Guthrie AI — Senior Frontend Engineer

Type: Full-time | Hybrid | New York City, NY · Washington, D.C. · Philadelphia, PA Compensation: $150,000–$190,000 + meaningful equity (early hire) Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: Yes — H-1B transfer / F-1 OPT Reports to: Not specified on the role page (technical round is with the CTO and the product designer)

About Guthrie AI

Guthrie AI builds vertical AI for commercial glazing contractors — the teams that construct the glass facades of the world's most iconic buildings. Winning these high-stakes bids leaves estimators drowning in RFPs, addenda, and vendor quotes, so Guthrie pairs every client with a Virtual Bid Assistant: a skilled human estimator powered by its proprietary platform who pulls scope from RFPs, manages RFIs, and generates proposals at a speed no solo estimator could match. The company is around $2M ARR with a plan to 10x in the next 12 months — seed-stage, AI-native, VC-backed, and moving fast.

Founded: 2023 | Team size: 11–50 | Total funding: Not disclosed (backed by top VCs) Industry: Property Tech / Vertical AI for the trades ("agentic AI for the trades") Website: https://guthrieai.com Office: Philadelphia HQ (hybrid)

Why Candidates Should Join

• Spearhead the React migration: Own the external product's move from server-rendered HTMX/Flask to React, and own the frontend build end to end.
• Build human-AI co-working interfaces: The external redesign is a shift in kind — toward a Notion/Cowork-style human-plus-AI workspace where users finish the task, not just view data. Genuinely novel interaction design.
• Early-hire equity + real traction: Meaningful equity on the generous side; ~$2M ARR with a 10x plan; backed by top VCs.
• Hybrid with a real HQ: Philadelphia HQ for in-person collaboration; NYC or DC also work.
• Visa sponsorship: H-1B transfer / F-1 OPT supported.

Intake Call Summary

• Intake was provided as a video only on the role page and is not transcribed — no text summary is available. Watch the intake video before scoring/outreach if a summary is needed.

The Role

Own the interface where clients work with their Virtual Bid Assistants, from onboarding through daily workflow. Today the product is server-rendered HTMX + Flask (fast, lean, tightly coupled to product logic rather than a heavy SPA). The team is splitting internal and external portals — the current app becomes the internal tool (likely staying on HTMX), while the external experience is being rebuilt in React. This role spearheads that external migration and the shift toward a human-plus-AI co-working workspace. This is an engineering role, not a design role: there is already a designer, and this person owns the frontend build.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own the end-to-end experience Virtual Bid Assistants use, from onboarding through daily workflow
• Design interaction patterns that surface what the AI is doing and keep skilled estimators in control
• Build responsive, performant interfaces on HTMX, Flask templates, and modern CSS/JS, and spearhead the external move to React
• Partner closely with the designer and backend engineers to turn complex estimating workflows into something that feels simple
• Own performance, accessibility, and polish — details close deals

Tech stack: HTMX, Flask (Python), modern CSS/JS; external product migrating to React

Requirements

• 5+ years product-facing frontend
• Strong HTML / CSS / JS fundamentals
• React (can lead HTMX to React migration)
• AI-native builder
• Hybrid: Philadelphia, New York, or DC
• Portfolio

Green Flags

• Coded pre-AI, so fundamentals are deep enough to pick up HTMX quickly, and now genuinely AI-native in how they build
• Early-stage team experience: collaborative, comfortable owning a piece end to end
• Understands the backend (Python) well enough to be effective, and translates design intent into polished frontend
• Simplifies complex workflows for users in a B2B setting, and can manage stakeholders (designer, backend, founder)
• Strong portfolio or side project, and real interest and opinions on human-AI co-working interfaces

Red Flags

• Purely B2C background with no complex-workflow or B2B experience
• Five years but purely IC at a large company, no 0-to-1 ownership, no compelling side project or portfolio
• Not genuinely AI-native in their building
• A product designer looking for a design role rather than an engineer who owns the build
• Cannot be based in or commute from Philadelphia, New York, or DC (remote-only is not a fit)

Role Details

• Salary — $150,000–$190,000
• Equity — Competitive / meaningful (early-hire, generous side)
• On-site policy — Hybrid; Philadelphia HQ for in-person collaboration (NYC or DC also acceptable); occasional travel to the Philly HQ
• Visa sponsorship — H-1B transfer / F-1 OPT
• Employment type — Full-time
• Location — New York City, NY · Washington, D.C. · Philadelphia, PA

Screening Questions

• No on-call screening questions are defined on the role page.
• Submission-form note: Contrario's Required Candidate Q&A adds one field — Portfolio Link — which must be captured and included in the Contrario submission.

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — Founder Round — Culture and vibe; non-technical. Stage 3 — Technical Round — With the CTO and the product designer. Stage 4 — Final RoundStage 5 — Offer ExtendedStage 6 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.