Background:
THOR Studio is a design and development agency based in Washington, D.C. We specialize in creating top-tier websites and publications for a diverse array of organizations. Our team is anchored by a Senior Designer and Senior Developer who oversee the details of all projects, client relationships, and the work of the contractors within the organization. The agency has been growing consistently over the course of the last decade.
To build on this success we need to increase our capabilities and augment our team with a software engineer.
Role:
This role has two facets. The first facet involves developing custom solutions for our existing client base. We have between 5-10 active clients at any time and a similar number of projects on-going simultaneously. Roughly half of those are technical in nature and would utilize the Software Engineer’s skills. We are seeking a developer with the necessary experience to deliver finished work without significant oversight.
The second facet is more ambitious. THOR has been working in the publication field for over a decade and has a significant amount of experience bridging print and digital channels. The current suite of tools publishers rely upon are insufficient. Seizing this opportunity we’re in the beginning stages of building a product to serve this market and pilot test with our clientele. The Software Engineer will play a critical role in bootstrapping a new product into the marketplace.
Tech:
In the agency environment no two projects are exactly the same. We’ve established a three tier offering for our client-base to accommodate the vast majority of project types:
- For ultra-simple brochureware sites, we use Webflow.
- For publications we typically use a heavily customized version of WordPress.
- For custom sites, and our new product, we build inside of the JS ecosystem, utilizing React, Next.js and Node.js.
This position would work primarily (80%+) with custom JS sites and the new publication product build. The publication product is a major focus of this role.
We currently use an agile project management approach and organize our projects through Trello which works well but is overtaxed as our projects increase in complexity. We’re always looking for methods of improving our internal processes and would leverage the Software Engineer’s insight on project management techniques they’ve had success with in the past.
Skills:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the lifecycle of web projects (discovery, design, development, measurement)
- JS should be your primary dev language, and we’re looking at Typescript for the new product build. You should be able to demonstrate experience on the front or back end with React and Node. (Other lead dev at the agency is more front-end heavy so if you lean back-end this may be an ideal role).
- Relational DB knowledge (Postgres) and how to use GraphQL server-side (Hasura skills a plus) and client-side (Apollo). We’re building almost exclusively with GraphQL now.
- Dev-ops knowledge and a general eye towards building scaling systems is a big plus, experience with AWS, Digital Ocean or similar would be a nice complement. We’re eyeing Digital Ocean’s App Platform for the product build, use Vercel and their CI pipeline for React/Next and use WPEngine, Roots and Local for WordPress.
- Work closely with our team to learn the subtleties of the publication world and how we’re trying to improve it. Major bonus points if you’ve worked with digital and print publications and understand the marketplace.
Flexible on location and job type (freelance, part-time, full-time) but would prefer someone with an entrepreneurial mindset somewhere in the Americas to overlap with our work days. Our lead designer is physically in DC and lead dev in Austin with other contractors scattered around the US (with a focus around the mid-atlantic) and we mostly work on a per project-basis.
Send a resume and/or portfolio to start the conversation.
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