Client: FashionWorkie
Role: Lead Developer
Project: Full Drupal design and build of a niche job board for the fashion industry

FashionWorkie is a specialist job platform focusing on internships, retail roles, studio work, placements, and castings across the fashion sector. They needed a robust, scalable platform that could grow with the industry and support both job seekers and employers seamlessly.

When I was approached to develop the platform, FashionWorkie had several key challenges:

1. 1. Scalability & Flexibility – They needed a system capable of handling a wide variety of job types and categories, with room to expand as their audience grew.

   2. Content Management – Admins needed an easy way to publish, moderate, and manage job adverts, while keeping everything organised and searchable.

   3. User Experience – Job seekers needed intuitive browsing and filtering; employers needed a straightforward way to post roles.

   4. Performance & Security – With potentially high traffic and sensitive user information, the site needed to be fast and secure.

   5. Brand Alignment – The design needed to reflect the fashion industry’s clean, modern, editorial style.

Drupal was the perfect fit thanks to its:

• Powerful content modelling (ideal for complex job listings and taxonomy relationships)

• Scalability as the platform grows

• Flexible permissions and workflows, which were essential for job moderation

• Strong security track record

• Custom theming options, allowing full control over the look and feel

Drupal allowed me to design a structure that could evolve long-term, rather than boxing the platform into the constraints of a lightweight CMS.

1. Information Architecture & Content Structure

I planned the content model around the needs of the job board:

• Custom content types: Internship/Job/Retail Job/Casting, Employer Profile

• Taxonomies for sector, job type, and location

• Entity references to keep relationships clean and scalable

• SEO-friendly, structured URLs for better discoverability

This produced a very flexible backend that could grow with the platform.

2. Custom Theme & UX

I built a custom theme tailored to the fashion audience — minimalist, clean, image-led, and optimised for usability.

• Responsive design for mobile-first use

• Clear job cards with readable layouts

• Strong filtering controls and search bar placement

• A polished, editorial aesthetic that aligned with the industry

3. Job Posting Workflow

I developed a Drupal Rules powered posting flow that balanced ease of use with moderation:

• Employers create an account and submit roles

• A moderation workflow ensures quality and reduces spam

• Published roles are automatically distributed across relevant category and sector pages

4. Job Post Upgrades

• Integrated Drupal Commerce, allowing users to upgrade their job listings to be shown on premium sites areas such as the featured sections and on the homepage

5. Filtering & Search (With Apache Solr)

I implemented faceted search so users could filter by:

• Sector

• Location

• Job type (full-time, freelance, internship, etc.)

This significantly improved discoverability and user engagement.

6. Performance & Hosting Considerations

To ensure speed and stability:

• Drupal caching and optimisation (with Memcache)

• Compressed and lazy-loaded images

• Secure configuration and best-practice updates

The result was a platform that performed reliably under growing traffic.

7. Admin Tools

I built an admin experience that made day-to-day management simple:

• Moderation queues

• Quick editing tools

• Employer management

• Easy taxonomy updates

• Reporting and analytics hooks

This helped streamline FashionWorkie’s internal workflow and reduce manual admin time.

• Significant increase in organic traffic due to structured content and SEO-friendly URLs

• Higher user engagement thanks to better filtering and mobile UX

• Large reduction in spam postings due to the moderation workflow

• Improved efficiency for the admin team

• A scalable, future-proof job board built on a strong technical foundation

• A clean, modern design that suits the fashion industry

• A significantly improved experience for both job seekers and employers

• Reduced admin overhead thanks to structured workflows

• A stable and secure platform ready for long-term growth

• Designing the content model early made future enhancements far easier

• User testing with real job seekers and employers was critical

• Balancing Drupal’s flexibility with a simplified admin UI prevented overwhelm

• Iterative post-launch improvements strengthened the platform’s performance and usability