Frontend Engineer (React/TypeScript) — Real-Time Chat UI for Slack-Style Platform (WebSocket)

We are building TeamChat, a workspace-based team collaboration platform (similar to Slack). This role owns the entire web client: a fast, polished, real-time chat UI. We have detailed UI requirements and an API/event contract from the backend team ready to share with shortlisted candidates. One of 5 parallel roles; strong performance leads to ongoing, long-term collaboration. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE OF WORK 1. App Shell & Navigation: Workspace switcher, channel sidebar with sections/unread badges, quick switcher (Cmd+K), responsive layout down to tablet. 2. Message List: Virtualized infinite scroll (tens of thousands of messages), day separators, new-message divider, edit/delete states, reactions, threads in side panel, optimistic sending with retry/failed states. 3. Composer: Rich text (bold/italic/code blocks), @mention and emoji autocomplete, file attach with upload progress, draft persistence per channel. 4. Real-Time Integration: WebSocket event handling (new message, edits, presence, typing, read receipts) with reconnection and state reconciliation; client state via Zustand/Redux + TanStack Query. 5. Notifications UI: Unread/mention badges, notification preference screens, in-app toasts. 6. Quality: Component library with Storybook, unit tests (Vitest/RTL), Lighthouse performance budget, dark mode. REQUIRED TECH STACK - React 18+, TypeScript (strict), Vite - State: Zustand or Redux Toolkit + TanStack Query - Styling: Tailwind CSS - Real-time: native WebSocket handling - Testing: Vitest, React Testing Library, Storybook PROJECT DETAILS - Engagement: Hourly, $13–$30/hr depending on experience. 30+ hrs/week, initial 3 months, ongoing long-term for the right person. - Process: Daily async standup (English, text), code review via GitHub PRs, 2-week sprints. At least 3–4 hours of overlap with JST (UTC+9). - IP & Code: All code delivered in our GitHub org from day one; full source ownership by us. - Language: English required. Urdu-speaking developers welcome. QUESTIONS TO ANSWER IN YOUR PROPOSAL 1. Share a complex real-time or data-heavy UI you built (links/screenshots/GitHub). What was the hardest rendering-performance problem and how did you solve it? 2. How would you implement optimistic message sending with failure recovery? 3. Have you built a virtualized message/feed list before? With which library, and why? 4. Timezone, weekly availability, proposed rate. 5. Start your proposal with the word TEAMCHAT.