Technical Lead - Full stack

Hogarth is the Global Content Experience Company. Part of WPP, Hogarth partners with one in every two of the world’s top 100 brands including Coca-Cola, Ford, Rolex, Nestlé, Mondelez and Dyson. With a breadth of experience across an extensive range of sectors, Hogarth offers the unrivaled ability to deliver relevant, engaging, and measurable content across all channels and media - both established and emerging. The number of channels at our fingertips; the need for speed; and the drive for mass personalisation, all mean that brands need different solutions. Our global team of over 7,500 craft and technology experts brings together creative, production and innovation to help clients navigate this exciting and ever-changing world of today’s content experience.

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 100,000 talented people dedicated to doing extraordinary work for our clients. We operate in over 100 countries, with corporate headquarters in New York, London and Singapore. WPP is a world leader in marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent. Our clients include many of the biggest companies and advertisers in the world, including approximately 300 of the Fortune Global 500. Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years of professional, full-cycle web development experience, including 7+ years building enterprise-grade Drupal 8/9/10 solutions and 2–3 years in a technical lead or architecture role.
• Expert-level PHP and modern Drupal APIs (Entity, Configuration Management, Plugin, Services, Routing, Form, Cache, Multilingual, Media, Migrate, Views, Paragraphs).
• Deep understanding of Symfony components, Composer workflow, PSR standards, Drush, and Drupal coding standards; able to create and maintain custom modules, patches, and distributions.
• Front-end proficiency: Twig theming, HTML5, ES-6 JavaScript, SASS/SCSS, responsive design, Webpack/Vite; ability to collaborate with UX and accessibility specialists (WCAG AA).
• Cloud-native delivery skills: Docker-based local stacks, container orchestration (Kubernetes/ECS/EKS), and automated CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI).
• Proven experience designing REST/JSON:API and/or GraphQL endpoints for decoupled or progressively-decoupled Drupal applications; familiarity with React/Vue/Next.js is a plus.
• Strong grasp of application security (OWASP Top 10, Drupal Security Advisories), performance optimization (caching layers, CDN, Varnish, Redis, New Relic), and scalability patterns.
• Mastery of Git branching strategies, code-review etiquette, and semantic versioning; comfortable enforcing quality gates via automated testing (PHPUnit, Behat, Cypress, PHPUnit).
• Hands-on experience with at least one managed Drupal hosting platform (Acquia Cloud, Pantheon, Platform.sh) or public cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP) and related IaC tooling (Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Excellent written and verbal English communication; able to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and produce architecture diagrams, estimations, and documentation.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own technical vision and architecture for one or more concurrent Drupal-based projects, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, performance targets, and security mandates.
• Lead and mentor 4-10 developers through code reviews, pair programming, backlog grooming, and growth plans; foster a culture of continuous improvement and DevSecOps best practice.
• Collaborate closely with product owners, UX/design, QA, and infrastructure teams to define MVP scope, sprint goals, and release criteria; drive risk identification and mitigation.
• Convert business requirements and wireframes into scalable content models, component-driven themes, and integration patterns with CRM, DAM, SSO, analytics, and marketing-automation suites.
• Establish and refine automated pipelines for build, test, deploy, rollback, and blue green release strategies; champion test coverage and observability instrumentation.
• Represent the development team in client workshops, technical steering committees, and executive updates; contribute to sales proposals and technical estimations when needed.
• Track and triage upstream Drupal core/contrib issues; coordinate security updates and patch releases within defined SLAs.
• Evaluate emerging Drupal roadmap items (e.g., Project Browser, Automatic Updates, Recipes) and related PHP/FOSS technologies for strategic adoption.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related STEM discipline (or equivalent hands-on experience).

WORKING STYLE & SOFT SKILLS

• Agile mindset (Scrum or Kanban); strongly data-driven, comfortable defining and reporting velocity and cycle time metrics.
• Proactive leadership, positive coaching attitude, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities and maintain calm under pressure; bias for automation, documentation, and knowledge-sharing.

NICE-TO-HAVE / BONUS POINTS

• Prior work with headless CMS patterns, Next.js or Gatsby static-site generation, and edge-side rendering (Netlify Edge, Cloudflare Workers).
• Experience integrating Drupal with commerce solutions (Drupal Commerce, Shopify, BigCommerce) or personalization engines (Acquia CDP, Optimizely).
• Familiarity with multilingual editorial workflows, multi-site setups Content Moderation/Roles, and enterprise governance models.
• Experience in regulated sectors (finance, healthcare, government) and compliance frameworks (e.g. GDPR).
• Contributions to Drupal core or major contrib modules; active participation in the Drupal community (Drupal.org issues, camps, meet-ups, or module maintainership).

Our Hogarth Values:

Hands on

No egos here. Just a shared drive to roll up our sleeves and make great things happen. Every project--big or small, gets our full energy because we believe in doing things right. Every single time. It's how we deliver real results without cutting corners.

Honesty

We are real and authentic – with each other and in our work. Honest, direct communication builds the trust we need to collaborate, grow, and make meaningful things together. It’s not always easy but it’s always worth it.

Heart & Soul

We bring heart to everything we make. Passion, pride and relentless drive push us beyond “good enough” ––because we care deeply about our craft, and we’re always chasing better. We love what we do, and it shows.

Happy Family

Creating a space where everyone feels valued--even when opinions differ, makes this a supportive and inclusive environment for our people. We embrace our differences, celebrate our wins together, and never lose our sense of humor.

Hungry

Curiosity keeps us hungry. We question, experiment, and always seek out what's next. We never settle, and we never stop learning.

Inclusion and Impact

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

Please contact careers@hogarth.com if you need the job advert or form in another format.