Director of Development

At Rankings.io, we're more than just a digital marketing agency—we're a team of specialists who help personal injury law firms get cases in the most competitive markets in the country. We've built a culture where excellence isn't a grind; it's the entire game. As a fully remote, 175+ person team, we believe in empowering each individual with the autonomy, resources, and support they need to do their best work. We're passionate about outcomes, move fast without sacrificing quality, and celebrate wins along the way. With 100% employer-paid health insurance, unlimited PTO plus monthly wellness days, a 401(k) 3% company match, and a values-driven culture that prioritizes growth and collaboration, we've created a place where high standards meet high fulfillment. If you take pride in being great at what you do and want to work alongside people who are exceptionally good at the things that matter, you'll love it here. The Director of Development is a hands-on, player-coach leader responsible for delivering high-quality WordPress websites at scale while evolving and strengthening our development systems. This role owns development execution across projects from build to launch to post-launch support, while elevating quality standards, improving QA systems, strengthening development processes, and scaling the department for continued growth. This Director level position combines an extensive development background, technical excellence, team leadership, operational ownership, and strategic system-building. You will empower your team, remain flexible and collaborative with clients and designers, and be firm and decisive in protecting development quality, timelines, and standards. Responsibilities Leadership + Team Management • Lead, coach, and develop an internal team of developers • Manage overseas development resources with clear accountability and quality expectations • Set expectations around code quality, deadlines, and developer role responsibilities • Conduct performance reviews, mentorship, and professional development planning • Identify skill gaps and participate in hiring, onboarding, and team scaling • Forecast capacity needs and plan hiring proactively based on growth • Partner cross-functionally with Design, UX, SEO, Project Managers, Accounts and Project stakeholders to create and execute project plans within scope and timeline • Make effective decisions balancing quality, speed, client needs, and profitability Hands-On Development (Player-Coach) • Contribute directly to advanced builds, complex implementations, and high-risk debugging • Ensure consistent execution of custom and responsive WordPress development across desktop, mobile, and tablet • Drive strong front-end execution using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and modern responsive standards • Lead advanced front-end work including animation and complex interactions where appropriate • Debug and resolve code, performance, and cross-browser issues quickly and thoroughly Engineering Systems + DevOps Ownership • Own and evolve development workflows, branching strategies, and code review standards • Define and improve staging-to-production deployment workflows • Improve documentation standards for scalability and knowledge transfer • Strengthen automation across QA, deployments, and repetitive processes • Continuously refine internal SOPs to reduce technical debt and increase velocity • Monitor and oversee the execution of development-related tickets • Improve "definition of done" clarity to reduce bug recycling and rework Technical Ownership + Platform Standards • Own and improve WordPress development standards and best practices • Maintain and advance company theme/plugin assets to support scalable delivery • Improve modular, reusable component and Gutenberg block systems • Be an expert in site speed and performance optimization, ongoing site maintenance, updates, and iterative site edits • Own launch readiness including forms, scripts, plugins, redirects, SEO requirements, performance checks, and post-launch support Site Migrations + Launch Integrity • Own and standardize website migration and launch frameworks to preserve SEO equity, lead flow, and technical integrity • Oversee redirect mapping, crawl comparisons, indexation validation, and analytics continuity • Establish structured DNS transition protocols and post-launch performance monitoring • Partner with SEO and project teams to proactively identify and mitigate traffic volatility risks during structural or domain changes Performance & Core Web Vitals Accountability • Define internal performance benchmarks (Core Web Vitals targets) • Monitor performance trends across builds • Establish load testing standards where appropriate • Reduce technical debt across legacy projects • Improve performance consistency across all builds Security + Risk Management • Own WordPress security best practices (hardening, permissions, 2FA, etc.) • Establish plugin vetting standards • Oversee patch man