Adobe Experience Manager development at the enterprise level is a narrow specialty. Focus GTS has placed 500+ Adobe specialists at Fortune 100 companies since 2018 -- including senior AEM developers who build, maintain, and migrate complex AEM deployments. We are an Adobe Silver Solution Partner. Screened resumes in 48 hours.
The role in context
AEM development is not web development with a CMS bolted on. The skill set is specific, the platform is deep, and the gap between a capable junior and a senior you can trust with production is wide.
At the enterprise level, an AEM developer owns the full content delivery stack: component authoring with Editable Templates and the Core Components framework, HTL (Sightly) templates, Sling model annotations, OSGi service configuration, and Dispatcher caching rules that keep page load times defensible. On AEM as a Cloud Service, they also manage Cloud Manager pipelines, immutable repository deployments, and Assets compute workers that process renditions at scale.
The implementation surface is broader than most organizations anticipate. A senior AEM developer needs to understand how content fragments feed headless channels via the GraphQL API, how Dynamic Media handles asset rendition and smart cropping, and how the experience fragment architecture enables cross-channel personalization when AEM Target integration is in play. They should be able to troubleshoot replication queue failures, sling:resourceType resolution chains, and the JCR query performance problems that silently slow down high-traffic author environments.
What makes these people hard to hire is the combination of depth and breadth. A developer who has only worked on AEM Sites may have no experience with AEM Assets workflows or Dynamic Media configuration. A developer who built custom components on AEM 6.5 may not understand the constraints of AEMaaCS immutable deployments. Focus GTS screens for the specific capabilities your implementation requires -- not just years of AEM on a resume.
Why this hire is hard
AEM has a smaller developer pool than any mainstream CMS. The platform's complexity filters out general-purpose Java developers, and the Adobe ecosystem's evolution from on-premise to cloud creates a skill gap even within AEM's existing practitioners.
Most AEM developers learned the platform on the job at an agency or system integrator that ran AEM implementations. The ones with genuine depth have typically shipped three or more major AEM projects -- enough to have encountered the failure modes that only appear at scale: authoring performance under multi-threaded workloads, Oak index degradation, replication failures during high-volume content publishes, and the Dispatcher configuration edge cases that cause cached-content bugs in production.
The migration to AEM as a Cloud Service has complicated the talent market further. Developers who have only worked on AEM 6.x on-premise need meaningful upskilling before they are productive on AEMaaCS -- the deployment model, the repository structure constraints, and the Cloud Manager pipeline requirements are sufficiently different that on-premise experience alone does not transfer cleanly. When you hire without screening for this distinction, you learn about it two weeks into a contract.
Focus GTS has placed AEM developers continuously since 2018. We know which candidates have genuine AEMaaCS production experience, which ones have strong on-premise depth that transfers with a ramp, and which ones are claiming cloud experience they do not actually have. That judgment comes from staffing hundreds of AEM engagements, not from reading a skills checklist.
Tell us the AEM version, the implementation scope -- Sites, Assets, headless, AEMaaCS -- and your engagement model. We will have screened resumes to you within 48 hours of an intake call.
Start the ConversationScreened resumes in 48 hours. Adobe Silver Solution Partner.
Our vetting process
We are an Adobe Silver Solution Partner with deep knowledge of what enterprise AEM implementations require. That informs every technical screen we run.
We confirm whether candidates have genuine AEMaaCS production experience vs. AEM 6.x on-premise only -- and screen for the specific modules your implementation uses.
Candidates walk through their approach to custom component design, Sling model usage, HTL templating, and Core Components integration on a real-world scenario.
We assess experience with the integrations that matter for your stack: Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Dynamic Media, Launch (Data Collection), and headless GraphQL delivery.
Reference checks and project verification confirm the candidate has shipped AEM in production at enterprise scale -- not just development environments or proofs of concept.
Engagement options
We staff AEM developers across all four engagement models, sized for the scope of your need.
Frequently asked
We deliver screened resumes within 48 hours of an intake call for contract AEM developer roles. Typical contract placements close in one to two weeks when the client can move quickly on interviews. Full-time and contract-to-hire placements run two to four weeks depending on compensation alignment and interview rounds.
Our AEM developers hold hands-on production experience with AEM 6.5 and AEM as a Cloud Service, HTL (Sightly), Sling models, OSGi components, Dispatcher configuration, AEM Assets and Dynamic Media, headless content delivery via Content Fragments and GraphQL, and AEM Sites page authoring. Senior developers also bring CI/CD pipeline experience with AEM Cloud Manager and Adobe I/O.
Yes. AEM as a Cloud Service requires a distinct skill set from on-premise AEM 6.5 -- immutable deployments, Cloud Manager pipelines, the Assets compute framework, and the shift away from mutable content nodes. We screen for AEMaaCS production experience explicitly, not just AEM 6.x background.
Contract (W2 or C2C), contract-to-hire, and direct full-time placement. For teams with ongoing AEM development needs, Navigator -- our subscription managed service -- provides senior AEM developers at a fixed monthly rate without per-project SOWs.
Yes. All actively-marketed AEM developer candidates Focus GTS presents are US-based. We do not submit offshore-only candidates for senior AEM development roles. The AEM talent market is narrow enough that quality cannot be sacrificed for cost -- the rework risk on a mis-hire in an enterprise AEM environment is substantial.
Screened resumes in 48 hours. Adobe Silver Solution Partner. Tell us what your AEM implementation needs.
