Software Engineer, Frontend - job 1 of 2

At Sift, we’re redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability over high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.

Sift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.

As an early engineer at Sift, you won’t just write code—you’ll help define the architecture, shape the product, and influence the culture of a company focused on solving real engineering problems. If you’re looking for complex technical challenges and the opportunity to build foundational systems supporting complex machines from the ground up, we want to hear from you.

In This Role, You'll:

• Build high-performance data visualization interfaces and reusable component libraries for complex telemetry data

• Create intuitive user interfaces for data exploration while optimizing for large real-time datasets

• Collaborate with backend teams on API design and implementation for seamless user experiences

• Write clean, maintainable code and participate in technical design discussions

The Skillset You'll Bring:

• 3+ years of professional experience building web applications and data-driven tools

• Strong experience building production applications with technologies like React, NextJS, and TypeScript

• Strong understanding of web performance optimization and browser rendering

• Experience with modern CSS (Tailwind) and component libraries (Radix UI) for building design systems

Bonus Points:

• Experience with technical visualization tools (WebGL, D3.js, Apache ECharts) and time-series data

• Knowledge of WebAssembly and browser-based computation

• Background in scientific computing or technical data visualization

• Experience building tools for technical users (dashboards, data-editing environments)

• Built and launched side projects with consistent usage traffic

Engineering At Sift:

You'll have the opportunity to help evolve and scale our platform because we're still in the early stages of building the product. Relevant technologies include:

• Web frontend & backend: React, TypeScript, Redux, Tailwind, WebAssembly, D3.js, WebGL, and Go 

• Data: Parquet, Flink, Kafka, Redpanda, Beam, DuckDB, Timescale, QuestDB, InfluxDB, and Druid

• Infrastructure: GitHub Actions, AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform

Location:

The Sift team is based in El Segundo, CA, and we collaborate in person twice a week—Mondays and Thursdays. We work closely with LA’s leading hardware companies, from autonomous vehicle manufacturers to spacecraft builders. Proximity matters for site visits and deep collaboration, so we prefer candidates local to Los Angeles. We are open to relocation and for exceptional talent we’re open to remote work from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Salary range: $160,000 - $200,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.

Eligibility:

US Person Required: Must be a U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder due to ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR (Export Administration Regulations) compliance requirements.