Frontend Architecture Isn't a Senior Developer's Job
Why your best React developer might not be the right person to design your frontend systems
I need to say something uncomfortable: your best senior React developer is probably not the right person to design your frontend architecture. Writing great React components and designing scalable frontend systems are fundamentally different skills.
The Skills Gap
A senior developer excels at writing clean components, solving complex UI problems, debugging rendering issues, and implementing features efficiently.
An architect thinks about how 10 developers can work simultaneously without conflicts, which abstractions hold up when requirements change, how to standardize patterns so new features are predictable, build pipelines that support the team's workflow, and migration strategies that improve the system without stopping delivery.
The Thinking Is Different
Your team needs a new dashboard with charts, filters, and real-time data.
A senior developer thinks: "I'll use a charting library, manage filter state with useState, and set up a WebSocket connection. Done in a week."
An architect thinks: "This is the third feature needing real-time data. We should establish a real-time data layer any feature can plug into. The filter pattern should be standardized for the analytics section next quarter. The charting library needs to support five chart types, not just today's two."
Both perspectives are valuable. But if you only have the first, you end up building the same infrastructure three times.
What Happens When a Senior Dev Does Architecture
They optimize locally, not globally. Their feature is beautifully architected. The system is still chaotic.
They choose technologies they know. Not what the project requires.
They undervalue documentation. When they leave, their knowledge walks out the door.
They struggle with system-level trade-offs. Choosing "good enough" for one component to allocate complexity budget elsewhere requires different judgment.
When Do You Need an Architect?
You don't need one when: 1-2 frontend developers, small product, truly disposable code.
You do need one when: 3+ frontend developers stepping on each other's toes, features taking weeks instead of days, about to hire significantly, facing a migration.
The right architect doesn't write all the code. They write the patterns that make everyone else's code better. The output isn't a beautiful component — it's a team that builds beautiful components consistently.
If your senior developers are excellent at building features but your codebase somehow keeps getting harder to work in, the gap isn't talent. It's the missing architectural layer.