Senior CMS Engineer

The focus of this role is on CMS-based development, writing custom integrations, plugins and other code that connects CMS-driven websites to external APIs and systems. Projects vary in size and often include features and functionality beyond traditional brochure sites, integrating client sites with systems such as e-commerce, search engines, CRMs, marketing automation tools, digital asset management systems, and ERP systems. Happy Cog is a growing interactive agency of 70+ people, all working 100% remotely.

Responsibilities

Building new applications, websites, and features with a variety of platforms including Craft CMS, WordPress, Sanity, Contentful, and more; Planning and implementing work with AI agents, using the spec-driven process to settle the approach before code is written, and helping set AI development standards that more junior engineers follow; Acting as the Technical Lead (TL) on projects, partnering with the project manager to lead the development team, sharing ownership of financial and technical success, managing scope against budget, and raising problems early; Serving as the point of escalation for other engineers on projects, overseeing architectural decisions and code quality, and guiding more junior developers; Contributing to high-level architecture planning and consulting with the internal team on approach and level of effort; Working on aspects of application development outside app code, including database modeling, query optimization, logging and monitoring solutions, and other advanced requirements for highly functioning apps; Working closely with frontend and backend engineers on website projects; Writing and maintaining clear documentation of work; Staying up-to-date on the latest development technologies and methodologies; Communicating directly with clients and project managers to understand requirements, work through specifications, make technical decisions, and present status updates and demos

Requirements

Minimum of 5 years of professional experience, preferably in a technical role and with agency experience; Deep experience with one or more CMS platforms, both implementing and customizing them; Full stack experience with a variety of frontend and backend tools and technologies and their surrounding ecosystems; Experience interacting with and building backend REST and GraphQL APIs; Knowledge and experience with integrating with third party APIs; Hands-on experience using AI agents for planning and development in a production codebase, including reviewing what the agent produces before it ships; Experience leading a development team or acting as a technical lead, including partnering with a project manager on scope, estimates, and budget; Comfort talking directly with clients about requirements, technical trade-offs, and project status; Experience building application user experiences and understanding user behavior and intent; Knowledge of Git and Github

Benefits

Healthy work/life balance; A creative environment to do the best work of your career; An amazing team of developers, designers, marketers, and project managers; Paid Parental Leave; Paid vacation and sick time off; Health, Dental, and Vision insurance; Retirement plan with company matching