Mid-Level Front-End Engineer at Cedar - Fintech in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This role sits at an interesting intersection: early-stage startup ownership with a proven product. Cedar has already closed deals, so you're not joining at the idea stage — but you're early enough to have outsized impact and equity upside. That's a genuinely rare combination.
Compensation benchmarks: The $100K–$150K total cash range is competitive for a mid-level front-end engineer — roughly in line with market rates in secondary US cities, and slightly below top-tier NYC/SF rates. The emphasis on "significant equity" could meaningfully increase total comp if Cedar scales, making this attractive for risk-tolerant engineers who believe in the mission.
Skills you'll develop:
- React, TypeScript, and Next.js — all high-demand, durable skills in the 2024–2025 market.
- AI-augmented development workflows — increasingly valuable as tooling like Copilot and Cursor become industry standard.
- Translating complex financial logic into intuitive UX — a niche, high-value skill in fintech.
- Accessibility (WCAG) as a bonus track — compliance needs are growing across industries.
Culture signals: "Results over hours" and fast ownership suggests a high-trust, low-bureaucracy environment. The 90-day ramp plan is unusually specific, which is a green flag — it shows structured thinking about onboarding. Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering means high visibility early on.
Watch for: "Small, sharp team" means limited redundancy — if you need a lot of mentorship structure, clarify team size in interviews. The pace may be intense for those preferring slower-moving environments.
Front-End Engineer (Mid-Level) – Cedar
Owning a home has slipped out of reach for millions of Americans. Cedar has built a model that changes that, proven it by closing deals, and is now scaling. As a mid-level front-end engineer, you'll build what people touch every day: the screens a family uses to figure out whether Cedar can get them into a home. You get the stability of a company that's proven its model, plus the ownership and scope of an early hire.
How We Work
Results over hours, straight feedback, and problems fixed at the root. People who learn fast and take ownership earn serious responsibility quickly. The bar is high, but you won't be clearing it alone — the people around you are very good at what they do.
AI is central to how we build. We invest heavily in our tooling so a small team can ship like a much bigger one, and we want people who keep pushing on what these tools can do. They are meant to speed you up, not to think for you — and you own the result.
What You'll Get
- Ownership from week one — you'll be shipping to customers, not waiting around for permission.
- Room to grow — take on more as soon as you're ready, not on a fixed timeline.
- A small, sharp team and tooling that's a pleasure to work with, so your time goes to the interesting problems.
- Competitive pay and meaningful equity, so you share in what you help build.
Responsibilities
- Build and own the consumer-facing web app in React, TypeScript, and Next.js.
- Lean on AI tooling to ship quickly, and help make it better as you go.
- Be fanatical about testing your assumptions and judging your work by outcomes — AI speeds you up, but verification is on you.
- Take dense financial logic and turn it into screens people can understand and trust.
- Work shoulder to shoulder with design and product, from rough idea to shipped, accessible UI.
- Own features from build to release, then watch how people use them and make them better.
- Keep the bar high in code review, write tests that matter, and chase bugs to their root cause.
Your First 90 Days
- First couple of weeks: Get set up, ship a small change to production, and learn how we work.
- First month: Own a feature end to end, from design handoff through release.
- By 90 days: You're the go-to person for a meaningful slice of the consumer app.
Skills
- 3+ years building production web apps with React and TypeScript.
- Solid on HTML and CSS — you make things work on a phone, not just a laptop.
- Experience working with APIs (REST or GraphQL); testing is just part of how you build.
- Excited about AI tooling and eager to push it further.
- Works well independently and enjoys collaboration across product, design, and engineering.
- Bonus: A good eye for design and comfort working in Figma.
- Bonus: Experience with accessibility (WCAG).
Location
Remote-first and full-time. You can work from anywhere in the US, and a good number of the team is around New York City if you'd rather not work solo. You'll report to Brien Kurtz, VP of Engineering.
Compensation
Total cash compensation is between $100K and $150K, made up of base and a discretionary bonus. It comes with significant equity plus benefits. Cedar is serious about the equity — you own a piece of what you help build.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
- 401(k) retirement plan.
- Paid time off and parental leave.
- Home office setup stipend.
Equal Opportunity
Cedar is an equal-opportunity employer. We welcome qualified applicants of every background, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. If you need an accommodation at any point in the hiring process, just let us know.
Frequently Asked Questions
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