Senior Front-End Engineer — Audit & Refactor an AI-Built React/TypeScript App (Short to Long-Term)

We're hiring a senior front-end contractor to take ownership of the front end of CMMC.builders, a production compliance-assessment platform, and then support other applications in our portfolio on an ongoing basis. The app was built quickly using Replit and AI-assisted ("vibe coding") workflows — it works, is in production, but it was not written with long-term maintainability as the top priority. We need someone who can read a large AI-generated codebase, form an independent judgment about what's solid versus fragile, and systematically bring it up to a level you'd defend in a code review at a company that values engineering. This isn’t a "rewrite everything" job. It's an audit-and-refactor process: understand what exists, identify risks, fix them without breaking production, and leave the codebase in a state a regular team could safely build on. This is a long-term role supporting a well-funded, high-stakes MVP, with real potential to turn into a full-time position for the right person. WHAT YOU'LL ACTUALLY BE DOING Phase 1 — Audit (first 1–2 weeks) Review the front-end architecture (component structure, state management, data-fetching patterns, routing, type safety) and prepare a written report on your findings, prioritized by risk and effort. Identify AI-coding issues specifically: duplicated logic, inconsistent patterns across similar features, overly broad "any" typing, prop-drilling where shared state should be, dead code, and components that mix data-fetching, business logic, and presentation. Flag any security or correctness concerns on the front end (unsanitized rendering, client-side trust of server-controlled data, broken access-control assumptions). Phase 2 — Refactor (ongoing) Carry out the refactor plan in reviewable, incremental PRs — no large-scale rewrites. Establish or tighten conventions: component boundaries, shared hooks, data-fetching layer, form/validation patterns, error and loading states. Improve type safety and eliminate unsound patterns introduced by AI-assisted coding. Add or enhance test coverage on the areas you modify. Document decisions throughout to keep the codebase understandable for the next person (human or AI). Beyond CMMC.builders Once the initial audit and top-priority refactoring are stable, you will work on front-end tasks across other applications in our portfolio — developing new features, conducting additional audits, and providing senior front-end support. OUR STACK React 19 + TypeScript, built with Vite TanStack Query for data-fetching and caching, wouter for routing Zod for schema validation Express (Node) backend, PostgreSQL via pg (no ORM — handwritten parameterized SQL) Vitest + Playwright for testing Hosted on Replit, deployed via Replit Autoscale YOU SHOULD APPLY IF You have 5+ years of production React/TypeScript experience and can cite real shipped projects, not just tutorials. You've performed codebase audits or major refactors before — not just greenfield projects. You can share a time when you inherited a messy codebase and what you actually changed. You are comfortable reading unfamiliar code quickly, forming your own judgment, and respectfully pushing back if something seems wrong — including AI-generated code that looks superficially okay. You write clearly. The audit report and PR descriptions are as important as the code. You can work independently with minimal oversight and communicate proactively, not just when prompted. NICE TO HAVE Direct experience refactoring or "productionizing" AI-generated or AI-assisted code. Familiarity with compliance, security, or regulated-industry software (this product deals with CMMC/cybersecurity compliance data). Experience using Replit as a development environment. HOW TO APPLY Your proposal must include: A one- or two-sentence example of a real audit or refactor you led on an existing codebase — what was wrong and what you did. A link to a GitHub repo or code sample showing your TypeScript/React coding style (not just a live demo link). The words "compliance refactor" are somewhere in your opening line, so we know you’ve read this posting. Proposals that are templated, copy-pasted, or don't answer the above won’t be considered, regardless of rate.