Roles · Frontend Developer (Vue) · Senior

What a Senior } should know

38 core skills, 55 in total. Expectations per skill, and what changes at the next level.

This page lists what a Senior } is expected to know and do, skill by skill. Core skills are the ones a manager and peers assess in a review cycle; the rest count only in self-assessment. Main areas: Programming Fundamentals, Frontend Development, API & Integration.

38core skills
17additional skills
10skill areas
100%at Advanced or Expert
Assess myself as Senior Full role matrix

Core skills for a Senior

Grouped by area. The label on the right is the expected depth: Awareness, Working, Advanced or Expert.

Programming Fundamentals · 6

Designs efficient algorithms for virtualizing large lists and trees in Vue 3. Optimizes critical rendering paths through Vue DevTools profiling, applying lazy computation strategies and incremental diffing.

Designs async operation management systems — request queues, retry strategies, optimistic updates in Pinia stores. Implements streaming SSR in Nuxt 3 with progressive hydration and Suspense boundaries.

Designs Vue code quality assurance system — custom ESLint rules, architectural linters, automated component auditing. Introduces component complexity and module dependency metrics through Vite plugins.

Data Structures Advanced

Develops complex data structures for caching, virtualization and offline storage in Vue applications. Optimizes Pinia store structure to minimize computed property recalculations during frequent updates.

Design Patterns Advanced

Designs architectural patterns for large-scale Vue applications — Plugin Architecture, Micro-frontend integration through Module Federation. Creates abstractions over Pinia for complex domain models with CQRS approach.

Designs type system for large-scale Vue applications — generic components, conditional types for composables, type-safe routing. Creates utility types for Pinia stores and Nuxt modules with full autocompletion.

Frontend Development · 19

Designs bundling strategy for large-scale Vue applications — granular chunks, prefetch hints, module federation. Analyzes and eliminates dependency duplication, optimizes Vite build through custom Rollup plugins.

Designs component testing strategy for Vue application — testing library approach, contract testing for shared components, render performance tests. Creates test utilities and fixtures for efficient Vue ecosystem testing.

Core Web Vitals Advanced

Designs Core Web Vitals monitoring system for Vue applications — RUM through web-vitals library, performance budgets in CI. Optimizes INP through handler debouncing, requestIdleCallback and Vue scheduler.

CSS-in-JS Advanced

Designs Vue design system architecture with CSS-in-JS integration: token-based theming, variant composition, and style isolation patterns. Optimizes bundle size and Core Web Vitals through tree-shaking and critical CSS extraction. Builds accessible, reusable component libraries for the organization.

Data Fetching Advanced

Designs data fetching layer for Vue application — API abstraction, typed endpoints, automatic cache invalidation. Implements real-time updates through SSE/WebSocket composables, integrates with Nuxt server routes.

Designs design system on Vue 3 — headless components with Tailwind styling, tokens, icons, typography. Organizes design system monorepo with Turborepo, automates publishing through changesets.

Micro Frontends Advanced

Designs micro-frontend architecture on Vue: defines composition strategy (build-time vs runtime), configures single-spa with Vue adapter for multi-framework support, designs shared state through custom event bus or shared Pinia plugin. Ensures SSR compatibility for SEO-critical micro-frontends.

Modern CSS Advanced

Designs CSS architecture for large-scale Vue applications — CSS Layers for cascade management, custom properties for theming, View Transitions API. Optimizes critical styles through Vite CSS code splitting.

Nuxt Advanced

Designs frontend architecture with Nuxt. Optimizes bundle size and Core Web Vitals. Creates design systems and reusable components. Mentors the team.

Designs PWA architecture on Vue 3 — service worker update strategies, critical resource precaching, background data sync. Optimizes performance through runtime caching and stale-while-revalidate patterns.

Designs SSR architecture for large-scale Nuxt application — streaming SSR, selective hydration, edge rendering via Nitro. Optimizes TTFB through server-side caching, CDN strategies and progressive rendering.

State Management Advanced

Designs scalable state architecture — Pinia with domain-driven modules, optimistic updates, offline sync. Implements server state management through Nuxt useState, creates caching and invalidation abstractions.

Tailwind CSS Advanced

Designs scalable Tailwind architecture for Vue applications — design tokens, multi-theme support, dark mode via CSS variables. Integrates UnoCSS as an alternative, optimizes critical CSS through Vite plugins.

Designs visual regression testing system for Vue design system — CI integration, baseline management, multi-browser/device checks. Creates custom test matrix covering themes, RTL and responsive states.

Designs Vite configuration for large-scale Vue applications — custom plugins, multi-entry builds, library mode for component libraries. Optimizes build time through parallelism, caching and incremental builds.

Vue Core Advanced

Designs frontend architecture with Vue Core. Optimizes bundle size and Core Web Vitals. Creates design systems and reusable components. Mentors the team.

Designs accessible Vue architecture: creates accessible component library with Nuxt Content for documentation, configures automated a11y testing with Vitest + axe-core, implements dynamic accessibility features (dark mode, reduced motion, text scaling). Conducts screen reader testing in CI.

Web APIs Advanced

Designs Web API abstractions for Vue applications — Web Workers via comlink, SharedArrayBuffer, WebRTC. Creates reusable composables with graceful degradation and feature detection for cross-browser compatibility.

Web Components Advanced

Designs Web Components library architecture based on Vue 3 — SSR compatibility, lazy loading, shared state. Solves Shadow DOM styling issues through CSS Parts and Constructable Stylesheets.

API & Integration · 2

GraphQL Design Advanced

Designs GraphQL architecture for Vue application — schema design, optimistic updates, subscriptions for real-time data. Configures persisted queries, cache policies and pagination patterns for large-scale applications.

REST API Design Advanced

Designs API integration architecture for Vue application — endpoint abstraction, OpenAPI codegen for typing, contract testing. Implements caching, pagination and optimistic updates through Pinia stores with Nuxt server API.

Cloud & Infrastructure · 1

Docker Advanced

Designs Docker infrastructure for Vue applications — image size optimization, health checks, graceful shutdown of Nuxt server. Configures Docker for SSR with Node.js memory management, horizontal scaling.

DevOps & CI/CD · 1

Designs CI/CD architecture for Vue applications — matrix builds, conditional deployments, canary releases. Configures Lighthouse CI for performance regression, bundle size checks and visual regression testing in pipeline.

Testing & QA · 3

Designs comprehensive accessibility testing strategies for Vue application ecosystems covering WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA requirements. Implements advanced testing patterns including Nuxt-specific SSR accessibility validation, Vue composable-based a11y testing utilities, and multi-device assistive technology verification. Builds reusable a11y testing infrastructure for Vue component libraries and integrates continuous accessibility monitoring into Nuxt production deployments.

E2E Testing Advanced

Designs E2E test architecture for Vue application — coverage strategy, test data management, flaky test mitigation. Configures visual comparison, multi-browser testing matrix and CI integration with Playwright.

Unit Testing Advanced

Designs unit testing strategy for Vue application — test architecture, fixture patterns, custom test utilities. Creates shared test helpers for mocking Vue Router, Pinia, i18n and other Vue ecosystem plugins.

Security · 1

Designs security system for Vue applications — security headers via Nitro middleware, auth flow with PKCE, subresource integrity. Conducts component security review, introduces automated vulnerability scanning in CI pipeline.

AI-Assisted Development · 2

ChatGPT / Claude Advanced

Integrates AI assistants into the Vue workflow — prompt templates for architectural decisions, code review with AI, migration generation. Creates custom instructions for Vue context, trains models on the project's codebase.

GitHub Copilot Advanced

Optimizes Copilot for Vue projects — workspace context, custom instructions for Vue/Nuxt conventions, code review with Copilot. Integrates Copilot in CI via automated PR review, creates prompt templates for architectural tasks.

Version Control & Collaboration · 2

Code Review Advanced

Designs code review process for the Vue team — review guidelines, automated checks, architectural decision records. Mentors through review — explains Vue 3 patterns, Nuxt best practices, performance optimizations.

Git Advanced Advanced

Designs Git strategy for Vue monorepo — Turborepo workspace, conventional commits, automated changelogs. Configures CODEOWNERS for Vue components and shared libraries, resolves complex merge conflicts in package-lock.

Performance Engineering · 1

Designs performance budget system for Vue application — per-route budgets, component-level metrics, RUM correlation. Integrates with Vite build analysis, configures automatic blocking on performance regression.

Additional skills

Not assessed by the team, but part of the self-assessment and the development plan.

API DocumentationAWSCursor IDEDatabase IndexingIntegration TestingKubernetes CoreMultithreadingNetwork FundamentalsOOP & SOLID PrinciplesOpenTelemetryPostgreSQLPrometheus & GrafanaPrompt Engineering for CodeRedisSecure Coding PracticesStructured LoggingSystem Design Fundamentals

What changes at Lead

53 skills get a higher expectation or become core when moving from Senior to Lead. The biggest jumps first.

See the Lead page →
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} in the open competency matrix: 55 skills across 5 levels. The matrix is free for individuals and stays free.