Principal Frontend Software Engineer

About the role

Principal Software Engineer, Discovery User Experience

This position centers on defining and owning the end-to-end discovery experience for every person who enters Roblox. In this capacity, you will be responsible for architecting the pipelines and interfaces that guide users to the right places-whether they are exploring for the first time or searching for a specific creator or title. Success in this role requires equal parts product intuition and engineering rigor. You will translate high-level product concepts into robust, high-performance user flows that work seamlessly across web and mobile. Your work will directly influence how millions of users land, browse, and engage with the platform.

The role reports into the Engineering Management lead for the Discovery UX organization. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy, shaping technical direction while partnering closely with cross-functional stakeholders. Your contributions will ensure that discovery is fast, relevant, and reliable, regardless of where a user begins their journey.

Key Responsibilities

You will architect the technical backbone for discovery features that serve a global audience at scale. This involves designing systems that balance speed, relevance, and clarity. You will own the full lifecycle of key user journeys, from initial landing through to content consumption.

• Architect and deliver the core pipelines that power discovery surfaces such as Home, Search, Charts, and Experience Details across all client platforms.
• Lead the implementation of dynamic, experiment-driven UI using modern frontend frameworks, ensuring rapid iteration without sacrificing stability.
• Partner with product and design teams to translate abstract concepts into concrete, testable user flows that align with business goals.
• Collaborate with backend and data teams to optimize client-server interactions, reduce latency, and improve payload efficiency.
• Drive a culture of experimentation, analyzing A/B test results and behavioral data to inform future iterations of the discovery experience.
• Act as a technical leader for frontend best practices, advocating for performance, accessibility, and maintainable code.
• Work across the stack to unblock critical features, interfacing with infrastructure, platform, and analytics teams as needed.

Required Qualifications

This role expects a seasoned engineer with a long track record of delivering complex digital products. You should have a history of shipping features that are both technically sound and aligned with user needs. Your background should span multiple layers of the technology stack.

• Bring a minimum of eight years of professional software development experience, with a strong focus on building consumer-facing applications.
• Demonstrate advanced proficiency in modern web technologies, including React, TypeScript, and JavaScript, applied to high-traffic products.
• Show a proven ability to deliver complex features that reach millions of users and impact key business metrics.
• Exhibit a full-stack mindset, comfortably navigating frontend implementation, backend integration, and data workflows to complete end-to-end projects.
• Hold a formal qualification or equivalent professional experience in a relevant technical discipline, such as Computer Science, Applied Math, Physics, Engineering, or Statistics.

Personal Attributes

You approach your work with a blend of curiosity, pragmatism, and empathy. You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and iterating based on evidence. Your communication style is clear and collaborative, allowing you to influence without authority.

• User-obsessed: You consistently prioritize the needs of the community, seeking to reduce friction and improve clarity at every touchpoint.
• Analytical thinker: You break down ambiguous problems into manageable parts, evaluate options rigorously, and arrive at well-reasoned solutions.
• Data-curious: You actively seek out and interpret data to validate assumptions and uncover new opportunities for improvement.
• Innovative builder: You look beyond short-term fixes, designing solutions that scale and evolve with the product.
• Cross-functional partner: You work effectively with engineers, designers, and researchers, aligning on shared objectives and technical coherence.

What you'll do

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