The Chesapeake Bay Foundation seeks an experienced and proactive Front-End Developer (Annapolis, MD)
Robert Beach
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation seeks an experienced and proactive developer/“hacker” with a keen sense for user experience, an eye for design, and passion for clean code to fill the role of Front-End Developer. This is a blueprint term position through June 2017 to be based at the Philip Merrill Environmental Center located in Annapolis, MD.
THE CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is the largest regional non-profit conservation organization working solely to save the Bay. Established in 1967, CBF has a staff of approximately 185 employees working in offices in Annapolis Maryland; Richmond and VA Beach, Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C., and in 15 field education program locations. Our staff and volunteer corps work throughout the region educating students and adults, advocating for clean water polices, restoring waterways, and litigating when necessary.
CBF's headquarters office in Annapolis, MD is the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, the world’s first U.S. Green Build Council’s LEED platinum building. In 2014, CBF opened The Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach, VA. The Brock Center is one of the most energy efficient, environmentally smart buildings in the world.
CBF has an annual budget of approximately $21 million and is supported by more than 200,000 members and e-subscribers. For more information on CBF please visit www.cbf.org.
CONTEXT OF THE POSITION
Communications’ charge is to market CBF and its policy agenda, educate and engage the public, and mobilize its support for priorities, including advocacy and member-development objectives. CBF defines marketing as actions which help to sell something. They can be through earned media (and all the elements which go into it such as relationships with reporters, press releases, other forms of communications, etc.); purchased media; direct communications with an audience such as through CBF’s many publications, our website, action alerts, and any other forms of direct or indirect communications with the public at large or a subset of the public, including our members. Communications also manages internal communications and public opinion research.
CBF’s Communications activities are broken into four functional areas: Media Relations, Creative Services, Community Building and Digital Media, and Community Engagement. The Web Developer will serve on the Community Building and Digital Media Team and will report to and serve at the pleasure of the Director of Community Building and Digital Media.
IMMEDIACY OF THE POSITION
Since 2010, CBF has been leading the charge to defend and implement a Clean Water Blueprint that, if fully implemented, will restore the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams throughout the 64,000 square-mile, six-state region sufficiently to remove them from the Clean Water Act’s list of impaired waterways. The mid-point of this Blueprint is 2017, and its end point is 2025. The region is lagging significantly behind, especially the Bay state of Pennsylvania. The Community Building and Digital Media team plays a pivotal role in ensuring the region gets back on track so that the 17 million people and the thousands of species of animals that rely on the region’s waterways are protected from the ravages of pollution. In short, this is an exciting and critical time for the Bay system, CBF, the team, and this position.
The Web Developer will be responsible for managing and advancing the usability and functionality of CBF’s main website and online properties to include: conceptualizing, developing, and deploying elegant interactive solutions that highlight the need for and value of clean water throughout the 64,000 square-mile, six-state region, the work of CBF, and the actions that can be taken to advance the organization’s mission.
Essential functions include:
- Manage usability and functionality of CBF’s online properties including ongoing front-end development, third-party integration, optimization (mobile, search, speed, browser, etc), testing, and troubleshooting.
- In collaboration with Communications staff and other subject matter experts, conceptualize, develop, test, implement, and optimize interactive experiences that move people to action. This will include building CSS web templates, mobile-optimized emails, microsites, as well as other interactive content elements such as charts, maps, and forms.
- Serve as the digital team and organization-wide content manager’s go-to for coding assistance. Plan training opportunities to strengthen the technical skills of colleagues.
- Work with IT’s Manager of Data Services to ensure smooth integration between the CMS and other third-party solutions that make use of APIs including Blackbaud’s Salesforce-based CRM.
- Keep abreast of online and digital media trends and make recommendations on resource allocation.
- Support website, social media, and e-mail content development/management as needed; and,
- Perform other duties as assigned.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in related field plus a minimum of two years’ experience using the Adobe Creative Suite, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery, AJAX and third-party applications/APIs to create engaging websites, mobile-optimized email, and other web-based applications required.
- Experience with SASS and LESS preferred.
- Experience with all of the above on Blackbaud’s Luminate CMS/Online (a.k.a. Convio) platform a huge plus.
- Ability to manage projects and to work in and lead teams. Attention to detail, respect for deadlines, and strong visual, oral, and interpersonal communication skills including exceptional ability to communicate technical concepts to less-technical colleagues.
- Basic understanding of back-end development, systems architecture, hosting, content delivery, caching, and security.
- Experience in a mission-driven, environmental-advocacy, and educational organization is desirable.
To apply, please send cover letter, resume, and salary history and requirements no later than March 11, 2016 to:
Human Resources/FY16-17-FED
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
CBF offers a comprehensive benefits package to include: 20 vacation days, 10 sick days, health, vision, dental, life insurance, and a tax deferred annuity plan. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer.