule, so check your state, and someone whose actual day is content entry, manual QA, or campaign scheduling rather than development may not qualify. Classify on duties and pay, never on the title. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a frontend engineer make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called frontend engineer, because BLS classifies by occupation rather than job title. The nearest classifications carry these national medians in the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025): $135,980 for software developers, $92,650 for web developers, and $104,000 for web and digital interface designers. A mid-level engineer building a product application benchmarks against the software developer column, typically between the 25th percentile of $105,210 and the median. A mid-level role focused on marketing sites and storefronts benchmarks closer to the web developer column, roughly between $64,230 and $92,650. Location, company stage, and whether you offer equity all move the number materially, so treat national figures as a starting shape and adjust for your market.
What should a frontend engineer job description include?
Eight things. The stack named precisely, including framework and language. The product and who uses it. Team size and who the engineer works with daily. The responsibilities, including the maintenance share. Years of production experience as a range rather than a hard number. The accessibility and performance bar you expect. The FLSA classification. And a real salary range. Add the interview process and how many hours it asks of the candidate, because engineers compare that across offers and a vague process loses people who have options. Leave out the technology laundry list: naming fifteen tools when you use four filters out honest candidates and attracts the ones who apply to everything. The templates on this page follow that structure so you only rewrite the company-specific parts.
Should I hire a mid-level or a senior frontend engineer?
Hire mid-level when someone else can set the technical direction and review the work, and senior when nobody can. That is the whole test, and it matters more than budget. A mid-level engineer is productive inside patterns that already exist and will make reasonable decisions with a reviewer nearby. Drop the same person into a codebase with no owner, no conventions, and no one to ask, and you get inconsistent architecture that costs more to unwind than the salary difference saved. If your front end was built by a founder or an agency and nobody owns it now, pay for seniority once and hire mid-level after. If you already have a senior engineer or a technical founder who reviews code, a mid-level hire is the better use of the budget and the faster hire to make.
How do I interview a frontend engineer if I am not technical?
Separate the parts you can assess from the parts you cannot, then buy the rest. You can assess communication, ownership, how the candidate describes a past project to a non-technical listener, how they handled a decision that turned out wrong, and whether their questions are about the customer or only about the tooling. You cannot assess code quality, and you should not pretend otherwise. Borrow that judgment: a trusted engineer from your network, an advisor, or a paid technical screener for two hours reviewing a work sample and running a live session. Keep the process short and paid where it asks for real work. Then run onboarding as a checklist rather than a scramble: repository access, environment setup, the IP-assignment agreement, and a first ticket that ships in week one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
