Hire the Top 1% of HubSpot Developers

A guide to hiring a HubSpot developer

HubSpot started as a marketing tool and has grown into a platform that runs websites, email, sales pipelines, support tickets and customer data in one portal. That breadth is its strength, and also the reason a portal can get messy fast. Every new property, workflow and integration touches something else. A HubSpot developer brings order to that growth and builds what the standard settings cannot do. This guide walks through the kinds of HubSpot developers, what to test and how to set a new hire up well.

Two kinds of HubSpot developer

Most HubSpot developers lean one of two ways. Website developers work in Content Hub: themes, templates, modules and HubL, the platform’s templating language. Their output is fast pages that marketers can edit without breaking the design. RevOps or integration developers work behind the scenes: properties, objects, workflows, custom code actions and API connections to other systems. Some people do both, but it is worth deciding which side matters most to you before you start interviews, because the tests are different.

Map your portal first

Write down which hubs and tiers you pay for, since features such as custom objects and some automation depend on the plan. List the tools that send data into HubSpot or read from it, such as your product, billing, support desk or data warehouse. Note the problems people complain about today, for example duplicate contacts, leads that never reach sales or reports nobody trusts. Sharing this map with candidates lets them show how they would approach your real situation.

What to test for website work

• Theme structure: clean folders, shared partials and global settings for colours and fonts.
• Module design: fields that give marketers freedom without letting them break the layout.
• Page speed: compressed images, light scripts and careful use of third-party embeds.
• Local development: the HubSpot CLI, Git and a test portal before anything goes live.
• Accessibility basics: headings in order, alt text fields and readable colour contrast.

What to test for RevOps and integrations

• Data design: when to add a property, when to use an association and when a custom object fits.
• Workflow hygiene: clear names, folders, enrolment rules and notes on why each workflow exists.
• API skills: private apps with the right scopes, batching, rate limits and retries.
• Sync thinking: which system owns each field and what happens when two systems disagree.

Interview questions to try

1. Show me a HubSpot module you built. What can a marketer change, and what is locked?
2. Leads from one form are not reaching sales. How would you trace the problem?
3. When would you use a custom code action instead of a separate integration?
4. How do you keep HubSpot and our billing system from overwriting each other?
5. What would you check first in a portal you have never seen before?

Listen for concrete answers that mention specific HubSpot tools, logs and test steps. A candidate who would change live workflows without testing is a risk to your contact data.

Run a small paid build

A HubSpot developer test account is enough for a fair trial. Ask website candidates to build one module, such as a pricing table with editable plans. Ask RevOps candidates to build a workflow that creates a task and calls a small piece of code, or to sync a sample record from a mock API. Review the result together, and ask what they would do differently with more time.

Matching seniority to the job

A newer developer can build modules, landing page templates and simple workflows if a lead reviews them. A developer with several portals behind them can own a theme or an integration from start to finish. For a migration from another CRM or CMS, a complex product sync or a portal that has grown messy over years, look for someone senior who has done that exact kind of project.

Keep your portal healthy

Agree on naming rules for properties, lists and workflows before the developer starts building. Ask them to keep a short change log and to review unused properties and old workflows every few months. Small habits like these stop a portal from filling with duplicates and make onboarding the next person far easier.

Onboarding a HubSpot developer

Give the developer the right user permissions, access to your code repository and a test portal or sandbox. In the first weeks, ask for a short audit of the portal and one quick win, such as fixing a broken form or a stuck workflow. After that, hand over a larger project with a clear goal, for example a new website section or a product data sync, and meet weekly to review progress.

Mistakes to avoid

• Letting every team create properties freely until nobody knows which field is correct.
• Building pages from one-off templates instead of reusable modules.
• Connecting apps without deciding which system owns each piece of data.
• Skipping redirects when moving a website, and losing search traffic as a result.

Looking at other remote technical roles too? See our remote software engineering hiring playbook.