Technical Strategist, Product Owner

Four Kitchens is looking for someone who can help our clients bring their ambitious digital visions to life through proactive guidance and technical planning. You will shape and communicate the technical strategy for web projects by translating complex concepts to our (sometimes non-technical) clients, helping them refine and prioritize their ideas, and writing technical specs that convey those ideas to our engineering team.

As a Web Chef, you will first and foremost exemplify our Core Values. You will also exhibit a natural curiosity and a passion for making really cool stuff for the web. We expect our whole team to self-lead and prioritize as distributed team members—your frequent communication and participation in company culture will be key indicators of your engagement at Four Kitchens. Being a constant self-educator is essential, so advanced degrees are not a requirement for this role as we believe that experience and passion are more important.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace and building a diverse team, and that starts with leadership. At our core, we believe deeply in diversity and inclusiveness as being key parts of a healthy team. We aim to create an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work. So, if you look at our team page and don’t see yourself, don’t shy away. Come work with us!

As a Technical Strategist, you will…  

• Work with the Director of Technical Strategy to understand the way we do things, how we approach technical problems, and how we structure projects.
• Be responsible for the technical oversight of Drupal web projects and ongoing technical support for specific clients, thinking holistically about what our clients are trying to achieve and how technology can help get them there. 
• Ask a lot of questions to figure out the underlying needs and goals of the client, and proactively make recommendations. 
• Work with clients and project managers to set priorities and to help clients understand technical details.
• Gently push back if someone suggests something that’s not a good idea, offering alternate approaches that could be easier or better.
• Write technical plans, user stories, and specifications that engineers can use to build something new.
• Direct and review work done by engineers.
• Do some tactical work in your area of expertise (front or backend development, UX, site building, etc.)
• Work with the Director of Technical Strategy and the engineering team to improve what we do, streamline our processes, and implement new tools.
• Keep up to date on the current tools and trends in Drupal, in the sectors we work in, and in the wider world of web development.  Then share that knowledge with both the rest of the team, and contribute to Four Kitchen’s thought leadership.

You will also do some work as an engineer:

Depending on your area of expertise, either back-end, front-end, or site-building.

• Implement requirements described in a technical plan, including site building, configuration, and writing custom code (including integrating with Drupal’s hooks, events, plug-in system, etc.).
• Participate in QA and code reviews.
• Support existing sites via our support ticket system.
• Run security updates for Drupal core and contrib.

You’re our next Technical Strategist if you have…

• Superior communication skills (especially written) and an ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical people.
• A desire to help nonprofits, higher-ed institutions, and publishers use their websites to communicate more effectively.
• Experience working with Drupal building and configuring websites (e.g. creating content types, and views).
• Attention to detail. Please start your cover letter with “Dear Web Chefs,” when applying.
• The ability to split big ideas into a plan of many small, actionable tasks.  
• Strong self-management skills with the ability to organize and manage multiple priorities.
• Experience with PHP web programming OR past work experience managing complex, CMS-driven websites (you don’t necessarily need to write code if you have deep knowledge of Drupal).

It would be great if you had some of these skills/qualities too:

• Experience with Drupal's top contributed modules.
• Active in the Drupal community, or other open-source projects.
• Familiarity with collaborative development tools such as Git.
• Some experience with the Linux command line, including Drush.
• Past work experience in a web agency, higher-ed institution, or nonprofit.
• Experience working on a remote/distributed team.
• Experience with agile development methodologies like Consultancy Scrum, Kanban, or Behaviour Driven Development (BDD).
• Experience with WordPress.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards and best practices

About Four Kitchens

Four Kitchens is a leading digital strategy firm with strong roots in the open-source and free-culture communities. We build websites and apps to engage audiences on virtually any device, in our pursuit of setting knowledge free. We hire developers, designers, and strategists with strong consultative skills and a desire to make a difference, both to our clients and to each other.

Our Values and Culture

Our Web Chefs bring more than their professional skills to the kitchen and we encourage everyone to help guide the direction of our company. We all have a strong voice in what we do and how we do it. Collectively, our values—The Way Of the Web Chef—guide how we interact with each other, our colleagues, and our clients. Four Kitchens is not just a company — it's a closely-knit team. We believe in the power of individuals coming together to do something bigger than they could have done alone.

Distributed Work

We believe good talent is where you find it and, as a distributed team, we’re excited to be pioneers in what we believe is the future of work culture. Even though we have no physical office, we strive to remain a collaborative community using tools like Slack and Zoom. The Web Chefs span four time zones and our goal is for team members to feel like they are working together in the same room, even if they're thousands of miles apart.

Our Benefits

We care for our teammates as people, which is why we have a generous PTO policy, encourage time off, and have a great benefits package. Not only do we strive to maintain a good work-life balance, but we also participate in interesting and creative projects outside of client work to expand our abilities.

We hope you'll join us!

Contact us

Include the following materials with your application:

• Cover letter.
• Tell us about which of our Core Values resonates with you the most and why!
• Resume/CV.

Four Kitchens is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact admin@fourkitchens.com.

Four Kitchens welcomes applications from all backgrounds, particularly from people of color; women; LGBTQ+ people; immigrants or refugees; people who are differently-abled; and people from low- or moderate-income backgrounds. Four Kitchens is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its employment decisions on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, disability status, veteran status, military obligations, marital status and policy party affiliation, or on any other basis that would be in violation of any applicable federal, state or local law.