Software Engineer - Frontend

Don’t let the quirky name fool you: At MotherDuck, we’re on a mission to make data warehousing fun, frictionless, and ducking awesome for developers and data practitioners building blazing fast internal and customer-facing analytics experiences. We're building a cloud-hosted version of DuckDB, working hand-in-hand with the creators of the fastest-growing and fastest-improving query engine on the planet. Unlike other databases, MotherDuck was architected to unify local development with cloud operations to bridge the gap between software and data engineering workflows. Our team is a mix of thoughtful, passionate, and empathetic data industry veterans.

The UI engineers at MotherDuck build a best-in-class user experience for standard data warehouse operations and SQL querying. Our team has delivered features that users love, including the Column Explorer for visualizing distributions across any table or result set, and Instant SQL with real-time result previews. You'll contribute to this vision, working on everything from the data warehouse service layer to high-finesse features that simplify data analysis.

As a member of the team, you’ll work closely with design, product, and our platform and databases teams to build intuitive, performant, and finessed user experiences that help people go from data to insight without friction. You’ll also play a key role in defining the development culture and standards as we scale the team and the product.

This is a hybrid role that can be based in our Seattle or San Francisco hubs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build delightful interfaces: Design and implement beautiful, performant, and accessible UIs that make working with data feel like magic.

• Own user experience: Work closely with designers and researchers to understand real-world user problems and ship features that meet them with empathy and creativity.

• Collaborate deeply: Partner with backend engineers, PMs, and fellow frontend developers to bring new experiences to life-across data exploration, visualization, collaboration, and more.

• Craft quality code: Write clean, reusable, and well-tested code. Help evolve our component library, design system, and development patterns.

• Prototype with speed and conviction: Rapidly explore new ideas through prototypes and experiments to validate assumptions and refine user workflows.

• Influence our direction: As an early hire, you’ll help shape not only the product, but our engineering culture, frontend architecture, and technical roadmap.

• Proven experience in software development, with a focus on frontend development.

• Proficiency with HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, and experience with frameworks like React.

• Strong aesthetic and interaction instincts - both for end-user experience and internal component APIs.

• Experience collaborating in cross-functional teams with designers, PMs, and engineers.

• Strong conviction about suing AI to accelerate development without compromising quality. You're excited about shipping architecturally sound systems faster by using agents for exploration, boilerplate, and iteration-while maintaining with standards for the code that ships

• A generalist mindset - you’re comfortable navigating ambiguity, making decisions without perfect information, and working across the stack when needed.

• Experience working on developer tools, BI tools, notebooks, or data visualization products.

• Familiarity with the JavaScript/TypeScript tooling ecosystem (Vite, esbuild, etc.).

• Experience developing UI component libraries and sweating the details of animations, interactions, and pixel-perfect implementation

• Background working with SQL, data warehouses, or analytics platforms

• A passion for the craft of frontend—bringing joy, clarity, and power to users through great UX.

• “Every time I use the MotherDuck UI, I feel like someone actually thought about my workflow. It's snappy, intuitive, and even kinda fun?”

• “The people that made this UI really care about craft.”

• “It’s like someone took all the annoying parts of other tools and… just left them out.”

• “I didn’t know querying data could feel this smooth. Is it weird to say I enjoy it?”

• “The UI just gets out of my way. It’s like it knows what I want before I do.”

• “I came for the data warehouse, but I stayed for the amazing UI tools.”

• Feather-ruffling compensation – competitive salary and stock options so you have a stake in our flock’s success.

• Top-notch healthcare coverage – 100% paid medical, dental, and vision for employees, plus 80% coverage for dependents (because we care about your whole nest).

• Flexible PTO – take the time you need to recharge, explore, or just have a lazy day by the pond.

• 401k plan – because even ducks need to plan for the future.

• Legendary company events – we bring the whole flock together twice a year for unforgettable summits in fun locations, plus 1-2 team gatherings a year to keep our bonds strong.

• Hybrid work environment – Spend three days a week in the office collaborating with the flock, and work from wherever you’re most productive the rest of the time—whether that’s your home office, a coffee shop, or a peaceful lakeside retreat.

Does this role sound appealing to you, but you’re missing some of the requirements or don’t quite think you’re qualified?  Please apply anyway. Research has shown that underrepresented groups in technology often shy away from roles which aren’t a 100% match. We aim to build a diverse team and will strongly consider applicants who bring many of the requirements plus have other experiences which round out their qualifications.

MotherDuck is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. MotherDuck is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities.