Full-Stack Designer (Frontend Engineer)
Salary: $100,000 – $110,000 per year
AutoPlay is a New Zealand sales pipeline and lead management platform built for car dealerships, dealer groups and automakers. We capture leads from every source into one place, digitise the paperwork behind a sale, and give sales teams the tools to turn more enquiries into cars sold. We are based in Auckland and work with dealers of every size, from single sites to large groups and manufacturer networks.
Our product is API first. A .NET core publishes the API, and our web and mobile interfaces are pure consumers of it. That clean line between the core and the interface is what lets a small, sharp engineering team move quickly without breaking the things that matter.
About the role
We are looking for a Fullstack Agentic Designer — in practice, a frontend engineer — to own one of our interface tracks end to end, either web or mobile, working alongside the tech lead and the core engineering team. You take a feature from a brief, through design, into built and tested components, and out to release on a fortnightly cycle. You are the engineer and the designer in one person.
Frontend engineering is the core of this role: you specialise in web or mobile, building on React Native so code and patterns travel efficiently between both. A knack for design and UX best practice is what sets you apart — you care how the product looks and feels, not just that it works, and you can design it as fluently as you build it. The interface holds no business logic; it consumes the API. So your craft is the experience, the components, and the quality of what ships.
How we work: agentic first
We are an agentic first team, and we mean it in a practical way. This is where we see engineering heading more broadly: in an AI-first world, our engineers wear multiple hats, because agentic tools make that achievable in a way it never was before. You reach for AI first when you plan a feature, write a brief, build a component, generate tests or chase down a bug. The aim is simple: deliver the output of a larger team with a small one. Mastery of agentic coding is the core skill of this role, not a nice to have.
We are not after someone who hands everything to a model and hopes for the best. We want someone who drives the tools with judgement, reviews what they produce, understands the code, and knows when a human call is the right one. Three to five years of hands on engineering from before the AI era is what gives you that judgement. You will lean on the automated test suite as a safety net, but you remain responsible for what you ship.
The two focuses
This role spans two tracks. The craft is the same; the platform differs.
Web focus
The web interface, built in React and TypeScript. Component library, API integration, performance and accessibility.Mobile focus
The mobile app, built in React Native and Expo for iOS and Android. A focused subset of the product, shipped to the app stores.
React Native is central to how we want to work. It lets one person move efficiently across web and mobile and lets code travel between them, so over time this role can flex across both tracks.
What you will own
These areas are yours. We have kept them broad on purpose, and the shape will change as we grow.
Design and experience
You set the look and feel of your track and you build it. You work from Claude Design and Figma, and you are just as happy designing in the browser. You keep the interface clean, consistent and easy to use, and you hold the bar on accessibility.
Build across the interface
You build complete, tested components against the published API spec, not fragments. You work to the OpenAPI contract the core publishes, and you keep all business logic out of the interface. You own the component library and the design tokens for your track.
Quality and self testing
You test your own work and sign it off before it reaches QA. That means unit tests, end to end tests with Playwright on web or device tests on mobile, and a clear eye for the edge cases. QA is a second line of defence, not your first.
Security and code quality
You treat security as part of the job. You keep secrets out of the code, run the local checks before you open a pull request, fix what the dependency and code scanners flag, and write code that the next person can read. You care that it is right, not just that it works.
What you will bring
Mastery of agentic coding. Daily, expert use of Claude Code and other agentic coding tools to plan, build, test and document. Show us how you work this way, not just that you have tried it.
Three to five years of hands on software engineering from before the AI era, at an intermediate level. This is the grounding that lets you judge and correct what the tools produce.
Fully capable in modern frontend frameworks, with real depth in React Native for delivery across web and mobile. React and TypeScript for web.
A natural eye for UX and a love of design. Comfort with Claude Design and Figma, and the ability to design in the browser and turn it into built components.
Comfortable working against a .NET backend over its API. You do not need to write the backend, but you need to read a spec and integrate cleanly.
A genuine focus on quality and security: self testing, sensible test coverage, and safe handling of secrets, dependencies and user data.
Who you are
Self motivated and happy with autonomy. You do not wait to be told what to do next.
Practical and focused on shipping. You care about what reaches the customer, not activity for its own sake.
Genuinely curious about AI and quick to fold new tools into how you work.
A clear communicator in writing, as sharp with a brief for a teammate as for an AI tool.
Comfortable owning a track on your own while working closely with the tech lead and the core engineers.
At home in a small, fast team where the plan changes when the product needs it to.
How we work day to day
Brief first. You write a tight brief or short spec before you build, so the intent is clear and the AI has the context it needs.
Guardrails. You work within the project rules held in CLAUDE.md: no hardcoded values, accessibility, error handling and our patterns.
Review with judgement. You review AI output at the component level, understand it, and never approve code you cannot explain.
Gates before review. You run the local checks and the test suite before you open a pull request, and you write clear pull requests and commit messages.
In Auckland, in step. You work standard hours alongside the tech lead and the team, with the same brief-first, write-it-down discipline whether the conversation happens in person or in writing.
What success looks like
In your first weeks we expect you to get a real grip on the product, the API contract and our way of working. Over your first 6 to 12 months, success looks like:
A steady flow of well designed, well tested features shipped every fortnight.
An interface that is consistent, accessible and quick, backed by a component library you are proud of.
Clean pull requests that pass the gates first time and need little from QA beyond a final check.
Agentic coding used with real skill, so your output looks like more than one person could manage.
A track record of catching your own issues before they reach QA or production.