The Cato Institute seeks a Front-End Developer with 2 to 5 years of experience who collaborates well with colleagues and stakeholders, on a small team and across the larger organization, to build fun and engaging software - but also enjoys taking initiative when working independently.

The Front-End Developer will report to the Director of Web Enterprise Architecture.

About Cato

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—a think tank—dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.

Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th- century England that presented a vision of a society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets – turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.

Cato Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We run our sites on PHP content management systems, primarily Drupal 9 (with some legacy use of 7) but also WordPress. We use Bootstrap and Foundation for CSS frameworks but expand on them with many custom styles and scripts, which we code in SCSS, ES6 JavaScript, and React.

But we have ambitions for mobile app development and more.

Responsibilities

• Create, maintain, and troubleshoot custom-coded JavaScript components and Drupal Twig templates.
• Install and update Node packages.
• Review pull requests on GitHub.
• Translate verbal and written requirements from stakeholders into working products.
• Help with QA testing and bug hunts
• How we’ll evaluate your job performance
• Adherence to development standards, governance processes, and best practices
• Maintenance of professional relationships with colleagues, management, and other stakeholders, while delivering high-quality customer service
• Multitasking in a fast-paced, high-profile environment
• Evolution of skill sets and adaptation to innovative technologies
• Ability to dive into code and understand how it all works without handholding
• Organization and attention to detail

The technical skills you need:

• JavaScript (encompassing vanilla JS, React, JSX, and TypeScript)
• A front-end framework such as GatsbyJS or NextJS
• HTML and CSS
• Local development using Docker
• Git version control

How you can stand out:

• Expertise with Drupal 8+ (especially Twig templates)
• Experience with common programming design patterns (e.g., Strategy, Adapter, Decorator, Observer, etc.)
• Familiarity with project management software such as Jira, Basecamp, or Wrike