Principal Software Architect (Frontend)
OPERATIVE OVERVIEW
Operative builds the software that powers the business of advertising for the world's leading media companies. Our platforms manage the full advertising lifecycle — from sales planning and order management to trafficking, analytics, and billing — across linear TV, streaming, and digital channels.
Built on a modern, cloud-native SaaS architecture with microservices at its core, the Operative platform is engineered to handle the scale and operational demands of the world's largest broadcasters and publishers. Operative is actively developing AI Agents — both to enhance the capabilities of our platform and to augment how our engineering teams work. Engineers at Operative have access to AI tooling as a standard part of their workflow, and we are investing in building increasingly autonomous agents that accelerate development.
Position Overview
Operative is seeking an experienced architect with a strong hands-on engineering background and a demonstrated ability to operate independently and drive the technical quality of the teams and codebases they engage with. This individual will serve as the primary technical authority for frontend engineering, working at the intersection of UX, Product, and Engineering to ensure that design intent is realized through sound, scalable architecture.
Frontend engineering is a priority area for investment at Operative . The successful candidate will bring clarity, direction, and technical leadership to this domain — assessing the current state, identifying improvements, and building the patterns and standards the broader team will follow.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and own the frontend architecture, including component models, state management patterns, build tooling, performance standards, and testing strategy
- Collaborate closely with UX and Product teams to develop a deep understanding of design systems and user workflows, translating that understanding into clean, maintainable implementation patterns
- Drive the adoption of AI-assisted development practices within the frontend engineering team, and contribute to defining the user experience layer for Operative 's agentic AI capabilities
- Establish and uphold code quality standards through design reviews, tooling, documentation, and hands-on example
- Identify and drive high-impact improvements to the existing frontend independently, from assessment through delivery
- Serve as the primary technical liaison between design and engineering disciplines, ensuring alignment between intent and execution
- Provide mentorship and technical guidance to frontend engineers across the broader global team
- Make and take ownership of architectural decisions, communicating rationale clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Qualities and Working Style
Beyond technical depth, Operative is looking for specific qualities that define how this individual will work:
- Operates with a high degree of autonomy and self-direction; identifies what needs to be done without requiring close oversight
- Holds strong technical opinions grounded in experience, while remaining pragmatic about tradeoffs and context
- Approaches ambiguity as a problem to be solved rather than a barrier to progress
- Remains hands-on as a practitioner; this is an engineering leadership role, not a purely advisory one
- Has a track record of being a go-to resource for difficult frontend engineering challenges
- Communicates technical concepts effectively to cross-functional audiences, including product and business stakeholders
Technical Requirements
Candidates should demonstrate strong proficiency across the following areas:
- Angular
- TypeScript
- CSS / Design Systems
- State Management
- Build Tooling
- Testing (E2E + Unit)
- Web Performance
- REST / GraphQL
- Micro Frontends
- Accessibility (a11y)
- Module Federation
Experience with other modern frontend frameworks such as React or Vue is welcomed — architectural depth an