Hire the Top 3% of Freelance Django Developers

Django Developer Demand Outpaces Supply

As Python continues to gain prominence, Django has climbed in popularity with it—among professionals, it’s the second-most-used Python framework by a thin margin (Flask beat it out by 0.4%). The demand for Django expertise, along with specific technical abilities like continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) and code reviews, has grown steadily, yet the supply of experienced full-time Django developers hasn’t kept pace. The scarcity is exacerbated by the depth of knowledge required for senior Django roles: Proficiency in Django’s ORM, middleware, and advanced features like asynchronous views demands years of experience. These factors contribute to a highly competitive market where hiring managers must navigate limited talent pools and rising compensation expectations to secure top Django talent. Finding candidates is difficult; interviewing and selecting them is even more difficult.

This guide demystifies the world of Django, delineating expertise levels, defining umbrellas of Django-focused skills, and explaining the relevance of Django-adjacent technologies. With all that, as well as the job description and interview advice this guide offers, you’ll soon know how to hire the right Django expert for your business.

What Attributes Distinguish Quality Django Developers From Others?

If you want to find a talented developer among candidates, it makes sense for you to consider multiple angles in your hiring process. The first is the Python factor: Since Django is an open-source Python framework, good Django developers are also Python programmers—so their Python code quality must be high, otherwise their work will result in technical debt that will multiply your project costs. Keep track of the non-Django Python libraries your project uses, and screen for knowledge of those libraries as well. You can accomplish this vetting in-house or outsource it to a tech screening company.

The second angle to consider has more to do with Django itself. As a “batteries included” web framework, Django seeks to provide a developer with all the tools needed to build scalable applications from scratch or to create new features of existing projects. Specifically, a quality Django developer should be proficient in:

Tools for Rapid Development – Django comes with tools that allow software engineers to rapidly scaffold and modify back-end APIs. This allows Django programmers to build back-end services and systems much faster than developers using leaner or less mature web frameworks.

Security Best Practices – Django includes a suite of security applications that help with tasks such as encryption, user authentication, and data management. By making best practices the default, Django experts can avoid costly security mistakes while maintaining a quick development pace.

Data Interfaces and Computing – Django, a Python web framework, can leverage all the powerful data manipulation and processing tools available through the Python ecosystem. A quality Django developer may well be strong in all of these areas, but the relative value to your company of each of these subskills depends on your project requirements.

Complementary Technology Skills for Django Development

Django is a powerful tool, but it relies on a wider ecosystem of technologies to function. Depending on your project, you may look for developers with experience in the following complementary tech stack for Django:

HTML and CSS – As the fundamental building blocks of the web, HTML and CSS are crucial skills for all developers who build web apps, regardless of their preferred framework. HTML describes page structure and CSS defines styles and formatting; together, they provide everything necessary to construct a static webpage. All Django developers should have a solid foundational understanding of these markup languages.

SQL Databases – Almost every application today requires data storage of some kind, and many of Django’s built-in features require a connection to an SQL database such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite, among others. A high-quality Django developer should know how to create, maintain, and optimize SQL tables and queries, both using raw SQL and through the Django ORM (object-relational mapping).

JavaScript – Because Django is a web framework, and JavaScript is the de facto front-end programming language, most Django developers will interact with JavaScript at some point in their careers. But just how much JavaScript knowledge is required?

• If you’re looking for a developer to build an application from end to end, you’ll want to hire a Django developer with significant experience in one of the major JavaScript frameworks, such as React or Angular.
• If you are looking for someone to develop primarily the back end of a Django application, you won’t need to hire someone with substantial JavaScript experience. However, hiring someone with some knowledge of JavaScript best practices will be helpful in case they’re called upon for any front-end work.
• If you are looking for someone to build only REST APIs and microservices, you will not need to hire a Django developer with much, if any, knowledge of JavaScript.

REST APIs – The vast majority of web APIs today follow some variation of REST, and chances are that a given Django application will have a REST API as part of its feature set—and that it will use the Django REST framework (DRF) to accomplish this. DRF expertise might be necessary for Django REST API development, as it requires familiarity with its limitations and essential performance optimization techniques. But even if your project eschews REST (in favor of GraphQL, for example), a Django developer candidate should be comfortable with REST APIs in terms of communicating with third-party services—a common (eventual) project requirement.

Machine Learning – Many Django applications are the HTTP layer of a data-heavy application with a significant back end. As a result, many Django developers also take on the role of Python engineers with a nonweb specialization. One popular specialization is machine learning, which is used to identify patterns in complex data. If your application has a significant data component, look for a Django engineer who has knowledge of machine learning or a related statistical discipline.

Docker – Docker lets developers deploy applications in containers, simplifying their environments and making them easily replicable. Web applications are increasingly running in containerized environments, the vast majority of which use Docker. Knowing Docker will help your Django developer take advantage of the latest advancements in containerization, cloud technologies, and Kubernetes, enabling scalability benefits for your project.

Version Control – Software engineers use Git to track and manage changes to a codebase, and often employ platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket to host their code and collaborate with others. While the specific version control platforms may differ in regard to some key features or workflows, Git itself is more or less universal, so experience with any one platform should transfer easily enough to others. When hiring Django developers, it’s always good to see familiarity with version control techniques.

How Can You Identify the Ideal Django Developer for You?

When it comes to finding the top Django developers, it is important to first understand your project and your team size. Are you starting a new project focused on application development? Are you hiring a Django freelancer to join an existing development team? Is your project deeply integrated with an unusual technology that will require extensive knowledge? Does it use custom technologies that a more skilled and experienced developer would take less time to pick up? Do you have existing infrastructure that you need to work with, for better or for worse? Do you expect new team members to be well versed in development cycles, project management, or agile methodologies?

These questions will inform the kind of Django developers for hire you’ll want to seek, but the first step is to consider the level of Django expertise that will make sense for your team and project.

Junior Developer

A junior Django developer may have built a couple of small Django projects and may be somewhat familiar with the Python ecosystem. The least experienced junior developers will require coaching by a more experienced team member before contributing to the codebase. More experienced junior developers will be able to take ownership over a small portion of the Django codebase, for example, an endpoint or a set of related endpoints. In any case, a junior developer is unlikely to contribute to the broader discussion about project architecture or deployment infrastructure.

You should hire a junior developer if you have an established codebase and a strong team of developers who will be able to guide new team members. After a short period of acclimation, the junior developer will likely begin contributing meaningfully to your codebase but will require additional development time for more complex feature requests and debugging processes, including bug fixes.

Mid-level Developer

A mid-level Django developer is familiar with the most popular Django and Python packages and their associated use cases. They may have worked on large-scale Django projects, and their familiarity with the Django and Python ecosystems will enable them to suggest new ways to solve any problems at hand. They may be able to contribute meaningfully to discussions about project architecture and will be able to mentor junior developers to some extent—but may also need mentoring themselves.

You should hire a mid-level Django developer if you have a relatively simple project or are looking to expand an existing project supported by an established team. They should be able to work independently quickly and seek out growth opportunities and additional responsibilities.

Senior Developer

A senior Django developer is an expert in both the Python language and the Django framework, and has at least six years of full-time software development, with at least two of them focused on Django. They have a deep understanding of both Django and Python, their best practices, and their ecosystems. They’ve taken multiple Django projects from concept to production.

This level of responsibility has also given them experience architecting databases—or at least parts of them—in ways that reduce storage costs and improve back-end responsiveness. Just as importantly, they know how to support and manage Django deployments, either in the cloud or with on-premise infrastructure, and they exhibit great problem-solving skills, being able to anticipate a possible issue and prevent major malfunctions along the way.

What really sets apart senior Django developers, though, is their understanding of how the pieces fit together. They may know that the Django ORM doesn’t play well with a certain database configuration or that the messaging system has unexpected behavior under certain conditions. This knowledge is often gained only through experience and can save businesses significant time and money by avoiding common pitfalls.

You should look for a senior Django developer if you need someone to take the lead in building or refactoring a complex Django application and you are ready to give this person a fair amount of freedom in technical decision-making. In a pinch, such a developer can even single-handedly drive the project to execution, but that would depend on your business goals and timeline requirements.

Common Django Use Cases

Consider the specific skill sets required for your project’s use cases and the role you have in mind for your candidate. These skill sets generally (but not exclusively) fall into four broad categories:

Full-stack Development – Django can handle everything on the server side of a web application and has a powerful template engine for creating webpages. However, your project may need advanced front-end features, such as enhanced user interface (UI) interactivity or cross-site scripting mitigation. In such a case, you’ll need a full-stack Django developer who is adept at both front- and back-end development, and understands how to create great user experiences from end to end. (Below, we provide more specifics about how this relates to JavaScript expertise.)

Data Management – Django, built on top of Python, lends itself readily to data-heavy applications. In such applications, Django is only part of a larger data processing system. In these situations, to work seamlessly with the data team, the project’s Django developer should have some familiarity with data management best practices.

System Administration – Django applications run on servers, which require system administration—unless your team outsources this responsibility by leveraging a serverless architecture. Some organizations have a systems administrator or a cloud engineer to manage their infrastructure, but in smaller organizations, this responsibility often falls on the back-end (Django) developer. Such scenarios necessitate the need for skills in additional scripting and programming languages, like Bash or Perl, as well as familiarity with cloud computing services like AWS, Azure, or GCP; these requirements will depend on your existing infrastructure.

Platform Migration – If you’ve decided to use Django but your current project uses a competing Python framework (e.g., Flask or CherryPy), a generalist Python developer will be helpful. But your app migration will be smoother if your team has specific knowledge of both Django and whichever framework you’re planning to leave behind. If you’re rebuilding a team, this may mean looking for a single developer with experience in both. Alternatively, hire both a Django expert and, for the duration of the migration, an expert in your prior framework.

How to Write a Django Developer Job Description for Your Project

Now that you have determined the seniority and skill set of the Django developer you seek, it’s time to write the job description. Since a Django developer is also a Python developer, it’s worth starting with a relevant job description template and focusing it further on Django. Additionally, be sure to include information that answers these questions:

• What tech stack does the project require? Is it a web application with millions of users that needs to focus on scalability?
• Is it a data-heavy application where the Django developer will have to do database optimizations?
• Is there a front-end component involved or a need for familiarity with specific front-end frameworks?

Candidates will find this information useful to self-filter.

What Are the Most Important Django Developer Interview Questions?

When it comes to interviewing, whether you’re trying to hire remote Django developers or on-site Django experts, the process will give you a chance to evaluate crucial communication skills and soft skills alongside technical specifics.

As with any large framework, there is almost an endless series of questions a hiring manager can ask during the interview process. However, the emphasis should be on understanding how the candidate thinks about web development and how they use Django to solve problems, rather than their knowledge of specific packages or functions.

At least half of your themes should focus on general Python questions since a good Django developer needs to be a good Python developer first and foremost. But some Django-specific questions are also important to include; here’s a sample of helpful conversation starters:

What are some use cases where Django excels, and what are some use cases where alternative web frameworks should be used?

Django is a general-purpose web framework and can be used for almost every situation where a web framework is appropriate. However, there are a few Django use cases where the framework particularly excels:

• When it’s known that the project will evolve into a full-fledged web application with multiple endpoints, authentication, and content management features. Django comes with packages for many of these features, making it easy to add them as the project grows.
• When the underlying storage technology uses SQL. Django comes packaged with a powerful ORM that integrates well with the rest of the framework. However, the Django ORM only works with SQL-based technologies, so a project using NoSQL will need to use another library for its data layer.
• When multiple team members will collaborate on the back end. Django has a very organized system for separating different subapplications and makes it easy for multiple developers to collaborate on the same Django project.

Strong candidates with clear knowledge of these use cases will be better prepared to advise you on project architecture and brainstorm how Django can best serve projects that are being started from scratch.

What packages would you use to test a Django application?

There are a few helpful Django test tools:

Familiarity with these standard testing tools indicates that a developer follows best practices and understands the benefits of automated and unit testing.

Why Do Companies Hire Django Developers?

Companies and startups hire top freelance Django developers because they can build applications quickly, scale them to support a large user base, and grow and maintain them as business needs change. Plus, Django developers can leverage a rich ecosystem of state-of-the-art Python libraries for a variety of tasks, making them well worth the salary or hourly rate they earn.

With Django skills being so valuable, it’s no surprise that the best Django developers are in high demand. But you’ll find success in hiring when you’re savvy about which Django-adjacent skills you need for your projects and understand a Django developer’s role within them. With the guidance shared here, you’re ready to craft an accurate and attractive job description and conduct interviews with professional effectiveness to land the ideal Django engineer for your company’s needs.

The technical content presented in this article was reviewed by Temesgen Tiruneh.