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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web CMS Developer Specialist

💰 $70,000 - $120,000

Web DevelopmentCMSDigital ExperienceFrontendBackendDevOps

🎯 Role Definition

The Web CMS Developer Specialist is a hands-on technical contributor who designs, implements, and maintains modern Content Management System (CMS) solutions and digital experiences. This role blends backend CMS development, frontend templating, content modeling, system integration (APIs, headless approaches), performance and security optimization, and collaboration with content strategists, UX designers, and DevOps to deliver scalable, accessible, and search-optimized websites and applications.

Key keywords: Web CMS Developer Specialist, CMS developer, Drupal developer, WordPress developer, Sitecore engineer, AEM developer, Headless CMS, content modeling, SEO, accessibility, performance optimization, API integration, frontend development, backend PHP/Node.js.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Web Developer or Front-End Developer with CMS exposure
  • CMS Content Editor / Technical Content Producer who transitioned into development
  • Web Designer with experience in template development and templating languages

Advancement To:

  • Senior CMS Engineer / Lead Web CMS Developer
  • CMS Architect / Digital Experience Architect
  • Head of Digital Experience / Director of Web Platforms

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Manager (Digital Experience)
  • UX Engineer / Frontend Architect
  • DevOps Engineer with focus on platform deployment and CI/CD for web

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the end-to-end design and development of CMS-driven websites and microsites, translating content strategy and UX requirements into modular templates, components, and content types that scale across multi-site environments.
  • Architect and implement content models and taxonomies in the CMS to enable editorial flexibility, multi-lingual support, structured content reuse, and future headless or hybrid deployments.
  • Build, customize, and extend CMS platforms (e.g., Drupal, WordPress, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Strapi) by creating modules, plugins, themes, and integrations to meet business requirements.
  • Implement responsive, accessible frontend components using HTML5, CSS/Sass, and modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Vue, or Angular) while ensuring templates are CMS-friendly and editor-first.
  • Design and develop RESTful APIs or GraphQL endpoints to enable headless frontends, mobile apps, and third-party integrations, ensuring secure authentication and consistent data models.
  • Migrate legacy websites and content into modern CMS platforms, including data mapping, automated import/export scripts, validation, and editorial QA to preserve SEO and content integrity.
  • Lead technical integration with third-party services (CRM, marketing automation, analytics, DAM, e-commerce platforms) using secure middleware, webhooks, and API orchestration to deliver unified digital experiences.
  • Optimize page load times and runtime performance across CMS templates and assets by implementing caching strategies (Varnish, Redis), asset bundling, lazy loading, and code-splitting.
  • Maintain and harden CMS security by applying core and plugin updates, implementing role-based access control (RBAC), input validation, XSS/CSRF mitigations, and vulnerability monitoring.
  • Implement robust CI/CD pipelines for CMS deployments (Git-based workflows, automated testing, containerization with Docker/Kubernetes), ensuring safe promotion from development to production environments.
  • Collaborate with SEO specialists to implement server-side rendering, meta tag generation, structured data (JSON-LD), canonicalization, redirects, and sitemap strategies that improve search visibility.
  • Ensure digital accessibility compliance by implementing WCAG best practices in templates, component design, and editorial guidance; conduct audits and remediate issues.
  • Write and maintain clear technical documentation, runbooks, and platform onboarding materials for developers and content editors, including style guides for components and editorial patterns.
  • Provide technical leadership for content editors and marketing teams by empowering them with reusable components, editor training, and governance of publishing workflows and approval processes.
  • Perform hands-on debugging, performance profiling, and code reviews; triage production incidents, prepare post-incident reports, and propose systemic fixes to prevent recurrence.
  • Collaborate with UX/UI designers to translate prototypes into pixel-accurate templates, ensuring fidelity across devices and adherence to brand guidelines and design systems.
  • Implement version control best practices (Git branching, pull requests, merge strategies), enforce code quality checks (linting, unit and integration testing), and mentor junior developers in these workflows.
  • Configure and operate hosting, CDNs, and automated backup/restore procedures for CMS platforms, and work with cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) to ensure scalability and resilience.
  • Drive performance monitoring and observability for web properties (APM, real user monitoring, logs/metrics) and act on data to reduce error rates and improve UX.
  • Plan and execute phased feature rollouts, A/B tests, and experiments within CMS-managed pages to evaluate content performance and conversion impact, partnering with analytics teams.
  • Maintain compliance with privacy and data protection requirements (GDPR/CCPA) in CMS data models, tracking implementations, and third-party integrations.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc editorial feature requests and rapid prototyping to enable marketing campaigns and product launches.
  • Create lightweight tooling and scripts to automate repetitive editorial tasks and content synchronization between environments.
  • Conduct internal training sessions and brown-bag workshops to raise CMS literacy across cross-functional teams and reduce editorial errors.
  • Contribute to the platform roadmap by evaluating new CMS modules, headless strategies, and third-party SaaS tools for content delivery and governance.
  • Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and agile ceremonies, providing technical estimations and defining acceptance criteria for CMS initiatives.
  • Collaborate with QA and content teams to define test plans, acceptance tests, and editorial checklists for each release.
  • Coordinate with infrastructure and security teams to schedule patching windows, security assessments, and penetration tests specific to CMS infrastructure.
  • Assist in vendor evaluation, RFP responses, and proof-of-concept builds when selecting new CMS technologies or managed services.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Expertise implementing and customizing at least one major CMS platform such as Drupal (8/9/10), WordPress (Gutenberg/Block development), Sitecore, or Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).
  • Strong proficiency in frontend technologies: HTML5, CSS3/Sass, responsive design, and modern JavaScript (ES6+) and frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular for component-driven development.
  • Backend development experience with server-side languages commonly used by CMS platforms: PHP (WordPress/Drupal), .NET (Sitecore), Java (AEM), or Node.js for headless architectures.
  • Practical experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and GraphQL endpoints, including authentication patterns (OAuth2, JWT) and API versioning strategies.
  • Experience with headless CMS implementations (Contentful, Strapi, Sanity) and static site generation or hybrid rendering (Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt).
  • Proficiency with database systems (MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB) and data modeling for content entities and relationships.
  • Familiarity with DevOps tooling and pipelines: Git, CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), Docker, Kubernetes, and deployment automation for web platforms.
  • Deep understanding of web performance optimization techniques, caching layers (CDN, Varnish), image optimization, and front-end build tooling (webpack, Rollup).
  • Hands-on experience implementing SEO best practices within CMS templates, including structured data (Schema.org), meta management, canonical tags, and redirect strategies.
  • Strong security hygiene for web apps: vulnerability mitigation, secure coding practices, dependency management, and experience managing plugin/module vulnerabilities.
  • Experience with analytics and A/B testing integrations (Google Analytics/GA4, Adobe Analytics, Optimizely) and interpreting performance metrics to guide development priorities.
  • Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1) and practical experience implementing accessible templates and component libraries.
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and managing CMS hosting, auto-scaling, load balancing, and object storage for media assets.
  • Experience with automated testing (unit, integration, end-to-end) for frontend and backend components using tools like Jest, Cypress, PHPUnit, or Behat.
  • Competence in configuring and integrating Digital Asset Management (DAM), Single Sign-On (SSO), and marketing automation systems into CMS workflows.

Soft Skills

  • Strong communicator who can translate technical constraints into business-facing language and articulate trade-offs for stakeholders and editorial teams.
  • Collaborative team player comfortable working with designers, content strategists, product managers, and DevOps engineers to deliver cross-functional outcomes.
  • Detail-oriented and quality-driven with a proactive approach to testing, documentation, and maintaining long-term platform health.
  • Problem solver who can triage production issues quickly, identify root causes, and drive pragmatic remediation plans.
  • Time manager capable of prioritizing multiple concurrent tasks in a fast-moving environment while meeting deadlines and SLA commitments.
  • Mentoring and coaching mindset to guide junior developers and editorial staff on best practices for content publishing and code standards.
  • Customer/Editor-focused: designs CMS experiences that reduce editorial friction and improve publishing efficiency.
  • Adaptable learner who stays current with CMS trends, web standards, and emerging headless or composable architectures.
  • Negotiation and stakeholder management skills to align technical solutions with business goals and budget constraints.
  • Analytical mindset to leverage usage data for continuous improvement of content performance and platform features.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Web Development, Digital Media, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in a related field or professional certifications such as Drupal Certified Developer, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) certification, Sitecore Professional Developer, or relevant cloud certifications (AWS/Azure).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Web Design and Development
  • Information Technology
  • Digital Media and Communications
  • Human-Computer Interaction / UX

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3 to 7 years of professional experience building and maintaining CMS-driven websites and web applications; may vary by organization size and platform complexity.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of direct CMS development experience with proven projects on enterprise-scale CMS platforms, demonstrated migrations, integrations with CRM/DAM/analytics, and experience implementing headless or hybrid delivery models.
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