Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid / Downtown Office)
Company: SkyPlusNews
Type: Full-Time
About SkyPlusNews
SkyPlusNews is a fast-growing digital media platform dedicated to demystifying the “digital sky.” We provide breaking news and deep-dive analysis on Cloud Computing, SaaS, AI infrastructure, and the evolving tech landscape. As we expand our footprint in the U.S. market, we are looking for a talented Web Developer to join our Chicago team to help us build a more performant, scalable, and engaging reader experience.
The Role
We are seeking a Web Developer who bridges the gap between sophisticated backend architecture and high-performance frontend interfaces. You will be responsible for maintaining our core news portal, optimizing high-traffic landing pages, and building interactive data visualizations for our AI and Cloud reporting.
Key Responsibilities
- Performance Optimization: Ensure lightning-fast load times for mobile and desktop users, maintaining a high Core Web Vitals score to support our SEO and reader retention goals.
- Feature Development: Build and deploy new features using modern JavaScript frameworks (React.js or Next.js) to enhance user interactivity.
- CMS Management: Maintain and extend our custom CMS (or WordPress/headless environment) to ensure our editorial team can publish breaking news seamlessly.
- Ad-Tech Integration: Implement and optimize advertising scripts and subscription paywalls without compromising user experience.
- Collaboration: Work closely with our Design team (UI/UX) in Chicago and our global engineering teams to translate Figma wireframes into pixel-perfect code.
- Security: Implement best practices for web security, specifically protecting our platform against DDoS attacks and ensuring data privacy for our subscribers.
Required Qualifications
- Experience: 3+ years of professional web development experience, preferably in digital media, news, or high-traffic e-commerce.
- Frontend Stack: Proficiency in HTML5, CSS3 (Tailwind/SASS), and JavaScript (ES6+).
- Frameworks: Strong experience with React.js or Vue.js. Experience with Next.js is a significant plus for SSR (Server Side Rendering).
- Backend: Familiarity with Node.js, PHP, or Python and experience working with RESTful APIs and GraphQL.
- Cloud Awareness: Since we report on the “Digital Sky,” a working knowledge of AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) deployment is expected.
- Tools: Proficient in Git/GitHub and familiar with Figma-to-code workflows.
Preferred Skills
- Knowledge of SEO best practices for news organizations (Schema markup, AMP).
- Experience with data visualization libraries like D3.js or Chart.js.
- Interest in AI/ML and how to integrate AI-driven features (like personalized news feeds) into web interfaces.
