Sr. Associate, Front End Developer

About us

Appnovation is a global, full-service digital partner that combines Strategy, Experience & Design, Engineering and Managed Services. We build digital solutions that deliver real impact today and serve as foundations for future growth.  Bold ambition. Practical action. Endless possibilities.

About the Role

As a Senior Frontend Developer, you will build the user-facing application for a modern operational SaaS platform for K-12 education. The platform helps school divisions automate administrative processes, manage information across their organization, and surface operational insight - which means the interfaces you build are workflow-driven and data-dense: multi-step forms with real validation consequences, long-running processes whose state the UI has to reflect honestly, role-sensitive views that change shape depending on who is looking, and reporting surfaces backed by real analytical queries.

This is product engineering rather than marketing site work. You will build in Next.js, React, and TypeScript against .NET REST APIs, using Shadcn/UI and Tailwind CSS in a component-driven model, and you will own Playwright end-to-end coverage for the flows you build. Authorization is enforced through Keycloak and OpenFGA, so the frontend has to handle OIDC flows and render correctly against fine-grained, policy-driven permissions in a multi-tenant product where an administrator in one school division must never see another's data.

You will work as part of a dedicated, cross-functional scrum team that operates as an embedded extension of the client's product and engineering organization. The team includes business analysis and QA capability and owns assigned product services end-to-end - from refinement through development, testing, documentation, and release readiness. You will work directly in the client's repositories and follow their established architecture, design system, and engineering standards. The platform is moving from pilot deployments toward general availability, so the work is real-user-facing from the start.

Key Responsibilities:

• Building and maintaining application features in Next.js, React, and TypeScript, including server-side rendering, routing, and state management decisions
• Developing reusable, accessible components in a component-driven model using Shadcn/UI and Tailwind CSS, extending the existing design system rather than working around it
• Integrating with .NET REST APIs, including handling loading, error, empty, and partial-failure states properly rather than assuming the happy path
• Building interfaces that accurately reflect asynchronous and long-running backend processes, including in-progress, retrying, and failed states
• Implementing authentication flows against Keycloak using OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, and rendering conditionally against OpenFGA-driven permissions
• Building data-dense reporting and analytics views over backend query results, with attention to performance at realistic data volumes
• Writing and maintaining Playwright end-to-end coverage for the flows you build, and contributing to the shared test suite
• Meeting WCAG 2.x Level AA, and treating accessibility as part of the build rather than a remediation pass
• Producing implementation plans for significant changes, and delivering work in small, reviewable merge requests
• Participating in code review, responding to CodeRabbit findings, and keeping GitLab CI/CD pipelines green
• Participating in refinement, planning, review, and retrospective as a member of a self-directed scrum team, and raising missing business or UX decisions early
• Maintaining frontend technical and component documentation as part of the definition of done, not after it
• Resolving defects and supporting post-release stabilization of recently delivered functionality
• Mentoring less experienced developers through code review and pairing

What we are looking for

Must-Have:

• Bachelor's Degree in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 6+ years of web development experience, having delivered production applications as part of a team
• Strong command of React, including hooks, composition patterns, state management, routing, and server-side rendering
• Production experience with Next.js, including App Router, rendering strategies, and data fetching patterns
• Strong TypeScript skills - you use the type system to prevent defects, not to satisfy a linter
• Expert knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3, and fluency with utility-first CSS (Tailwind CSS or equivalent)
• Demonstrated experience building complex, stateful application interfaces - forms, workflows, dashboards - rather than primarily content or marketing sites
• Experience consuming REST APIs, including error handling, retry behaviour, and designing UI around asynchronous operations
• Experience building and maintaining component libraries or design systems, and working with design tokens and tools such as Storybook
• Experience implementing authentication in a frontend application against an identity provider using OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect
• Experience building role- or permission-sensitive interfaces where what a user can see and do varies
• Experience with end-to-end testing (Playwright preferred; Cypress considered), and an understanding of what makes automated tests durable - avoiding hard-coded waits, brittle selectors, shared test state, and environment-specific assumptions
• Working knowledge of WCAG 2.x Level AA and practical accessible-component implementation
• Strong understanding of frontend performance - bundle size, rendering cost, and behaviour at realistic data volumes
• Comfortable working inside an existing codebase and an established set of engineering and design standards, rather than setting your own
• Strong understanding of version control, CI/CD, and peer review through merge requests
• Strong understanding of security and privacy by design principles
• Experience working with agile delivery methodologies, including refinement, planning, review, and retrospective
• Experience mentoring other developers
• Must be located in British Columbia, Canada

Technologies

• Core: Next.js, React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
• UI and Styling: Shadcn/UI, Tailwind CSS, component-driven development, design tokens, Storybook
• Integration: REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger consumption
• Identity and Authorization: Keycloak, OpenFGA, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SSO, role- and policy-based authorization in the UI
• Testing: Playwright end-to-end testing, component and unit testing (Jest / Vitest, React Testing Library)
• Accessibility: WCAG 2.x Level AA, semantic HTML, ARIA, keyboard and screen reader support
• Engineering and Collaboration: GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, CodeRabbit automated code review, Jira, Jira Product Discovery, Jira Service Management, Confluence
• Backend context: C#, .NET Core, .NET APIs, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Temporal workflows, event-driven pub/sub

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with C# and .NET - enough to read backend code, trace an issue across the stack, and have a productive conversation about an API contract
• Familiarity with fine-grained authorization models (OpenFGA, Zanzibar-style ReBAC)
• Experience building analytics or reporting interfaces over large datasets, including data visualization
• Experience with workflow-driven or long-running process UIs
• SaaS product delivery experience, particularly through a pilot-to-GA transition
• Experience with Canadian public-sector or education accessibility and data privacy requirements (AODA and provincial equivalents, PIPEDA, provincial FIPPA)
• Experience with distributed tracing or frontend observability and error monitoring
• PWA, service workers, and advanced performance optimization
• Experience in a consulting or client-facing delivery environment

Who you are

• You are a product-minded engineer who asks what the user is actually trying to accomplish before deciding how to build it.
• You have experience in customer-facing roles and communicate clearly, including when something is off track.
• You treat a feature as incomplete until it is tested, accessible, documented, and supportable - finishing the code is the middle of the job, not the end.

What Appnovation Offers 

• Challenging and rewarding work with real impact
• Direct Access to Cutting-Edge AI Platforms
• Diverse and Inclusive Culture
• Growth opportunities for personal and professional development
• A collaborative and innovative work environment where your ideas are valued
• Exposure to exciting projects and high-profile clients
• Supportive work environment with access to company leaders
• Hybrid working model