Front-End Engineer (Full-Time Contract-to-Hire)

About Zuma

Zuma is pioneering the future of agentic AI and our focus is to transform the rental market experience for consumers and property manager alike. Our innovative platform is engineered from the ground up to boost operations efficiency and enhance support capabilities for property management business across the US and Canada, a :$200B market.

Off the back of our Series-A in early 2024, Zuma is scaling rapidly. Achieving our vision requires a team of passionate, innovative individuals eager to leverage technology to redefine customer-business interactions. We're on the hunt for exceptional talent ready to join our mission and contribute to building a groundbreaking technology that reshapes how businesses engage with customers.

Zuma has raised over $17M in funding to date and has support from world-renowned investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Y Combinator, King River, Range Ventures, and distinguished angel investors like YC’s former COO, Qasar Younis.

As a Front-End Engineer, you will:

Architect and build user interfaces that bring our AI assistant, Kelsey, to life—transforming complex workflows into clean, intuitive experiences

Own the front-end stack, making critical decisions about component design, performance, and scalability as our first dedicated front-end hire

Develop self-serve tools that allow property managers to onboard, configure, and train AI agents without needing engineering support

Design and implement real-time feedback loops, analytics dashboards, and status indicators to help customers build trust in AI-driven workflows

Collaborate closely with design, product, and full-stack engineers to translate nuanced user needs into elegant, frictionless UIs

Bring consistency and polish to the platform through a shared design system and UI standards

Push the boundaries of human–AI interaction design by prototyping and launching interfaces that guide, explain, and empower

Champion usability, accessibility, and performance, ensuring our platform is fast, inclusive, and delightful

Lay the foundation for front-end engineering best practices, tooling, and developer experience as we scale the team

Iterate quickly, incorporating feedback from real users and customers who rely on your work daily to run their communities

Why This Could Be Your Dream Role

• You'll work directly with cutting-edge LLM technology in a real-world application
• You want to work at a company where customers feel your impact every day
• You'll architect AI-powered systems that are transforming the real estate industry
• You'll have autonomy to design and implement innovative technical solutions
• Your work will directly impact thousands of apartment communities and millions of renters
• You'll receive significant equity in a venture-backed company with strong traction
• As we scale, your role and influence will grow with the company

Why You Might Want to Think Twice

• This is a demanding role that will often require extended hours and deep commitment
• As a founding team member, you'll need to wear multiple hats and step outside your comfort zone
• You'll need to make thoughtful tradeoffs between innovation and immediate needs
• You'll interact directly with customers to understand their needs and occasionally travel to their offices
• We're a startup - priorities can shift rapidly as we respond to market opportunities and customer needs
• If you're not comfortable getting your hands dirty with legacy code or speaking directly with customers, this isn't the job for you

Responsibilities

• Leading critical system rewrites to transform our architecture into a highly scalable foundation
• Working closely with our product team to translate customer needs into technical solutions
• Architecting and building advanced systems for our LLM-based AI leasing agent
• Creating intelligent configuration interfaces that allow our AI to adapt to customer needs
• Designing and implementing integration frameworks connecting our AI with customer systems
• Establishing modern engineering practices and infrastructure for an AI-first product
• Implementing robust analytics to measure and improve our AI's effectiveness
• Leading the development of innovative features that push the boundaries of AI in real estate
• Mentoring engineers and elevating the team's capabilities with LLM technologies

Your Experience Looks Like

• 5–10+ years of front-end engineering experience, ideally in startup or product-focused environments
• Deep fluency in React, TypeScript, Tailwind, and modern build tools (Vite, Webpack, etc.)
• Experience building admin interfaces, configuration workflows, and data visualizations
• Passion for user experience and close collaboration with designers
• Familiarity with backend integration (Node.js, GraphQL, REST, or gRPC)
• Experience working with AI/LLM-powered products is a big plus—but not required
• Comfort navigating ambiguity, owning outcomes, and shipping fast
• Excellent communicator, collaborator, and craftsman

Guiding Principles

Customer‑First Outcomes

Every commit should trace back to resident or operator value. Whether it’s a new feature, infra investment, or AI capability, if it doesn’t solve a real problem, it doesn’t ship.

Bias for Simplicity

We favor composable primitives over clever abstractions. Open standards, clean APIs, and clear contracts win over custom complexity, even if the custom version is cooler.

Quality Is a Gate, Not an After‑Thought

Quality is built-in from day one. Our definition of done includes: test coverage, performance checks, basic observability, and internal docs. Shipping fast doesn’t mean skipping craftsmanship.

Data‑Driven Choices

We use data to guide, not paralyze, our decision-making. We track leading indicators (cycle time, defect rate, NPS) and lagging signals (retention, revenue impact). We keep instrumentation lightweight but meaningful signal over spreadsheet.

Transparency & Written Culture

Good ideas don’t expire in Zoom. We operate in public inside the company, TDDs, PR reviews, and Linear tickets tell the story. This keeps us async-friendly, auditable, and aligned across time zones and functions.

Other Benefits

• Great health insurance, dental, and vision
• Gym and workspace stipends
• Computer and workspace enhancements
• Unlimited PTO
• Company off-sites with the team
• Opportunity to play a critical role in building the foundations of the company and Engineering culture