Freelance Software Development Jobs in Kansas (NOW HIRING)

Location: Remote within 3 hours of Kansas City, MO or Pittsburg, KS (required monthly in-office presence in Pittsburg)
Eligible metro areas include: Kansas City, Overland Park, Wichita, Joplin, Springfield MO, Tulsa, and Northwest Arkansas (Bentonville/Rogers/Springdale)
Employment Type: Full-time (no freelancers or agencies)
About This Role
LimeLight Marketing is seeking a Senior Web Development Manager who has actually built and led high-performing development teams-not just supervised them. This role requires someone who has hired developers, established development standards, implemented processes that improved output quality, and coached team members through meaningful growth.
You'll inherit a small team that needs experienced leadership to level up. The right person for this role has been in the trenches, knows what good looks like, and can articulate a clear path to get there. You're still technical enough to architect solutions, review code meaningfully, and step in when complex problems arise-but your primary value is multiplying the effectiveness of others.
Our work spans multiple platforms and technical environments: Shopify and BigCommerce for ecommerce, WordPress for content-driven sites, .NET for custom applications, and increasingly, data processing and transformation work that supports our marketing intelligence capabilities. You don't need to be an expert in every stack, but you need working fluency across them and genuine depth in at least one.
AI-assisted development is central to how we work and how we expect to grow. You should be actively using AI coding tools in your own workflow and have a clear perspective on how to train and enable a team to maximize their output through these tools. This isn't about replacing developers-it's about multiplying their effectiveness and accelerating the entire team's capabilities.
This is a fast-paced agency environment where communication comes from multiple directions simultaneously-clients, project managers, developers, leadership. The ability to context-switch effectively, prioritize decisively, and maintain clarity amid competing demands is non-negotiable.
This is a hands-on leadership role with significant client interaction. You'll join sales calls as the technical voice, translate business requirements into technical specifications, and own the delivery quality of everything the development team produces.
What You'll Be Accountable For
Team Development & Performance

• Build a development team capable of delivering complex projects on time and within scope across multiple technology platforms
• Establish clear performance expectations, provide regular feedback, and manage underperformance directly
• Create career development paths and mentorship structures that retain strong talent
• Implement code review processes, QA standards, and documentation practices that elevate output quality
• Lead the team's adoption of AI-assisted development practices-identifying the right tools, establishing effective workflows, and training developers to maximize output quality and velocity

Technical Leadership

• Architect solutions across diverse platforms: ecommerce (Shopify, BigCommerce), CMS (WordPress), custom applications (.NET), and data transformation projects
• Write technical specifications detailed enough for developers to execute without constant clarification
• Make sound build-vs-buy decisions and evaluate technical tradeoffs across different technology stacks
• Own site performance, security posture, and technical debt management across the client portfolio
• Stay current with platform updates, emerging tools, and development practices-particularly AI-assisted coding tools-and translate that knowledge into team capabilities

Client & Project Delivery

• Serve as the technical lead on sales calls and scoping conversations across all service lines
• Translate client business objectives into development requirements regardless of platform
• Manage client expectations around timelines, complexity, and tradeoffs
• Ensure projects deliver on time with minimal scope creep or rework

Operational Excellence

• Manage your own time effectively in an environment with competing priorities and interruptions from multiple stakeholders
• Maintain visibility into all active development work and surface risks before they become problems
• Balance strategic initiatives (process improvement, team development) with tactical demands (client escalations, urgent requests)
• Model the communication discipline you expect from the team-proactive updates, clear status, early escalation

You Should Apply If You Have
Management Experience (Required)

• 4+ years leading development teams of 3+ people in an agency or client services environment
• Direct experience hiring developers and building teams-not just inheriting them
• Track record of improving team performance through process, standards, or coaching
• Comfort with difficult conversations: performance issues, missed expectations, workload balancing

Technical Breadth & Depth (Required)

• 7+ years in web development with strong fundamentals
• Working knowledge of multiple platforms: ecommerce (Shopify, BigCommerce), CMS (WordPress), and custom development (.NET or similar)
• Genuine expertise in at least one of these environments-deep enough to architect complex solutions and mentor others
• Experience with data processing, ETL workflows, or API integrations that move data between systems
• Understanding of database optimization, version control best practices, and CI/CD pipelines
• Ability to review code critically and identify architectural issues before they become problems

AI-Assisted Development (Required)

• Active, fluent use of AI coding assistants (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude, or similar) in your own development workflow
• Perspective on where AI accelerates development and where it creates risk
• Experience or strong interest in training others on effective AI tool adoption
• Understanding of how AI changes code review, documentation, and quality assurance practices

Communication & Time Management (Required)

• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment with communication coming from clients, project managers, leadership, and team members simultaneously
• Experience presenting technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and clients
• Written communication strong enough to produce clear technical specifications and documentation
• Proactive communication style-you surface blockers and risks early rather than hoping they resolve
• Disciplined approach to time management: you protect focus time, batch similar work, and don't let urgent requests crowd out important work

This Role Is Probably Not Right If

• Your management experience is limited to delegating tasks or leading projects rather than leading people
• You haven't hired and onboarded developers before
• You prefer to code full-time and see management as a distraction
• You struggle to explain technical decisions in business terms
• You avoid difficult conversations about performance or quality
• You're skeptical of AI tools or haven't integrated them into your workflow
• You thrive in slower-paced environments with predictable workloads and clear boundaries between responsibilities
• Context-switching drains you rather than energizes you

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
• Simple IRA with 100% company match on first 3%
• Group health, dental, and life insurance with company contribution
• Flexible (self-managed) vacation policy
• Flexible schedule with option for half-day Fridays
• Paid office closure from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day
• Remote work stipend
• Annual wellness stipend
• Ongoing learning and development budget
• Paid parental leave

About LimeLight Marketing
LimeLight is a digital marketing agency specializing in ecommerce, with capabilities spanning paid media, email marketing, SEO, and web development. Our development work supports marketing outcomes-whether that's building high-converting storefronts, creating data pipelines that power campaign intelligence, or developing custom tools that give our clients competitive advantage.
Team members thrive in a fast-paced environment where every person makes an impact. We're small enough to feel connected but large enough to have deep specialists in their craft.
We make decisions quickly, give team members autonomy, and hold ourselves to high standards. Working here means being an active, trusted member of a performance-oriented culture with the support and tools you need to succeed.