Staff Engineer – Digital Engineering (Full Stack Lead)

Role: Staff Engineer – Digital Engineering (Full Stack Lead)Location: Kansas City, MO (Hybrid)Experience: 8 to 10 years Duration: 6+ monthsSkillsTypescript Dev (Angular, ReactJS, Node), React Native, React, Mobile, GitHub Copilot, Technical Leadership, Full Stack Development, AWSRole SummaryWe are looking for a hands-on Full Stack Lead to run the customer-experience engineering pod for a large retail and consumer-products enterprise. The pod is made up of web and mobile developers with embedded QA engineers, and it builds and supports the product personalization platform (print-on-demand cards, sign-and-send, e-cards, video greetings, one-to-many sends and personalized products), the customer mobile app, and supporting applications such as reminders, address book and saved drafts. The platform runs across several regions and is built primarily on React and React Native, with reusable micro front-end components deployed across sites. You will work with the client’s engineering manager and engineering lead, run delivery for the pod, set engineering standards, and own production support for the pod’s applications.Key ResponsibilitiesPod Leadership & Delivery• Represent the pod in planning and delivery discussions, and drive stories to done across two-week sprints.• Run estimation and backlog refinement with the client’s product owner and engineering manager, provide effort estimates and delivery plans, and secure story approvals.• Manage the delivery mix of roadmap stories, tech debt, spikes and KTLO, and flag capacity and dependency risks early.• Shift capacity between web and mobile work as demand changes, and keep developers cross-skilled in React and React Native.• Manage dependencies on backend services, design, content and third-party platform and service providers.• Report sprint outcomes, velocity and throughput trends against the agreed baseline, and escalate through the Engagement Manager as needed.• Provide coverage and handover through the client’s Central-time hours, and coordinate handoffs between onshore, nearshore and offshore team members.Architecture & Engineering Standards• Design web and mobile solutions that follow the client’s architecture, and take designs to the client’s engineering lead for review and approval.• Own the design of reusable micro front-end components and shared libraries that are deployed across several sites and applications.• Define and enforce engineering standards: component design, state management, performance, accessibility, security and test coverage.• Review and approve the pod’s code, run design and code reviews, and coach the developers.• Make sure the Definition of Done is met, including security, monitoring, documentation and runbooks.Web & Mobile Engineering• Build and review React and TypeScript applications, including the personalization editor, checkout flows and supporting applications.• Build and review React Native mobile applications for iOS and Android, including native build and release tooling, in-app personalization, photo upload and checkout.• Maintain design-system components and shared tooling such as monorepo build, module federation and component libraries.• Work with Node.js backend-for-frontend services that connect the applications to shared backend APIs.• Optimize performance across web and mobile, including load time, rendering, bundle size and app startup.• Support multi-region deployment of the personalization platform, including regional variations in content, language and configuration.Legacy Estate Maintenance• Maintain the older Angular and Node applications that are in containment: resolve defects and apply security updates, with no new feature work planned.• Recommend and plan the migration of legacy applications to React where it fits the roadmap.• Support the small web content (WordPress) footprint as needed.Quality & Testing (embedded in the pod)• Work with the pod’s QA engineers on test strategy across unit, component, end-to-end and mobile testing.• Make sure automated tests run in the CI/CD pipeline, and agree quality gates before release.• Support business UAT and release validation, and manage mobile app store releases.Platform Ownership / Support Activities• On-call support for Sev 1 incidents for the pod’s services, as the L3 escalation point behind the client’s SRE team, with severity-based response and resolution targets.• Lead root-cause analysis and post-incident reviews, and drive permanent fixes and preventive actions.• Support release deployments, and post-deployment validation.AI-Enabled Engineering• Use GitHub Copilot and other approved AI tools in design, coding, testing and documentation, and review all AI-generated code before release.• Record AI-driven productivity gains in Jira alongside sprint metrics.• Help the pod adopt new AI-assisted practices as the client’s approach evolves.Skill Requirements• 8 to 10 years of front-end or full-stack engineering experience, with deep hands-on React and TypeScript expertise.• Production experience with React Native for iOS and Android, including native build tooling (Xcode, CocoaPods, Gradle) and state management (Redux).• Experience designing micro front-end architecture and reusable component libraries, including module federation and design systems.• Experience with Node.js (Express) backend-for-frontend services, REST API integration and Redis.• Experience leading a small agile engineering team of developers and QA engineers, including estimation, code review and stakeholder communication.• Production support experience, including on-call response for critical incidents, root-cause analysis and post-incident reviews.• Experience with modern front-end tooling: Vite or Webpack, npm or pnpm, Sass, ESLint, Prettier, Jest, Testing Library and Storybook.• Experience with CI/CD (GitLab preferred), AWS and monitoring tools such as Datadog.• Experience with Jira and agile delivery.• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, with working knowledge of prompt engineering.• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, and the ability to work on a Central-time overlap with onshore stakeholders.• Willingness to support rotational on-call L3 support services for Severity 1 issues.Preferred Qualifications• Working knowledge of Angular (AngularJS) and Node, especially migrating Angular applications to React.• Experience with Firebase, mobile app store release management and monorepo tooling such as Turborepo.• Experience with personalization, print-on-demand, e-commerce checkout or media-rich editors.• Experience supporting multi-region applications, including overlap with European working hours.• Experience with WordPress or other content-management platforms.• Experience working with third-party platform providers and vendor integrations.• Retail or e-commerce experience.Education & AI Literacy• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.• AI literacy is required. Candidates should be familiar with AI tools and their practical use in software development, including reviewing AI-generated codeSkillsTypescript Dev (Angular, ReactJS, Node), React Native, React, Mobile, GitHub Copilot, Technical Leadership, Full Stack Development, AWS