Senior Front-end Software Engineer

About the role

Christchurch, full-time, in-person with flexibility. Reporting to Scott (co-founder).

About Harth

Build the tool that helps people see their home before it's built.

Designing and building a home is one of the biggest things most people will ever do. The professionals involved (architects, designers, builders) bring deep expertise to the process. But homeowners often struggle to picture what they're committing to until it's already real. We're building the visual workspace that closes that gap, so the homeowner, the architect, and the builder are all working from the same view.

If that problem interests you, and the rest of this page sounds like a place you'd want to work, we'd love to hear from you.

What we're building

Every homeowner taking on a renovation or a new build is trying to answer three questions:

• What's it going to look like?
• How much is it going to cost?
• How long will it take?

Harth is the visual workspace built to answer them. Homeowners can upload a 3D model from their architect or a photo of their space, generate photorealistic renders that preserve the real architecture, swap in real materials and products, and share the result directly with the team they're building with.

The result is a shared reference everyone can work from: the homeowner, the architect, the designer, the builder. Less translation. Better decisions. A better project.

What we're building today is the start of something bigger. A home is the most important asset most people will ever own, and almost none of the tools for it have been built yet. We're starting with the design and build phase because that's where the gap is widest and the impact is clearest. Where we go next will be earned.

We're backed by leading investors including Blackbird Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, Side Stage Ventures.

The role

This is a senior IC role for an engineer who loves the craft and wants to stay close to the work. You'll build the front of Harth. The viewport, the 3D scene, the AI flows people interact with, the moments where the product earns its "wow." If the homeowner sees it, you probably built it.

Harth is a visual product. The viewport is the product, and the front-end is where most of the experience lives. We're starting to let real users into the product and the bar for what we're shipping is high. The product has to feel beautiful, considered, and supporting the homeowner's journey every step of the way. Every render, every interaction, every frame.

This is the role for an engineer who genuinely loves front-end craft and wants to work on a product where it actually matters. You'll be building 2D and 3D interfaces, AI-driven flows, image generation, and agent UX. You won't be making CRUD dashboards.

You'll work alongside three principal engineers who are excellent at what they do. They'll push you, learn from you, and partner with you on the harder problems. We're hiring for someone who's excited to stay deep in the work rather than step away from it.

What you'll do

• Ship product end-to-end. Take an idea or a Figma file and turn it into a real, working part of Harth. Front-end is the centre of gravity, but you'll go full-stack where the work needs it.
• Own real surface area. Take a part of the product and make it yours. The 3D model viewer, the render UI, the agent panel, the share flows. The parts of the product where the experience has to be seamless, intuitive, and magic.
• Work on AI-native features. Image generation, agent-driven UX, real-time AI feedback. The parts of the product that didn't exist five years ago and have very little established pattern. You'll figure it out as you go.
• Raise the technical bar. You bring a high standard to your own work and to the codebase around you. You spot the things that need fixing and you fix them. You make the engineers around you better just by working alongside them.
• Partner with the principals. On the hardest architecture and design problems, you'll work shoulder to shoulder with our principal engineers. They're not your managers. They're your peers on the work that matters most.
• Lean into AI to do better work. Claude Code, Cursor, whatever's earning its place in your week. We're an AI-first team. The engineers who thrive here use AI as a companion to deliver work that's faster and better than either could produce alone. Not AI slop. Carefully considered and architected solutions.
• Typical first 90 days. Expect to be shipping production code within your first two weeks. From there, you'll move into owning a meaningful feature end-to-end, from state machine design through E2E coverage, and start contributing to the architectural conversations that shape where the product goes next.

What we're looking for

• At least five years of professional experience as a software engineer. Has shipped real product code at scale. Has owned features and surfaces, not just contributed to them. Knows what good looks like and how to get there.
• You love being an IC. This is a role for someone who wants to stay deep in the craft, not step away from it to manage others. Your impact comes from what you ship, the bar you set, and the engineers you sharpen by working alongside them.
• You love front-end. Front-end is your craft, not your tax. You care about how interactions feel, how layouts breathe, how state is modelled, how the small details add up. You read other people's code and have opinions about it.
• You can work full-stack when needed. Most of your time will be in the front-end, but you can go end-to-end on a feature. You're not afraid of the back-end, the API layer, or the infrastructure.
• You're comfortable in our stack. TypeScript, React, Tailwind, Node.js. Google Cloud Platform on the infrastructure side, OpenAI SDK and similar on the AI side. You don't need to be expert in all of it, but you should be able to read a codebase in this stack and start contributing within a week.
• You take ownership. You scope your own work. You ship without being prompted. You raise the things that need raising. You make architectural calls and you own them.
• You work well alongside great engineers. Three principal engineers. You'll partner with them on the hardest problems. The ones who thrive here are the engineers who treat being challenged and challenging in return as the best part of the job.
• You use AI as part of how you work. Not as a novelty, as a daily workflow. Coding agents, AI tools, whatever earns its place. The leverage available to a senior engineer who works this way is much bigger than for one who doesn't.
• The way we work works for you. Pace, autonomy, AI-first, in-person in Christchurch, small team.
  

Nice-to-have's

• Real experience with 3D in the browser. Three.js, React Three Fiber, WebGL and WebGPU, anything in that family.
• Experience building AI-native features. Image generation, agents, real-time model interactions.
• Strong design sensibility. You can take a Figma file and improve it as you implement, not just translate it.
• A side project, an open-source contribution, or a thing you've shipped on your own that you're proud of.

Before you apply

A few things worth checking against yourself:

• I love front-end. It's the part of the work I'm most excited about.
• I want to stay deep in the craft as an IC. I'm not looking for a management track right now.
• I ship without being prompted, and I raise the things that need raising.
• I want to work alongside engineers who are better than me, not in spite of them.
• I use AI tools as part of how I work, not as a novelty.
• I'm interested in working on a product where the visual surface is the product.
• I am interested in homes, architecture, and construction (the problem space).

What we offer

• A product worth caring about. Homes are personal, visual, expensive, and emotional. The engineering problem is interesting because the product is. You won't be building dashboards.
• Engineering that matters. The viewport, the 3D scene, the AI flows. The parts of the product where the experience has to be considered. Your work will be visible.
• Real ownership of the role. You'll have authorship over what you ship. You'll see your work in front of real users within weeks, not quarters.
• A team you can stay sharp alongside. Three principal engineers, all excellent. A small group of people doing strong work. Brand and product foundations already in place for you to build on, not fix.

Benefits

• Salary range of $140,000 - $175,000 (offers depend on performance during assessments).
• Generous stock options: you'll own a meaningful part of Harth.
• Relocation support: if you're not in Christchurch yet, we'll support the move.
  

How to apply

• Email: harth_senior-software-engineer@applyhere.co.nz
• You MUST be able to work in Christchurch.
• Include a short note on why Harth, why this role, why you, include your CV or LinkedIn Profile.
• Links to anything you've shipped that you're proud of. GitHub, side projects, production work, or open-source contributions.
• Anything else you'd like us to see.