Front-end Developer, beta.phila.gov Full-time

Company Description

With a workforce of over 25,000 people, and opportunities in more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the United States and one of the largest employers in Southeastern Pennsylvania. As an employer, the City of Philadelphia operates through the guiding principles of service, integrity, respect, accountability, collaboration, diversity and inclusion. Through these principles, we strive to effectively deliver services, to resolve the challenges facing our city, and to make Philadelphia a place where all of our residents have the opportunity to reach their potential.

The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is a new section of government tasked with bringing innovation to key enabling functions of city government. The CAO supervises and coordinates the operations of eleven City departments and functions, including the Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation.

The Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation (ODDT) believes in a City government that understands the needs of its people and empowers them through transparent, efficient, and effective services. ODDT’s approach is two-fold: 1) help departments publish open data; and 2) collaborate with departments, the public, and other stakeholders—employing human-centered design methods—to create digital services that support the success and well-being of all Philadelphians.

Job Description

POSITION SUMMARY

4.7 million people visit the City of Philadelphia’s website, phila.gov, every year. Whether they’re looking for information on the Philadelphia Marathon, checking whether trash pickup is on-schedule, looking for after school activities, or applying for public assistance programs, for many Philadelphians, their experience on phila.gov represents the image they have of government. We understand that the current phila.gov isn’t easy to use. So we’re in the process of creating a new site from the ground up—with simple, mobile-friendly designs, more intuitive organization, and clearer content. You can see the progress so far at beta.phila.gov.

As a Front-end Developer in the Office of Open Data & Digital Transformation, you’ll work closely with other members of ODDT (specialists in design, engineering, analytics and content) to translate user and stakeholder needs into product features on the beta.phila.gov roadmap, and design and implement them. Improvements will be made continuously based on feedback from users.

You’ll join a city government that has the largest GitHub organization among cities, work in the open, and leverage open source tools and cloud infrastructure to improve the experience of interacting with city government online.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

In the role, you will:

• Be a part of the conversations that determine how and when to address the needs of users and department stakeholders through platform features
• Advise in the design phase to ensure concepts are technically viable.
• Think about the best way to implement a feature from a technical perspective: both the best way it fits into WordPress, and how it might be most reusable in the future (in collaboration with the team)
• Write the PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and SCSS necessary to implement front-end templates and WordPress administrative interface for non-technical users
• Contribute to updates and maintenance of the City’s pattern portfolio
• Write standards-compliant code with a focus on accessibility at a large scale
• Troubleshoot issues or outages with the cloud infrastructure that hosts beta.phila.gov

COMPETENCIES, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Ability to

• Listen and ask questions to discern the true nature of problems
• Envision how a particular feature may affect other, unrelated parts of the site
• Communicate technical nuances in plain language with partners of varying technical background
• Write documentation clearly enough that someone who’s never met you could use it

Knowledge of

• PHP7, or 2 or more similar programming languages and a willingness to work with PHP – We care more about how you think, learn, and share your knowledge than what languages you know.
• JavaScript
• CSS, SCSS
• WordPress theme and plugin development
• Git
• SQL, and basic relational database usage
• Basic knowledge of, or willingness to learn about, Amazon Web Services
• Minimal linux server administration

Enthusiasm for

• “Clean code” and readability
• Open source
• Tinkering with new technologies, and keeping up with the industry

Qualifications

• At least 3 years’ experience developing software
• Experience turning Photoshop designs into functioning websites/templates
• Experience with a front-end CSS framework like Foundation or Bootstrap a plus

Additional Information

Please include work samples in your response (such as a GitHub profile with relevant repositories or a portfolio).

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age,disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670 or send an email to For more information, go to: Human Relations Website at: http://www.phila.gov/humanrelations

The successful candidate must reside in the City of Philadelphia or establish primary residence in the City of Philadelphia within 6 months of employment.

Apply at: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/CityofPhiladelphia/103451957-front-end-wordpress-developer