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How to Hire a Magento Developer

Vetting Magento Developers: Job Description & Interview Questions

Over the past 20 years, my business partners and I have hired hundreds of different types of programmers for many different software companies. Through this experience, it’s safe to say we’ve gained plenty of knowledge regarding the dos and don’ts of hiring the right programmers for the job.

Here’s a checklist to reference the next time your company needs to hire a Magento programmer.

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What is Magento Used For?

Magento is an open source E-commerce software, created by Varien Inc., which is useful for ecommerce businesses. It has a flexible modular architecture. It is scalable and it has many control options that helps the user to build both user-friendly and search engine friendly websites.

Ecommerce

Magento is an open source E-commerce software. It is a great, scalable tool that is typically utilized by small organizations to build online businesses.  There are some great out of the box features that provide users with a very impressive frontend shopping experience including product search and sorting options. In addition, Magento comes with many third-party sites which are needed to run an effective Ecommerce website.

What to Look for When Hiring a Magento Developer

When hiring a Magento programmer, there are a few things you have to consider including experience, rates, and the type of work arrangement. It also depends on the type of project you have and what skills you need to complete it.

Magento Developer Required Skills

Here are some of the basic skills that a Magento Developer is expected to have:

  • Full knowledge of all functions on Magento
  • General familiarity with technology
  • An understanding of how web servers operate
  • Be creative and have a grasp of art and design principles
  • Developing Custom CMS Themes
  • Integration with popular payment systems
  • Strong widget development skills
  • Magento Certification is a nice bonus

Magento Experience

Magento developers should have some experience with the following:

  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP experience
  • Converting Photoshop (PSD) to the XHTML files for a template use
  • Creating a Magento website from scratch
  • Updating existing Magento websites
  • Installing security patches and fixing bugs
  • Implementing front-end changes

How to Write a Magento Developer Job Description

Writing the perfect Magento developer job description is essential to ensure that you can attract the top developers. It's also important to ensure that you set the proper expectations up-front to streamline the vetting process, saving everyone time and money.

Magento Developer Job Description Template

Company Introduction

Use this section to write 2-3 sentences about your company. Make sure to provide information about the company culture and benefits. This would be a good section to link to your company website. The best candidates will do some advanced research.

Job Description

Our company is looking for a talented Magento developer that will be in charge of maintaining our eCommerce website. Your main tasks will be to develop new modules and apply continuous front-end changes to help us scale our online business.

Responsibilities

  • Regularly update our Magento installation
  • Install security patches
  • Develop new functionality
  • Implement front-end changes
  • Add other responsibilities here that are important for the project/job

Skills

  • Strong object-oriented programming knowledge
  • Very good PHP knowledge
  • JavaScript is a must for front-end development
  • Extensive HTML & CSS knowledge
  • Magento certification is a bonus
  • Specify other frameworks, libraries, or any other technology relevant to your project/job
  • Education level or certification requirements

Magento Interview questions

When looking to hire a Magento developer, consider asking some of the following interview questions:

  • What is Magento?
  • What are the major benefits of using Magento over other ecommerce software?
  • What are the different versions of Magento?
  • What are some of the top features of Magento?
  • Can you explain the technology that is used by Magento?
  • Are there any limitations to the Magento software?
  • How can you improve the performance of Magento?
  • How many design patterns does Magento have?
  • What are the big differences between Magento 1 and 2?
  • What does EAV mean? What are the advantages and disadvantages of it, and how does Magento addresses the issues associated with it?
  • What are the differences between a store and a website?
  • How would you add a blog to a Magento site?

Freelance Magento Developer Rates

The average salary for a Magento Developer is $110,537 per year in the United States. When hiring a freelance Magento developer, you can expect to pay $47.96 on average per hour.  Magento freelancer rates can range from $20-80 per hour depending on the developer’s experience, where they are located, their availability, and other programming languages required.

Check out our detailed pricing guide for more freelance web developer rates.

Where to Hire a Magento Developer – Top Websites

Read our list of the top websites to hire a Magento developer.

Developer Hiring Guides

If you are looking for other types of technical talent, we’ve put together hiring guides for these technologies as well.

Programming Languages
Top Programming Languages
Frontend Frameworks
Top Frontend Frameworks
Backend Frameworks
Top Backend Frameworks
Content Management Systems
Content Management Systems
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
  • Unity
  • Salesforce
  • iOS / Android

FAQs

Where can I find a Magento developer?

There are many places where you can find and hire a Magento developer online. If you're looking for a full-time developer, you can try popular job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn. For the best freelancers, consider using a remote hiring platform focused on placing programmers like Upstack or Toptal. You can also find Magento developers on general freelancing marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr.

How much does it cost to hire a Magento developer?

The average salary for a Magento Developer is $110,537 per year in the United States. When hiring a freelance Magento developer, you can expect to pay $47.96 on average per hour.  Magento freelancer rates can range from $20-80 per hour depending on the developer’s experience, where they are located, their availability, and other programming languages required.

What are the most important skills to look for in a Magento developer?

When looking to hire a Magento developer, you obviously want to find someone with direct experience using the software. Beyond that, a developer that has great communication and a demonstrated ability to problem solve is a bonus. Technical programming skills including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP are also important skills for Magento developers to possess.

What does a Magento developer do?

Magento developers are responsible for designing, developing, maintaining, and continuously building their clients’ eCommerce websites. They performs a number of specific tasks including the installation and configuration of Magento, building themes and custom functions of ecommerce websites, optimizing site performance, and integrating various technologies and third-party applications.