UI Design and Front End Developer

Join Our Team

Reason advances a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law. We use journalism and public policy research to influence the frameworks and actions of policymakers, journalists, and opinion leaders. 

About the Role

The Reason web development team is looking for a UI Designer and Front End Developer to help build modern web user experiences, improve internal design practices, and upgrade existing products. This person will work closely with a small, distributed team, and will therefore need to have excellent communication skills and be highly self-driven. 

The Reason web team is responsible for two highly-customized WordPress-based websites (reason.com and reason.org), as well as a number of small services and API integrations that power our various infrastructure. The UI Designer and Front End Developer will be responsible for helping continuously upgrade our themes and plugins with modern technologies, like React, Tailwind, and the WordPress Block Editor. 

With 3.6 million visits of reason.com content per month, this is an opportunity for someone with experience in modern Web Design and React (or similar JavaScript frameworks) to learn WordPress deeply and build products and features that will be seen by a wide audience. The UI Designer and Front End Developer will assist in designing and building upgrades to existing themes, aid in the redesign of our sites and transition to WordPress’s Block Editor, design and build interactive data tools for Reason Foundation’s research projects, and work with a variety of vendor APIs and integrations. 

This is a full-time position that can be done remotely and reports to the Director of Web Technology. 

Responsibilities

• Take input and critical feedback from various stakeholders
• Integrate stakeholder input to develop designs for new features and components for Reason websites
• Design responsive layouts, grid systems, and design for device-specific quirks
• Use HTML + CSS + JS (React) to code and build functional versions of your designs
• Design style guide and help internal teams follow it by developing internal design guidelines
• Design marketing assets for the marketing, research, and web development teams
• Learn and follow web design best practices, and produce design assets in web-friendly formats
• Use Git to manage and merge code changes
• Stay up to date with WCAG accessibility standards and implement designs that can be enjoyed by the widest possible audience

Qualifications

• At least 3-5 years of experience in web development or an equivalent field
• Experience building interactive design prototypes and demos
• Experience with WordPress Block Editor and building custom blocks
• Experience developing interfaces with React Native and Expo Native app frameworks
• Experience with PHP development, especially templating web pages with PHP or other WordPress-related work
• Experience with advanced web animation tools (e.g. WebGL, SVG animation, HTML5 canvas manipulation)
• Ability to honestly evaluate one's own work for weaknesses and strengths
• Quick and efficient troubleshooting/problem solving
• Ability to synthesize a plan of action that addresses the requests/desires of a variety of stakeholders
• Alignment with Reason’s mission to advance libertarian principles

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit the following materials in one PDF document: 

• A cover letter detailing your alignment with Reason’s mission, your interest in the position, and how your experience has prepared you for this role
  • Please include links to any relevant, publicly-visible work examples (personal portfolio, GitHub repos, live projects, etc)
• Resume 

Applications should be submitted to https://reason.org/jobs-apply/. 

Any questions can be directed to Lydia Ocampo, Talent Coordinator, who is managing the search process: [email protected]. 

While we thank all applicants in advance for their interest in this position, we are only able to contact those to whom we can offer an interview. Only direct applications will be considered. No phone calls, please.