Senior Web Developer

At AKQA (part of WPP), we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products, and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital experiences that capture the imagination and deliver meaningful impact for our clients.
Our Technology teams operate at the intersection of creativity and engineering, building innovative platforms for some of the world's most iconic brands. We combine technical excellence with experimentation and craft, delivering scalable, future-facing solutions in close collaboration with Creative, Strategy, and Delivery.

As a Senior Frontend Developer, you will play a key role in building modern, composable digital platforms. You will work hands-on with cutting-edge technologies and collaborate across disciplines to deliver high-impact, scalable experiences for global clients.

Your role will be hands-on but also inspiring others to form an exemplary technical team. You will work closely with others to ensure good collaboration across all disciplines and to facilitate the solving of day-to-day challenges. As such, we are looking for a skilled Senior Web Developer who is not only a collaborative leader and proactive problem-solver but also embodies a comprehensive technical mastery honed over 6+ years of frontend or full-stack development in agency, product, or enterprise-scale environments, demonstrating a proven track record of delivering scalable digital products.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• Build and maintain scalable frontend applications using Next.js (v15) and modern React patterns.
• Work within a composable architecture, seamlessly integrating CMS (e.g., Contentful), commerce (e.g., commercetools), and various APIs.
• Contribute to and evolve a Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) layer, often within Next.js.
• Translate creative concepts into performant, accessible (WCAG), and production-ready experiences.
• Develop component-driven UIs aligned with design systems (e.g., Storybook, design tokens).
• Collaborate effectively with design, backend, and product teams across international AKQA studios.
• Optimize applications for exceptional performance, SEO, accessibility, and scalability.
• Contribute to architectural discussions and support the implementation of scalable frontend patterns.
• Prototype and implement AI-powered features, including search, personalization, and conversational UI.
• Mentor junior developers and actively contribute to engineering best practices and knowledge sharing.

QUALITIES & CHARACTERISTICS

• Exceptional Frontend Engineering Prowess: You possess deep proficiency across the core frontend stack:
• Languages & Styling: HTML5, CSS3 (including modern styling like TailwindCSS), JavaScript (ES6+), and TypeScript.
• Frameworks & Architecture: Hands-on experience with ReactJS and Next.js (App Router, SSR, SSG, edge rendering), excelling in building component-driven architectures and reusable UI systems.
• Quality & Performance: You ensure optimal performance, accessibility (WCAG), and SEO, leveraging familiarity with Storybook and design system workflows.
• Strategic Composable Architecture & Platform Thinking: You have proven experience working with headless CMS (e.g., Contentful), composable commerce setups (e.g., commercetools), and API-driven architectures. You understand BFF patterns, API orchestration, and can skillfully integrate distributed systems.
• Forward-Thinking AI & Emerging Technologies Integration: You have a practical interest or experience in integrating AI capabilities into frontend applications, understanding RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) patterns and how frontend systems interact with LLM-powered services. You have exposure to AI-driven search, personalization, or conversational interfaces and can prototype such features with awareness of performance, privacy, and UX implications.
• Proficiency in AI-Assisted Development & Tooling: You are skillful in using modern AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor, GitHub Copilot) to accelerate workflows including code generation, refactoring, debugging, and documentation, always maintaining high code quality, security, and maintainability. You are curious to explore and adopt emerging developer tooling that enhances team efficiency and delivery speed.
• Robust Backend & Integration Acumen: You possess working knowledge of Node.js and API integration, including collaborating on API contracts and data models, and a clear understanding of how the frontend integrates with various search platforms, CMS, and backend services.
• Excellence in Build, Deployment & Quality: You exhibit experience with modern build tools (Webpack, Vite, Turbopack) and a familiarity with deployment platforms (Vercel, AWS, Cloudflare), coupled with an unwavering focus on code quality, testing, and production readiness.
• Strong Collaboration & Communication Skills: You are able to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. You thrive in cross-functional, design-led environments, are proactive, solution-oriented, possess strong attention to detail, and are comfortable working across distributed international teams.
• Leadership & Mentorship Mindset: You are passionate about doing what's right for our clients, understanding their business goals, and effectively able to teach, coach, and mentor other team members, contributing to engineering best practices and knowledge sharing.
• Adaptive & Agile Approach: You are a self-starting technologist who can draw parallels across a technology landscape, aren't restricted by a specific skillset, and understand Lean and Agile methodologies to optimize team efficiency, identifying and resolving bottlenecks.

Familiarity with search platforms (Algolia, Coveo), exposure to enterprise CMS ecosystems (AEM), experience with edge computing and CDN strategies, or analytics/experimentation platforms would be an added advantage.

Explore our extensive range of benefits here.