Tech hiring Software engineering
Hire React developers who can own the interface.
A React developer builds the part of your product people actually touch: the screens, the forms, the state behind them and the calls to your API. We shortlist developers who have been assessed on component design, TypeScript and the judgement calls that keep a growing front end fast and maintainable.
01 The role
What a React developer does, and what they ship.
A React developer turns designs and API contracts into a working interface. They decide how the screen is split into components, where each piece of state lives, how data is fetched and cached, and what the user sees while it loads or when it fails.
Most of the difficulty is not React itself. It is keeping a large interface predictable as it grows: avoiding needless re-renders, keeping forms and server data in sync, making every control usable from a keyboard and a screen reader, and shipping a bundle that loads quickly on an ordinary phone connection.
In current practice that usually means TypeScript, a framework such as Next.js or a Vite single-page setup, a server-state library such as TanStack Query, and component tests. Since React 19 it also means knowing when a Server Component or a server action is the right tool and when a plain client component is simpler.
What they ship
- Customer-facing web apps: dashboards, portals, checkout and onboarding flows
- Component libraries and design systems shared across products
- Server-rendered marketing and content sites on Next.js
- Complex forms with validation, autosave and multi-step state
- Data-heavy views: tables, filters, charts and real-time updates
- Migrations from older front ends (jQuery, AngularJS, class components) to modern React
- Component and end-to-end tests that run on every pull request
02 Skills and stack
What React developers work with, and what is optional.
React is a library, not a full framework, so the surrounding choices matter as much as React itself. Tell us which of these your codebase already uses.
Core
The role cannot be done without these.
- React: components, hooks, context, rendering model
- TypeScript
- Modern JavaScript and the browser platform
- HTML semantics and accessibility (WCAG)
- CSS: layout, responsive design, a styling system
- State and server-data management
- Component testing
Tooling
Varies from team to team.
- Next.js (App Router, Server Components)
- Vite
- TanStack Query or SWR
- Redux Toolkit or Zustand
- React Hook Form and Zod
- Tailwind CSS or CSS Modules
- Jest or Vitest, React Testing Library
- Playwright or Cypress
- Storybook
Adjacent
Useful, not required.
- REST and GraphQL API consumption
- Core Web Vitals and performance profiling
- React Native
- Node.js for backend-for-frontend work
- Figma handoff and design tokens
- CI/CD and preview deployments
03 When to hire one
When the interface is the product, and when it is not.
A React specialist earns their place when the hard decisions are on the screen. If they are in the API, the data or the design, someone else should come first.
Hire a React developer when
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The interface is the product
Customers judge you on a dashboard, a booking flow or an editor. The API is fairly simple; the screen is where the hard decisions are.
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Your React codebase has become slow to change
Every feature touches global state, components run to hundreds of lines and nobody dares refactor. This needs someone who has untangled a front end before.
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Backend developers are writing the front end reluctantly
It works, but accessibility, loading states and mobile layouts are afterthoughts. A dedicated React developer raises the standard and frees the backend team.
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You are moving to Next.js or to a design system
A migration to server rendering or a shared component library goes better with someone who has done one and knows where the edge cases are.
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Designs are ready and nobody is building them
A designer is producing screens faster than engineering can implement them, and the gap is growing each sprint.
Look elsewhere when
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You need one person to build the API and the database as well
Most React developers can read backend code; fewer should own it. Ask for full-stack explicitly so it is assessed.
Hire full-stack developers -
The real problem is a slow or unreliable API
No amount of front-end work hides a five-second endpoint. Fix the service first.
Hire Node.js developers -
You want an iOS and Android app
React Native shares ideas with React, but mobile has its own build, release and platform work. Hire for mobile.
Hire mobile developers -
The screens have not been designed
A React developer can build a tidy interface, but deciding the flows and the visual system is design work.
Hire designers -
It is a content site with a contact form
A site that is mostly pages rarely needs a React hire. A short freelance project is usually enough.
Post a freelance project
04 How we assess
Four checks, before a name reaches you.
A CV says what someone claims. We test what they can do, then send you the evidence with the shortlist.
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Stage 1
Profile review
We look for React work we can open: a live product, a repository or a component library. We read how components are split, whether TypeScript is used with care or switched off with “any”, and whether tests exist.
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Stage 2
Technical test
A timed test covering JavaScript and TypeScript fundamentals, React’s rendering model and hooks, and a coding exercise in which the candidate builds a small component with state, data loading and error handling.
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Stage 3
Conversation with our team
Our engineers ask the candidate to talk through an interface they built: where state lived and why, how they handled loading and failure, what they did about performance and accessibility. We also ask how they work with designers and with API changes.
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Stage 4
Review and levelling
Reviewers score accuracy, speed, problem-solving, communication and teamwork, then assign a level from our engineering framework. For React roles the notes say how much front-end architecture the person has owned, not only which libraries they list.
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Then
Your shortlist
Assessed candidates, with notes and scores.
The engine
Evalia
Assessments run on Evalia, the assessment platform we built ourselves. Across the ProDevs network, more than 100,000 assessments have been completed.
The levels we assign are public. Read the engineering framework, or see how a hire runs from brief to offer.
05 Seniority
Three levels. What each one can own.
The title on a CV tells you little. What matters is how much a React developer can be handed without someone checking each step.
Junior
Owns a component or a screen
- Builds components from a design inside an existing structure
- Uses hooks correctly and follows the team’s patterns for state and data
- Writes basic component tests and fixes issues raised in review
- Needs guidance on architecture, performance and unfamiliar browser behaviour
Mid-level
Owns a feature area
- Takes a flow from design to production, including loading, empty and error states
- Decides where state belongs and when a library is, or is not, needed
- Finds and fixes render and bundle-size problems with the profiler
- Agrees API shapes with backend developers before either side builds
Senior
Owns the front-end architecture
- Chooses the framework, rendering strategy and data layer, and can defend the choice
- Sets up the component library, testing approach and conventions others follow
- Leads migrations without stopping feature work
- Holds the line on accessibility and performance budgets across the team
Indicative salary
Frontend developers (React, Vue). Annual, in US dollars, for remote roles with US, UK and EU companies.
- Mid-level
- $25–45k
- Senior
- $45–75k
- Typical US equivalent
- $110–180k
Indicative market ranges as of August 2026, based on ProDevs placement experience and published market data. The exact figure depends on stack, seniority and time-zone requirements. See the full cost breakdown.
06 Interview questions
Seven questions, that show who has shipped React.
None of these has one right answer. The way someone answers tells you how they work.
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What causes a React component to re-render, and how would you find an unnecessary one?
A good answer shows: A correct account of state, props, context and parent renders, then a method: the React DevTools profiler first, memoisation only where it measurably helps. Candidates who wrap everything in useMemo by default have not measured.
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Where does each kind of state belong: local, lifted, context, a store, the URL, or the server cache?
A good answer shows: A clear distinction between client state and server state, and a habit of choosing the smallest scope that works. Putting fetched data into a global store by hand is a common sign of dated practice.
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When would you use a Server Component, and when a client component?
A good answer shows: Understanding of what runs where: data fetching and static content on the server, interactivity on the client, and the cost of sending JavaScript to the browser. An honest “I have not used them in production, but here is how I understand them” is acceptable.
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Tell me about a useEffect you later removed. Why?
A good answer shows: Recognition that many effects are unnecessary: derived values can be calculated during render and events handled in event handlers. This question separates people who learned hooks properly from those who translated lifecycle methods.
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How do you make a custom dropdown or modal accessible?
A good answer shows: Focus management, keyboard support, the right roles and labels, and testing with a screen reader. The best answers add that they would reach for a well-tested primitive rather than write one from scratch.
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A page scores badly on Core Web Vitals. Where do you look first?
A good answer shows: A sequence: measure with real-user data, check the largest element and what blocks it, look at bundle size and third-party scripts, then layout shifts and slow interactions. Guessing at fixes before measuring is the wrong order.
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What do you test in a React application, and at which level?
A good answer shows: Tests written from the user’s point of view with Testing Library, a few end-to-end tests for the journeys that earn money, and little or no testing of implementation detail. They can say what they deliberately leave untested.
07 Ways to engage
Permanent, team, payroll or project. Four routes to a React developer.
A permanent hire is the usual route, not the only one. Choose by how long the work lasts and who should employ the person.
- Placement fee, of first-year salary. One-time.
- 10–15%
- Replacement guarantee on direct hires.
- 2 weeks
- To a first shortlist, for most roles.
- 48h
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Direct hire
A permanent employee on your contract and your payroll. One-time placement fee of 10–15% of first-year salary.
Tech hiring -
Dedicated team
A React developer inside a team we assemble and run for you: product, design and engineering on your roadmap, for a monthly retainer.
Dedicated teams -
Outsourcing & payroll
A full-time person in a country where you have no legal entity. ProDevs employs and pays them: 20% of salary if we find the person for you, or 5% of salary, capped at $500 a month, for payroll and compliance on someone you have already chosen.
Outsourcing -
Freelance project
A defined piece of work with a clear end. You pay the agreed price per milestone through escrow, plus a 5% client fee. Free to post.
Freelancers
08 Around the role
A React developer is one seat. These are the others.
A React developer sits where design, product and backend meet, so they spend more time negotiating than most engineers: with designers over what is feasible, and with backend developers over what the API should return.
- Product designer
- Turns Figma files into components, and feeds back on states the design did not cover.
- Backend developer
- Agrees endpoints, payload shapes, pagination and error formats before building.
- Product manager
- Breaks a flow into releasable slices and says what each one costs.
- QA tester
- Shares end-to-end test ownership and makes the interface easy to automate against.
- DevOps engineer
- Relies on preview deployments, build caching and front-end error monitoring.
09 Client testimonials
Hear it first-hand, from companies that hired.
Founders, operators and executives describe working with ProDevs, in their own words.
Play video: Client testimonial: Olufemi Seyi, COO, Casafina development company
Play video: Client testimonial: Aproko Doctor, Building AwaDoc
Play video: Client testimonial: JT Liddell, Promenade CEO
10 Questions
Hiring React developers, answered.
Something else? Book a call (opens in a new tab) and ask us directly.
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What should a React developer know in 2026?
React with hooks, TypeScript, a framework such as Next.js or a Vite setup, a server-state library such as TanStack Query, accessible HTML and CSS, and component testing. Familiarity with Server Components is increasingly expected for Next.js work.
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Do your React developers work with Next.js and TypeScript?
Tell us what your codebase uses and we shortlist against it. TypeScript and Next.js are the most common pairing in current React work, so say in the brief whether either is essential or merely preferred.
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How long does it take to hire a React developer?
For most roles you see a first shortlist within 48 hours of agreeing the brief, and most companies find their hire within two to three weeks. Your own interview process and the candidate’s notice period decide the rest.
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How do you assess React skills specifically?
In four stages. We review real React work the candidate has shipped, set a timed test that includes building a component with state and data loading, hold a technical conversation with our engineering team, and then review the results together to assign an engineering level.
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What does a React developer in Africa cost?
For remote frontend roles with US, UK and EU companies, indicative annual salary ranges are $25,000–$45,000 at mid-level and $45,000–$75,000 at senior level. A direct hire through ProDevs also carries a one-time placement fee of 10–15% of first-year salary.
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Can a React developer also build our mobile app?
Sometimes. React Native reuses React’s component model, and many React developers have used it. Mobile still brings its own work: native modules, app-store releases and device testing. If the app is the main product, hire a mobile developer.
Talk to ProDevs
Tell us about the role.
Tell us the level and the stack. We will tell you how quickly we can put assessed React developers in front of you.
Project work
Need it for a project instead?
Not every job needs a full-time hire. Describe the work, get proposals from vetted freelance React developers, and pay per milestone through escrow. Free to post.