Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Builder
💰 $ - $
🎯 Role Definition
The Web Builder is a hands-on web development specialist responsible for designing, building, and maintaining production websites and web pages that prioritize performance, accessibility, and SEO. This role blends front-end engineering, content management system (CMS) configuration, UX/UI implementation, and collaboration with marketing and product teams to deliver polished, conversion-focused web experiences. The ideal candidate has a strong portfolio of responsive sites, practical experience with modern front-end tools and CMS platforms, and the ability to translate design and business requirements into reliable, fast, and maintainable web implementations.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Junior Web Developer or Front-End Developer with 0–2 years of experience
- Web Designer transitioning into implementation and front-end development
- Marketing Specialist with hands-on CMS and landing page building experience
Advancement To:
- Senior Web Developer or Front-End Engineer
- Lead Web Developer / Web Architect
- Technical Product Manager or Digital Experience Manager
Lateral Moves:
- UX/UI Designer (implementation-focused)
- Digital Marketing Technologist (focus on conversion, analytics, and SEO)
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Translate wireframes, UI designs, and marketing requirements into fully functional, responsive HTML/CSS/JavaScript web pages that work robustly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
- Build and configure landing pages, templates, and component libraries within CMS platforms (WordPress, Webflow, Drupal, Contentful) to support marketing campaigns and content publishing workflows.
- Optimize front-end performance by minimizing render-blocking resources, optimizing images, implementing lazy loading, and applying best practices for fast page loads and Core Web Vitals.
- Ensure websites meet accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA or higher) by implementing semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, ARIA attributes, and testing with assistive technologies.
- Integrate third-party services and RESTful or GraphQL APIs (analytics, marketing automation, CRMs, payment gateways) to connect web experiences with backend systems and track user interactions.
- Implement SEO best practices in templates and pages, including semantic markup, structured data (schema.org), canonical tags, meta tags, and sitemap generation to improve discoverability and organic traffic.
- Maintain and extend design systems and reusable front-end component libraries (React, Vue, or vanilla JS components) to ensure visual consistency and accelerate site development.
- Collaborate with designers, product managers, content strategists, and marketers to iterate quickly on prototypes, A/B tests, and conversion optimization experiments.
- Manage content migrations and template updates across staging and production environments using safe deployment practices to avoid downtime and content loss.
- Write maintainable, well-documented code and technical documentation for templates, build tools, deploy scripts, and content editor guidelines.
- Implement cross-browser and cross-device testing workflows, troubleshoot rendering issues, and apply polyfills or graceful degradation when required.
- Configure and manage version control (Git) workflows, branching strategies, and pull request reviews to ensure code quality and team collaboration.
- Automate front-end build and deployment pipelines (Webpack, Vite, Gulp, Netlify, CI/CD) to streamline releases and rollback capabilities.
- Conduct performance audits using Lighthouse, WebPageTest, or similar tools and implement prioritized remediation to improve page speed and user experience.
- Monitor and analyze web analytics and user behavior (Google Analytics, GA4, Hotjar) to identify content gaps, conversion bottlenecks, and opportunities for UX improvement.
- Implement secure coding practices and collaborate with security teams to apply CSP, XSS protections, secure headers, and safe handling of user input.
- Localize and internationalize web pages when required, implementing language switchers, RTL support, and region-specific content strategies.
- Provide ongoing site maintenance, patching, and plugin/module management for CMS-driven sites to keep the platform stable and secure.
- Coach content authors and non-technical stakeholders on content workflows, component usage, and best practices to reduce friction and improve publishing speed.
- Troubleshoot live site incidents, perform root cause analysis, and coordinate rapid fixes while communicating status and impact to stakeholders.
- Prototype new interactions and micro-animations that enhance usability without sacrificing performance or accessibility.
- Manage image and media assets (format selection, responsive srcset, compression) and integrate CDNs to reduce latency and bandwidth usage.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
- Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
- Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
- Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
- Assist marketing and content teams in troubleshooting publishing issues, redirect rules, and canonicalization problems.
- Provide architecture recommendations for multi-site deployments and staging/production promotion strategies.
- Help establish quality assurance checkpoints, author training materials, and style guides for consistent web publishing.
- Participate in cross-functional reviews for major releases, ensuring alignment between design, SEO, and development goals.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Advanced proficiency in HTML5 and CSS3 with modern layout techniques (Flexbox, CSS Grid) and responsive design patterns.
- Strong JavaScript (ES6+) skills and experience building client-side interactions; experience with TypeScript is a plus.
- Practical experience with at least one modern front-end framework or library (React, Vue.js, or Angular) and component-driven development.
- CMS expertise: hands-on experience building templates, themes, and custom fields in WordPress, Webflow, Drupal, or headless CMS platforms (Contentful, Strapi).
- SEO implementation knowledge: meta tags, structured data/schema.org, canonicalization, hreflang, sitemap generation, and on-page optimization.
- Web performance optimization: lazy loading, code splitting, image optimization, resource caching, and familiarity with Core Web Vitals.
- Accessibility (a11y) best practices and testing experience to meet WCAG guidelines for public and enterprise sites.
- Experience integrating APIs (REST/GraphQL) and working with webhooks, authentication flows, and third-party services.
- Version control and collaboration: Git workflows, pull requests, code reviews, and source control best practices.
- Front-end build tooling and deployment: Webpack, Vite, Gulp, NPM scripts, and experience with CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions, Netlify, or Jenkins.
- Cross-browser debugging and compatibility testing across modern and legacy browsers.
- Familiarity with analytics and A/B testing tools (Google Analytics/GA4, Google Tag Manager, Optimizely, VWO) to support data-driven improvement.
- Basic backend scripting or server-side templating knowledge (Node.js, PHP, or server-side rendering patterns) for full-stack integration.
- Media handling and CDN configuration: responsive images, video embedding, and edge caching strategies.
- Automated testing and quality checks: unit testing for components, end-to-end testing (Cypress, Playwright), and linting tools.
Soft Skills
- Strong communication skills to explain technical constraints and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
- Problem-solving mindset with a focus on pragmatic, maintainable solutions and continuous improvement.
- Attention to detail and a craftsmanship approach to front-end implementation and visual fidelity.
- Time management and prioritization skills to balance multiple projects, deadlines, and ad-hoc requests.
- Collaborative attitude: willing to pair with designers, content strategists, and marketers to ship high-quality experiences.
- User-centered thinking and empathy for accessibility and inclusive design.
- Adaptability to evolving frameworks, CMS platforms, and web standards.
- Initiative to propose performance, SEO, and UX improvements and to own their execution from concept to production.
- Coaching and mentoring capability to upskill content authors and junior developers on best practices.
- Data-informed decision-making: comfortable reading analytics and experiment results to guide development priorities.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- High school diploma or equivalent with demonstrable portfolio of web projects, or an associate degree in a related technical program.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Web Development, Interaction Design, Information Technology, or a related field.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Computer Science
- Web Development / Front-End Engineering
- Graphic Design or Visual Communication
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Information Technology / Software Engineering
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 1–5 years building production websites, landing pages, and CMS templates, with a portfolio demonstrating responsive implementations and measurable outcomes.
Preferred:
- 3+ years of professional web development experience, proven track record with CMS platforms (WordPress/Webflow/Headless), experience optimizing Core Web Vitals, and a portfolio showing accessibility and SEO improvements across multiple projects.