Designer and Frontend Developer

Position

Four Kitchens is searching for a full-time, highly motivated designer and frontend developer with a passion for open-source technologies and making cool, innovative stuff for the web.

About Four Kitchens

(tl;dr: We make BIG websites, we contribute tons of code to open-source projects, and we're doing lots of forward-thinking stuff in the mobile space.)

We are not your typical web shop.

First, we only work with open-source software. Why? Because open source is the future, and setting knowledge free makes the world a better place. Software should be free to use, modify, and distribute so that people all over the world, regardless of economic status, can have access to technology and a better future.

Second, we're a lot of fun. And we have style. We not only do cool stuff on the web — we do cool stuff in real life, too. Four Kitchens is home to the Web Chefs, some of the most talented and interesting people you'll ever know. Our hobbies include sketch comedy, cycling, car racing, rock climbing, yoga, writing, and home brewing. We also actively participate in various charities, community meet-ups, and volunteer activities.

Third, we deeply value our coworkers. We believe in the power of individuals coming together to do something bigger than they could aspire do alone. Four Kitchens is not just a company — it's a closely knit team. And although we work hard, we strive to maintain a good work-life balance. This is why we have an unlimited paid leave policy, encourage time off, and look for fun, creative projects outside of client work to expand our abilities.

We do everything in-house: design, usability, development, information and systems architecture, performance tuning, and project management. Though we're all in Austin, Texas, our clients — major media outlets, universities, non-profits, and social reformers — are global. Our projects are mostly large-scale, and they require extensive client collaboration and occasional on-site work.

Though we handle (very) big projects, we're a small company, and we plan to stay that way. Our Web Chefs bring much more than their professional skills to the kitchen, and we encourage everyone to help guide the direction of our company. Everyone has a strong say in what we do and how we do it.

We hope you'll join us.

Responsibilities

• Designing and implementing the information architecture, user experience, and look-and-feel of websites and related materials.
• Creating sitemaps, wireframes, style tiles, and visual design comps for internal and client-facing web projects.
• Using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP to implement the designs you create. We work with CMSs (primarily Drupal), so you will usually be working within a templating framework or theming system.
• Designing for multiple devices and interactions: desktops, touch devices like smartphones and tablets, simpler devices like feature phones, and so on.
• Ensuring good user experience design in all work you produce.
• Creating new visual designs and branding assets. You may need to work within established branding guidelines or style guides for client-facing projects.

Benefits

• Unlimited paid leave.
• $2,000-$3,000 annual professional development and education budget. This can be spent on conferences, seminars, classes — anything that advances your professional goals.
• Flexible scheduling and occasional telecommuting.
• 50% paid medical insurance.
• An excellent working environment filled with smart, funny people who love what they do.

Qualifications

Required

• Ability to produce attractive designs and user-friendly interfaces.
• Experience creating designs within branding guidelines and styleguides.
• Experience working with and producing sitemaps, wireframes, and visual design comps.
• Experience with frontend development. At a minimum, this requires writing HTML and CSS by hand.
• Experience implementing at least one JavaScript framework (such as jQuery).
• Experience designing, marking up, and styling page templates in a CMS (such as Drupal or WordPress) or templating framework.
• Experience designing responsive sites for mobile devices.
• Proficient in graphic design software (Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator or Gimp/Inkscape).
• Professional, yet personable, demeanor. You must be able to represent yourself and Four Kitchens to our clients, other members of your team, and to open-source communities at large.
• Enthusiasm for open-source philosophy and community involvement.
• Intellectual curiosity and passion for making really cool stuff for the web.

Preferred

• Experience designing, theming, or developing for Drupal.
• Experience with CSS preprocessors such as Sass/Compass or LESS.
• Experience writing custom JavaScript or jQuery.
• Experience designing or building websites for multiple devices and interactions (such as desktops, touch devices like smartphones and tablets, and simpler devices like feature phones).
• Previous work on open-source projects and adhering to coding standards.
• Bachelor's degree or higher. (Why preferred rather than required? Because we don't believe that college teaches people how to be good at what they do. Experience and passion are more important, and being a constant self-educator is essential.)

Super-duper bonus points

• Experience working with large website projects.
• Experience with a "design in the browser" workflow.
• Experience designing for print. We occasionally produce print materials for internal projects such as our Web Chef Cookbook and DrupalCamp Austin.

Contact us

Please email the following materials to work@fourkitchens.com. Include "Designer and Frontend Developer" and your name in the subject line.

• Cover letter. We'd like some insight into your personality, hobbies, and interests beyond work.
• Resume/CV.
• Examples of your personal and professional design work.
• Samples of your markup, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, etc. If you cannot show us actual code, please be prepared to describe your coding philosophy and standards in detail.

This position is not eligible for remote work. We can offer relocation assistance to those outside of Austin, Texas.

Because we're very busy, please do NOT call or visit us in person. Email is the best (and only) way to contact us.