Software Engineer (Frontend)

The last frontier

The Arctic is a place of extremes: unforgiving, untamed, and undergoing rapid change. A literal defrosting reveals a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity spanning energy, defence, logistics, research, and infrastructure.

ARD was founded on a paradox. The Arctic is both the next great economic frontier and one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Rich in resources and strategically vital, yet bone-chillingly cold, dark for months, and fundamentally inhospitable to humans. This paradox—an explosion of activity in a place that resists human presence—is why we exist.

Our solution is autonomy.

We build systems that operate reliably and intelligently in the Arctic, so that humans don't always have to.

Founded by record-holding pioneers with decades of polar experience, we take calculated risks on hard problems that matter. If you want to build and deploy ground-up technology with real-world impact, at an inflection point in history that won’t reappear, we’d like to talk.

The role

As a Frontend Software Engineer at Arctic Research and Development, you’ll architect and develop the user interfaces of our Arctic OS – ensuring that user experiences with our high-fidelity imagery and data intensive workflows are both powerful and intuitive. From mission dashboards to field-asset comms, your designs and interfaces will allow a seamless control between human operators and Arctic-deployed hardware.

Working alongside our backend, GIS, and hardware engineers, you’ll regularly take direction from our CTO and internal deployment strategists, to move fast and ship often. This is more than building UIs — it’s a full-spectrum command and control interface that needs to be robust, seamless, and field-ready.

This role is full-time in-person at our HQ in the Cotswolds, just outside of Cirencester.

Core responsibilities

• Architect and iterate our real-time and map-based OS interfaces —building immersive dashboards and mission tools that interact with high-fidelity/temporal imagery, large datasets, and hardware sensor data.
• ⁠Balance responsiveness with data richness across disparate data streams while maintaining a low-friction, intuitive user experience.
• ⁠Consistently apply our ARD design language across multiple platforms and services such that the users can switch between these seamlessly and intuitively.
• ⁠Work with fast feedback loops: live demos, pilots, and short-cycle deployments.
• Travel to the Arctic when needed for field testing and client meetings.

What we value

• ⁠3+ years of front-end software experience, ideally in data-rich or remote-sensing environments.
• Demonstrated experience building responsive, cross platform interfaces and data visualisations.
• Fluency in JS/TS, frameworks such as React, and modern CSS frameworks.
• ⁠Experience with Swift, Kotlin or React Native.
• Ability to operate with a large degree of autonomy within a lean and competent team.
• Readiness to operate in cold environments to understand how your designs and code are deployed in the real-world.

Bonus points

• Experience with geospatial or GIS tooling (OpenLayers, Mapbox, Leaflet)
• Familiarity with tactical or operational mapping platforms (ATAK/CivTAK/WinTAK) — concepts like mission overlays, live asset tracking, and offline-first workflows
• Background in defence, maritime, or research computing environments
• Understanding of satellite or sensor data pipelines
• Design sensibility — not just implementing but shaping how things look and feel

What we offer

• Competitive compensation
• Equity — meaningful options as an early employee at an early-stage company
• Real field exposure — travel to Arctic sites and Outposts when needed (genuinely, not as a gimmick)
• Mission-driven culture — focus on impact, not hours logged.
• Small team, real ownership — what you build matters and ships

A note on who we want to hear from
We're building for one of the most demanding environments on Earth and we believe diverse teams build more resilient systems. We actively welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in engineering - whether that's by gender, ethnicity, disability, or background. If you're not sure you meet every requirement, apply anyway and tell us what excites you about the problem.