Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Program Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Program Specialist is a cross-functional technical‑program role that owns end-to-end delivery for web properties, combining content strategy, CMS/technical administration, quality assurance, analytics, and stakeholder engagement. This role translates business objectives into prioritized web initiatives, manages releases and governance, ensures accessibility and SEO best practices, and continuously measures site performance and conversion. The ideal candidate is comfortable working with product owners, designers, developers, marketing, and vendors to drive improvements across the digital customer experience.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Web Content Coordinator / Content Specialist
Junior Web Developer or Front-End Developer
Digital Marketing Specialist or SEO Specialist

Advancement To:

Senior Web Program Specialist / Web Program Manager
Digital Product Owner / Product Manager (Web)
Director of Digital Experience / Head of Web

Lateral Moves:

UX / UX Researcher
Content Strategy Lead
SEO / Growth Marketing Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead planning, prioritization, and execution of web initiatives across multiple properties: define scope, prepare implementation plans, manage timelines, and coordinate cross-functional teams to deliver releases on schedule and within scope.
Act as primary CMS administrator: configure content models, templates, workflows, permission sets, modules/plugins, and perform routine upgrades, patches, and platform maintenance in Drupal/WordPress/AEM or equivalent systems.
Manage content lifecycle and governance: work with content owners to establish editorial calendars, templates, metadata standards, taxonomy, and approval workflows to ensure consistent, searchable, and on‑brand web content.
Implement and enforce web accessibility (WCAG) standards: assess pages for accessibility gaps, guide remediation efforts with developers and content authors, and validate compliance through automated and manual testing.
Drive SEO strategy and technical on‑page optimization: implement canonicalization, structured data/schema markup, meta tags, crawl directives, XML sitemaps, redirects, and collaborate with marketing to maximize organic visibility.
Configure and maintain analytics and tagging frameworks: deploy GA4, heat-mapping, conversion tracking, Tag Manager containers, and ensure data quality, event definitions, and naming conventions for reliable reporting.
Monitor and optimize web performance and reliability: analyze Core Web Vitals, page speed, caching, CDNs, image optimization, lazy loading, and partner with infrastructure and engineering to improve stability and latency.
Coordinate feature releases and change management: manage release calendars, run staging-to-production deployments, perform smoke tests and rollback planning, and communicate release impacts to stakeholders.
Design and execute QA and UAT processes: author test plans, conduct cross-browser and device testing, log and triage defects, confirm fixes, and certify features for production.
Collaborate with UX/UI and product teams to implement front-end improvements: translate wireframes into technical requirements, validate accessibility and responsive behavior, and iterate using user feedback.
Lead A/B testing and experimentation programs: define hypotheses, set up experiments in experimentation platforms, analyze results, and operationalize learnings to drive conversion and engagement.
Maintain technical documentation and runbooks: create and update architecture diagrams, CMS configuration docs, content author guides, and operational procedures for handoffs and continuity.
Provide technical support and triage for production incidents: respond to outages or degradation, coordinate hotfixes with engineering or vendors, run post-mortems, and implement preventive measures.
Manage vendor and third‑party integrations: evaluate, onboard, and coordinate external partners (CDNs, marketing platforms, accessibility vendors), ensure SLAs, and oversee contract deliverables.
Advocate for data-driven decision making: synthesize analytics, user behavior, and business KPIs into actionable recommendations and prioritize backlog items based on impact.
Ensure security and privacy controls are implemented on web properties: collaborate with security teams on vulnerability remediation, secure form handling, and compliance with data protection requirements.
Establish and maintain governance for content quality and brand consistency: perform periodic content audits, enforce editorial standards, and support content migrations with governance checklists.
Train and enable content authors and internal stakeholders: create training materials, run workshops, and provide hands-on coaching to ensure self-sufficiency and correct use of web tools.
Track and report on web KPIs and program health: prepare dashboards and executive summaries around traffic, conversions, speed, accessibility, uptime, and project status for leadership.
Prioritize technical debt and platform improvements: evaluate refactoring needs, estimate effort, and balance new features against stability and maintainability concerns.
Facilitate cross-functional planning sessions: lead sprint planning, triage meetings, and stakeholder syncs to ensure alignment on priorities, dependencies, and resource constraints.
Manage project budgets and procurement for web initiatives: track costs for tools, hosting, third-party services, and vendor engagements to ensure projects remain within financial parameters.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist marketing and product teams with landing page builds, campaign activations, and tracking implementation.
Provide subject matter expertise for RFPs and technical evaluations of web tools and platforms.
Maintain relationships with internal stakeholders to identify upcoming needs and reduce bottlenecks in content delivery.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

CMS administration and configuration (Drupal, WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, or comparable systems).
Front-end fundamentals: HTML5, CSS3, responsive design principles, and basic JavaScript/DOM manipulation.
Web analytics and tag management: Google Analytics (GA4), Google Tag Manager, Adobe Analytics, and event-driven tracking implementation.
SEO and technical SEO best practices: schema markup, redirects, canonical tags, crawl optimization, and log file analysis.
Web performance optimization: Core Web Vitals, caching strategies, CDNs, image optimization, and performance monitoring tools (e.g., Lighthouse, WebPageTest).
Accessibility knowledge: WCAG 2.1 standards, accessibility testing tools (axe, WAVE), and remediation techniques.
Familiarity with A/B testing and experimentation tools (Optimizely, Google Optimize alternatives, or similar platforms).
Version control and deployment basics: Git, CI/CD familiarity, and experience coordinating staged releases.
Basic SQL and data literacy to query analytics data and synthesize insights.
Experience with project tracking and collaboration tools: JIRA, Asana, Trello, Confluence, or equivalent.
Experience integrating and managing third‑party tools and APIs (CRM, marketing automation, search, personalization).
Knowledge of security and privacy best practices for web forms, cookies, and data collection (GDPR/CCPA awareness).

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management and communication skills: translate technical concepts to non-technical audiences and manage expectations.
Analytical and data-driven mindset: interpret metrics, run experiments, and recommend prioritizations based on evidence.
Attention to detail and high standards for quality and accessibility.
Project management and organizational ability: juggle multiple priorities, manage timelines, and mitigate risks.
Problem-solving and troubleshooting under time pressure for incident response and hotfixes.
Collaborative teamwork: work effectively across product, design, engineering, marketing, and vendor teams.
Facilitation and training skills: lead workshops and enablement sessions for content authors and business users.
Adaptability and continuous learning mindset in a fast-evolving web technology landscape.
Customer-centric thinking focused on improving user journeys and conversions.
Strategic thinking with the ability to link web initiatives to business KPIs and ROI.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Communications, Marketing, Digital Media, or related field — or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Advanced degree or relevant professional certifications in digital marketing, web technologies, accessibility, or project management.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science / Software Engineering
Information Technology / Information Systems
Communications / Journalism
Marketing / Digital Marketing
Human-Computer Interaction / UX Design

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–7 years of progressive experience in web operations, content management, or digital program delivery.

Preferred:

5+ years managing enterprise web properties or multiple public-facing websites.
Demonstrated experience with at least one major CMS platform, web analytics implementation, and accessibility compliance programs.
Proven track record of coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver measurable improvements in traffic, conversion, performance, or accessibility.