Front-End Engineer

Why Thunderbird?

MZLA Technologies Corporation (MZLA) is a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation and the home of Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a global, free, and open-source email and productivity app, which has experienced significant growth in revenue, staff, and aspirations since its launch 20 years ago. Our revenue comes from our dedicated users around the world who generously fund our work. As we continue to expand our team and enhance our products and services, we remain dedicated to providing best-in-class productivity solutions independent of big tech. Operating as a small but dynamic team of 40 + staff across seven countries and time zones, we are part of the larger Mozilla family but maintain our distinct and independent identity from both the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation.

Our organizational culture is driven by our mission. We are committed to fostering openness and transparency as a member of the open-source community. We lean into collaboration, creativity, and diversity. We bring a hearty dose of scrappy grit and resilience to our lively and spirited team. Our operating principles leverage data informed decisions, ownership, speed and efficiencies to elevate our work and deliver innovative and impactful solutions to our users.

The Opportunity:

As an early-career Front-End Engineer on the Desktop team, this is your opportunity to build on your experience in modern CSS, HTML, and JavaScript in a real-world, large-scale product. You’ll contribute to impactful features from day one, deepen your skills through mentorship and collaboration, and grow in a supportive environment—all while improving performance and usability for millions of users around the world.

You’ll join a team of 14 talented front- and back-end engineers who bring deep expertise to the development and maintenance of our flagship desktop application, cherished by millions of users worldwide for over 20 years.

As we modernize and enhance the product, you’ll collaborate with experienced engineers to deliver new features, resolve bugs, participate in peer code reviews, and contribute to technical discussions. You’ll work closely with our front-end, design, and back-end teams to ensure smooth coordination on cross-functional projects. You’ll also interact with the Thunderbird open-source community—reviewing community-submitted patches and providing thoughtful feedback

The Front-End Engineer is an individual contributor and will report directly to the Senior Manager, Desktop Engineering. 

We’re committed to creating an amazing experience for our users, and you’ll play a key part in this effort. You will be working with our existing staff and community members from all over the globe to support the mission and objectives of MZLA Technologies Corp and the Thunderbird Project.

This is a remote, full-time position. We require strong written communication skills to facilitate effective work coordination across various virtual communication platforms such as email and video conferencing.

This role works closely with staff across Canada, US, and Europe. Consequently, applicants in the Eastern Standard time zone are strongly preferred.

What you’ll do: 

• Maintain and improve the front-end codebase of the application, completing tasks both on your own and under the guidance of senior team members.
• Build your understanding of the Thunderbird Desktop codebase by tackling bugs reported by team members and the community, ensuring high code quality and improving the experience for tens of millions of users.
• Support volunteer WebExtension developers with expertise in modern JavaScript and toolchains, review extensions submitted to our official extension platform and help to improve our WebExtension APIs.
• Participate in weekly team meetings, providing updates and getting involved in team discussions about projects being worked on.
• Communicate with the Design Team as you interpret mock-ups to build out new features.
• Work closely with back-end engineers to integrate front-end features with back-end services.
• Share the responsibility of monitoring and managing the codebase by reviewing automated test results, triaging regressions, backing out problematic changes, and ensuring the successful integration of patches to uphold project standards and stability.

What you’ll bring: 

• 3+ years of experience in a professional environment, with a solid understanding of workplace communication and collaboration practice. 
• At least 2 years of hands-on experience in front-end development using modern JavaScript (e.g., ES6+, React, or similar frameworks).
• Prior experience working remotely.
• Proficiency in web technologies, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Professional experience in Mercurial or Git and experience with version control workflows, including branching, merging, and pull requests.
• Knowledge of UI/UX design principles and the ability to collaborate with designers to improve user interfaces.
• Experience with front-end testing frameworks (e.g., Jest, Mocha, Cypress) and writing automated tests for performance and reliability.
• Familiarity with web accessibility standards and best practices.
• Great communication skills (both written and verbal), documentation skills, and the ability to work with a multi-disciplinary, geographically distributed team.
• Deep respect for the different skills and perspectives that people of varied technical and non-technical backgrounds bring to a team.
• Strong debugging, problem-solving, and analytical skills, with the ability to work on complex, ambiguous problems

Bonus points for:

• Familiarity with back-end development or full-stack capabilities.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or engaging with open-source communities.
• Experience with responsive design and cross-browser compatibility.
• Ability to work effectively in a distributed, collaborative environment with cross-functional teams.
• Proficiency with build tools and task runners such as Webpack, Gulp, or Grunt.
• Experience with TypeScript, Redux, or other state management libraries.
• Familiarity with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and processes.
• French, German, Japanese, or any language proficiency in addition to English

What you’ll get:

We benchmark our base salaries to local markets and target the 60th percentile of the peer market. The salary ranges for this role are:

• US: $85,000 - $105,000 USD

In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your whole self.

Work & Career

• Fully remote work & schedule flexibility
• Latest Laptop and accessories 
• Annual Remote Work Stipend
• Monthly Internet Stipend
• Professional Development Stipend
• Industry Conferences

Rest & Play

• 24 days PTO per year (prorated) 
• Your Birthday
• Year-end Company Shutdown
• Wellbeing Days 
• Public Holidays
• Other Paid Leave
• Wellbeing Stipend for Personal / Family Activities

Health & Family

• 401(k) Contributions
• Health, Dental, & Vision Insurance
• Disability/Income Protection Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program 
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Sick Days 

*Applicants must reside in and have work authorization for the country location(s) specified above. We are unable to consider applicants outside of these markets at this time. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship.

MZLA Technologies Corporation (MZLA) Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion

MZLA believes in the value of diverse creative practices and forms of knowledge, and knows diversity, equity and inclusion are crucial to and enrich the company’s core mission. We encourage applications from everyone, including members of all equity-seeking communities, such as (but not limited to) women, racialized and Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race (including hairstyle and texture), religion (including religious grooming and dress practices), gender, gender identity, gender expression, color, national origin, pregnancy, ancestry, domestic partner status, disability, sexual orientation, age, genetic predisposition, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, or any other basis covered by applicable laws. Mozilla will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics or any other unlawful behavior, conduct, or purpose. 

We will ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, as appropriate. Please contact us at hiringaccommodations@thunderbird.net to request accommodation.

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