Senior Frontend Engineer at HFCB Kenya

About the Role

• The Senior Frontend Engineer is responsible for driving the end-to-end strategy, development, and delivery of highly scalable, customer-centric user interfaces across the Group. The role holder will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining frontend applications and integrations that power resilient automation solutions across the Group’s digital platforms.
• While the role is frontend-heavy, the engineer is expected to be a versatile “T-Shaped” professional who understands backend service integration and can double up as a Full Stack Engineer to support end-to-end prototyping when required. You will lead and mentor junior engineers while championing a high-performance, outcome-driven culture focused on technical excellence, human-centered design, and commercial impact.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Development & Full Stack Versatility

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain scalable frontend applications and reusable UI components.
• Write clean, efficient, and secure code for various web components and services using React and Next.js.
• Lead the evolution of existing digital channels and ensure seamless integration with internal and external partner ecosystems.
• Double up as a Full Stack Engineer when needed, providing support for backend feature integration and end-to-end service prototyping.
• Architect and implement efficient data fetching strategies using both REST and GraphQL to ensure optimal application performance.

DevSecOps & Engineering Excellence

• Champion engineering best practices, including DevSecOps and CI/CD, to ensure secure and frequent delivery.
• Work closely with the DevOps team to automate deployment pipelines, optimize frontend build processes, and improve system reliability.
• Participate in code inspection, testing, and continuous refactoring efforts to maintain enterprise-grade quality.
• Ensure application performance, accessibility (WCAG), and fault tolerance for all customer-facing solutions.

Agile Delivery & Technical Leadership

• Drive Agile delivery across squads, ensuring timely and high-quality releases aligned to business outcomes.
• Provide clear technical direction, architectural guidance, and prioritization across multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Lead collaboration across business, technology, risk, and compliance stakeholders to ensure seamless execution from ideation to go-live.
• Conduct rigorous code reviews and provide mentorship to develop strong technical and commercial capabilities within the team.

Commercialization & Product Innovation

• Own the technical success of channel products, ensuring they are built for adoption, usage, and revenue generation.
• Work closely with Product Owners and Commercial Leads to leverage data and analytics for optimizing conversion funnels and customer journeys.
• Ensure solutions address real customer pain points through human-centered design and Lean Startup principles.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, IT, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Professional training or certification in Agile, Product Development, or relevant backend technologies would be an added advantage.
• 10+ years’ experience in banking, fintech, or digital financial services.

Competencies

• Frontend Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in React and Next.js for building highly scalable web applications.
• Core Web Technologies: Mastery of HTML5, CSS3, and TypeScript.
• Integrations: Deep proficiency in both REST and GraphQL APIs.
• Server-side: Proficiency in Node.js.
• Version Control: Proficient understanding of version control using Git.
• Browser Expertise: Proficient understanding of cross-browser compatibility issues and ways to work around them.
• Framework Versatility: Understanding of Vue and Angular is a distinct plus.
• DevOps & Quality: Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps practices, and automated testing tools.