Architecture over heroics
Sustainable frontend systems aren't built by a single person working nights. They're built when teams share a clear architecture, a common language, and the confidence to make decisions without being blocked.
Hi, I'm
Mahsa Mohajer
she/her
Frontend Lead · Architecture · Team Leadership
I shape how frontend teams build, through clear architecture, strong technical direction, and the kind of cross-team collaboration that turns complex systems into something people actually want to work in. Currently Frontend Lead at Cengage, leading across 30+ SaaS education platforms.
01 / About
From building interfaces to shaping how teams build them
I started my career as a full-stack developer with a strong pull toward the frontend, the place where engineering and design meet. Over 15+ years, I moved from writing code to making architectural decisions, setting technical direction, and leading the teams responsible for delivering it.
Today I work as a Frontend Lead at Cengage, where I lead the frontend function across 30+ SaaS education platforms. My focus is on architecture, consistency, and creating the conditions where distributed teams can deliver well, without constant coordination overhead.
What makes me effective in this role is that I speak both languages. I understand how designers think about systems, and I understand how engineers build them. That bridge is where I do my best work, aligning teams, making complex things legible, and turning good intentions into scalable practice.
15+
Years of experience
30+
SaaS platforms led
20+
Products shipped
Melbourne
Based in
02 / Experience
Where I've worked
Frontend Lead
CurrentCengage
- Leading frontend architecture and technical direction across 30+ SaaS education platforms used by over 1M students
- Driving a frontend modernisation initiative, migrating legacy systems to a React/TypeScript foundation with shared standards, reusable components, and consistent patterns across teams
- Acting as the primary bridge between engineering, product, and design, translating business goals into architectural decisions and ensuring alignment across distributed teams
- Established frontend coding standards, QA processes, and design system conventions that significantly reduced inconsistency and rework across product lines
Senior Frontend Engineer
Previous Role
- Architected and delivered large-scale React applications with a strong emphasis on performance, accessibility, and long-term maintainability
- Established component libraries and frontend standards that improved team consistency and reduced onboarding time for new engineers
- Mentored junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews, pairing sessions, and hands-on technical guidance
- Led migration from a legacy frontend codebase to a modern React and TypeScript stack
Full-Stack & Frontend Developer
European Cuisine Of Australia Pty Ltd
- Built full-stack and frontend applications across EdTech, fintech, and SaaS, developing a deep understanding of both backend systems and the user-facing layer
- Gradually moved toward frontend specialisation, driven by a natural focus on the intersection of engineering quality and user experience
03 / Skills
What I bring to the table
Frontend Leadership
Technical Direction96%
Cross-team Alignment94%
Engineering Standards95%
Technical Mentoring95%
Delivery & Roadmap92%
Architecture & Systems
Frontend Architecture94%
Design Systems92%
Platform Modernisation95%
Performance & Scalability94%
Component System Design92%
Collaboration & Communication
Design–Engineering Bridge96%
Stakeholder Communication90%
Product Collaboration90%
Documentation & Clarity92%
Distributed Team Leadership91%
Frontend Engineering
React / TypeScript95%
Next.js88%
CSS / Design Tokens92%
Testing (Jest, RTL)94%
CI/CD & GitHub Actions85%
04 / Philosophy
How I think about frontend leadership
Some things I believe strongly about how great frontend teams are built and led.
Design and engineering are one conversation
The best frontend work happens when designers and engineers are aligned early, not handing off deliverables, but shaping systems together. I've spent my career sitting in that intersection, and it's where the highest-quality work comes from.
Clarity is a leadership output
The most valuable thing a frontend lead can produce isn't code, it's clarity. Clear architecture, clear standards, clear decisions. When teams know what good looks like and why, they stop asking permission and start delivering.
Systems over solutions
I'm less interested in solving one-off problems and more interested in building the systems that prevent them. A design system, a shared pattern library, a well-documented architecture, these are investments that compound.
"My job isn't to be the best engineer on the team. It's to make the team's engineering better, through structure, direction, and the kind of collaboration that makes hard problems feel manageable."
05 / Recommendations
What colleagues say
Feedback from people I've worked alongside at Cengage.
"Mahsa truly stood out as a Frontend Lead. She played a key role in shaping the frontend architecture across projects, guiding both internal and third-party developers toward clean, scalable, and maintainable solutions. Mahsa introduced strong coding standards, carried out thoughtful code reviews, and helped the team consistently deliver high-quality work. She has a clear, no-nonsense approach to her work, cutting through complexity and keeping the team focused on what truly matters. We worked closely together on the ExamPlus project, and it was great to see it go on to win recognition at the Educational Publishing Awards Australia, a testament to the quality and effort she brings to her work."
"Mahsa is an exceptional senior front-end engineer who consistently delivers high-quality, scalable solutions in complex environments. She brings a strong command of modern frontend technologies, particularly React, where she recently built a beautiful education eBook platform. She approaches engineering with a clear focus on maintainability, performance, and accessibility. Beyond her technical capability, Mahsa is a fantastic collaborator with a fun and quirky sense of humour. Her calm, pragmatic mindset is especially valuable on high-risk or fast-moving projects, where clarity and ownership really matter."
"Mahsa was a longstanding member of the team at Cengage ANZ during my tenure there. She consistently performed above expectations, was reliable and positively influenced other team members. I strongly recommend Mahsa to anyone seeking her skills."
"I've been working with Mahsa for 6 years, including 3 years as her direct manager. She consistently delivers high-quality solutions and champions front-end best practices across the team. She brings a pragmatic approach to development, carefully weighing cost/benefit decisions when coding and refactoring. She has also been a great asset in setting front end development standards for the team and reviewing code provided by internal and vendor contributors. Mahsa has a distinctive sense of humour and brings plenty of personality to the team. I have really enjoyed collaborating with her on app features, brainstorming ideas in the office and turning them into implemented features within hours. I highly recommend Mahsa as a Lead Front-End Software Engineer."
"Mahsa's openness and positive attitude were some of the many strengths she brought to her roles at Cengage. I have known Mahsa for many years through her interactions with our HR department, and during this time she always approached any conversations with professionalism and warmth."
"Mahsa is a great colleague to work with, not only is her work pixel perfect and matches the designs but she has an infectious personality. It can be hard to find an engineer with such a good sense of humour. When working, Mahsa is focused and completes everything on time. She is always available for questions and discussions and always open."