Thermohaline fronts are ubiquitous in the ocean, and they play a key role in the development of submesoscale features. The Nordic Seas are a region of rich submesoscale frontal structure and are important in deep water formation, facilitating the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation. Frontogenesis, where deformation of the temperature and salinity field driven by large scale currents or wind forcing lead to a sharpening of thermal and density gradients, can produce unstable flows and secondary circulation that drive significant vertical motion. This vertical motion can create large vertical fluxes of heat and momentum in the upper water column affecting its density structure as well as biogeochemical properties. However, direct observations of frontogenesis events in polar regions, and their impact on water mass transformation, are relatively limited. The Fall 2023 field season of the Office of Naval Research’s Northern Ocean Rapid Surface Evolution (NORSE) experiment revealed a subsurface temperature maximum that was widespread near the volcanic island of Jan Mayen, a feature that is either unresolved or poorly resolved in global and regional models of the Nordic Seas. In this study, we investigate the subsurface temperature maximum in the context of frontogenesis and frontal subduction through the use of direct SeaExplorer glider observations and 1-km Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), with a higher resolution nested grid in the area of frontogenesis. We apply the frontal tendency equation to show that the subsurface temperature maximum results from subduction of Atlantic-origin waters along the Arctic Front. Co-located dissipation and velocity measurements reveal the connection between submesoscale processes and energy dissipation. The frontogenesis and frontal subduction processes identified in this study could have significant implications for the upper ocean heat budget and water mass formation in the ice-free Arctic, as well as for building more accurate regional models of the Nordic Seas.