Front-End Engineer

Overview of Smiling Mind

Smiling Mind has been at the forefront of mental well-being innovation for over 12 years, helping minds thrive with evidence-based tools and resources. We’re proud to have impacted the lives of millions of people globally.

Our mission is Lifelong Mental Fitness. We aim to create generational change in mental health, providing proactive tools and programs that help every mind thrive. So far, we’ve reached more than 8.6 million people through our renowned mental fitness app and more than 12.8 million young people through our app and school-based programs - but this is just the beginning.

Role Overview:

As a Front-End Engineer, you’ll work at the heart of our product engineering team, building and maintaining modern front-end applications across:

Our consumer mobile app

(React Native + Expo + TypeScript)

Our Learning Hub website

(NextJS + TypeScript)

Emerging shared experiences that bridge the home and school context

You’ll work closely with our Product and Engineering team to deliver experiences that are useful, beautiful, and grounded in our pedagogy. You’ll report directly to the Chief Product Officer and operate with a high degree of trust and autonomy.

This role is hands-on and self-directed. You’ll own our codebases, help shape architecture decisions, and bring curiosity and care to everything you build. We’re a small team, so you’ll need to be equally comfortable prototyping quickly, cleaning up legacy code, and collaborating across design and research to find smart, resilient solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Own and maintain app deployment processes (familiarity with the Apple App Store and Google Play Store platforms is essential)

Deliver performant, accessible, scalable UI components

Translate designs and product concepts into working, tested features

Write unit tests and e2e tests when new features are released

Collaborate on architecture and design systems

Review pull requests as needed

Troubleshoot bugs (using Sentry, Crashlytics), performance issues and edge cases

Work closely with design and backend to ensure end-to-end quality

We're looking for someone who:

Has

strong experience with React/React Native and TypeScript

Has familiarity with

Expo Application Services

and

Bitbucket

deployment pipelines

Has experience with AWS (S3, Cloudfront, Amplify)

Is comfortable with

CI/CD

, app deployment, and modern release workflows

Has deep fluency in

HTML, CSS, JavaScript

, and responsive, mobile-first design

Cares about

accessibility

and follows inclusive design principles (WCAG 2.1 AA)

Brings a solid understanding of

UX principles

and user-centred design

Has experience integrating

APIs

and collaborating with back-end systems

Uses

version control

(Git) with ease and confidence in collaborative settings

Writes clean, testable code and is confident in

debugging and optimisation

Is comfortable with design tools like

Figma

Holds a relevant qualification (e.g. Computer Science or related field)

Is

motivated by impact

and wants to help improve mental health at scale

Nice-to-haves

Experience with

Storybook

or maintaining scalable design systems

Understanding of analytics tools like

Amplitude

Experience in

cross-functional product teams

or lean start-up environments

Exposure to

health, education, or not-for-profit

tech products

Our Products

Mobile App

: React Native with Expo, TypeScript

Learning Hub

: NextJS, TypeScript

Other Tools

: Bitbucket, Amplitude, Figma, Notion

Mindset and Capabilities

You’re

curious

, love to learn, and excited about emerging tools and AI-enabled workflows

You’re comfortable with

ambiguity

and can help bring structure to evolving needs

You care about

impact

, ethics, and using data responsibly

You love making delightful products in a collaborative environment

The Values we live by at Smiling Mind

100% People-first

We are dedicated to creating impact with people at the centre of everything we do.

Changemakers

We challenge the status quo and pave new paths towards helping every mind thrive.

Curious

We ask questions, and we strive to keep learning and improving.

Intentional

We know action is required to achieve our goals, and we’re purposeful in every action we take.

We love people who have

A belief in the purpose and philosophy of Smiling Mind - that we can achieve generational change in mental health by focusing on building mental fitness skills in young people and the adults that surround them

A desire to have a positive impact on the world – particularly through behaviour change and learning design

The ability to blend agility and pace, with the rigour required to deliver impactful health services

A growth mindset and willingness to learn

Attention to detail, accountability, and ability to work to timelines and manage competing tasks

A warm, friendly, collaborative, and engaging approach

Alignment with our values

We're a friendly and highly driven small team with a big dream, so expect to be surrounded by people who are passionate about changing the future generations of Australians. 'Smart Hustle' is a state of mind in a not-for-profit, but we are certainly not your standard. Smiling Mind is a high-growth, fast-paced organisation more akin to a tech start-up than what you might perceive a not-for-profit to be.

Our people have tenacity, creativity, and resilience in spades, meaning we punch well above our weight, working together as a tight-knit team to achieve great things.

You will be supported to succeed, but encouraged to use initiative to get the job done, will be challenged to perform at your very best, and in return, get the opportunity to learn from inspiring and skilled team members achieving life-changing results for our community.

Other perks include a hybrid work environment, your birthday off each year, planned development days each quarter, salary sacrificing and a Collingwood-based warehouse office, which is most definitely dog-friendly.

Smiling Mind is a child-safe organisation and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all children at all times. All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory background checks, including, but not limited to, Working with Children Check and Referee Checks.

All employees are required to adhere to Smiling Mind's Code of Conduct, Policies \& Procedures, and relevant Clinical \& Technical Governance frameworks. Additionally, all activities must comply with the National Digital Mental Health Standards to ensure safe, ethical, and high-quality service delivery and operational integrity.

We are committed to creating a workplace that promotes mutual learning, respect, dignity, cultural openness and an appreciation of differing perspectives and backgrounds. We encourage applications from all people regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, or sexual orientation. It is our goal that Smiling Mind continues to evolve as a culturally safe and welcoming organisation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people, families, and communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply for this position.

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