Top 12 Drupal Developer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today's competitive tech job market, a sharp resume matters, especially for Drupal developers aiming to stand out. Emphasizing the right skills—modern Drupal, clean code, performance thinking—signals you can ship, adapt, and keep pace with fast-moving releases.
Drupal Developer Skills
1. Drupal 10/11
Drupal 10/11 is an open-source CMS built on modern PHP, Symfony 6 LTS components, and Twig 3. It’s API-first out of the box (hello JSON:API), ships with CKEditor 5, and leans into clean configuration management, decoupled architectures, and long-term stability.
Why It's Important
Modern Drupal brings robust OOP patterns, a powerful plugin system, services with dependency injection, streamlined configuration workflows, and an upgrade path that rewards clean code. It scales, it’s secure, and it plays well with headless setups—fewer hacks, more structure.
How to Improve Drupal 10/11 Skills
Master the building blocks: entities, fields, view modes, configuration export/import, caching layers (page, render, dynamic page cache), and permissions.
Develop modules the modern way: plugins, services, event subscribers, routes, and controllers. Embrace typed data and PHP attributes where supported.
Theme responsibly: Twig templates, preprocess functions, theme suggestions, and render arrays. Keep logic in PHP, not templates.
Work with core APIs: JSON:API, queue API, cache API, access checks, entity queries, and the messenger/state/tempstore services.
Automate: Drush for deployments, database updates, config sync, and cron. Add CI to run tests and static analysis on every push.
Upgrade-ready mindset: use deprecation checks, coding standards, and automated refactoring tools to stay aligned with current Drupal and Symfony versions.
Practice often. Contribute if you can. The ecosystem rewards hands-on learning.
How to Display Drupal 10/11 Skills on Your Resume
2. PHP
PHP powers Drupal. In practice: modern PHP (8.1+) with strict types, attributes, enums where sensible, and solid OOP. It’s the core craft behind stable modules and maintainable themes.
Why It's Important
Drupal is largely PHP. Strong PHP means faster problem-solving, easier debugging, better performance, and code that survives upgrades.
How to Improve PHP Skills
Go modern: strict types, exceptions over error suppression, attributes, readonly properties, match expressions, and generators where they fit.
Structure: SOLID principles, interfaces, services, and composition. Keep classes small and focused.
Quality gates: static analysis (PHPStan/Psalm), coding standards (PHPCS, PSR-12), unit and kernel tests.
Error visibility: Xdebug, step-through debugging, and meaningful logs. No silent failures.
Performance: understand opcache, memory patterns, and avoid needless allocations in hot paths.
How to Display PHP Skills on Your Resume
3. Symfony
Symfony is the backbone under modern Drupal. Components like HttpFoundation, Routing, EventDispatcher, and DependencyInjection shape how Drupal runs—and how you should code within it.
Why It's Important
Knowing Symfony means understanding services, events, controllers, and configuration. You write cleaner, more testable modules and align with Drupal’s direction.
How to Improve Symfony Skills
Think in services: define services, inject dependencies, avoid global state.
Events over hooks where appropriate: subscribe, dispatch, and keep behavior modular.
Routing and controllers: clear routes, minimal controllers, business logic in services.
Configuration: YAML and PHP attributes as applicable; keep settings explicit and versioned.
Hands-on practice: build a small feature with events, a plugin, and a custom service wired through the container.
How to Display Symfony Skills on Your Resume
4. Twig
Twig is Drupal’s templating engine. Fast, secure, and clean. It guards against unsafe output and keeps your themes readable.
Why It's Important
With Twig, you separate structure from logic. Your themes become maintainable, predictable, and safer by default.
How to Improve Twig Skills
Know the tools: filters, functions, tests, macros, includes, and embeds. Use them judiciously.
Preprocess first: push logic into preprocess functions and pass tidy variables to templates.
Debugging: enable Twig debug, explore theme suggestions, and use dump() sparingly.
Performance: leverage render caching and lazy builders; avoid heavy loops and computation in templates.
Consistency: stick to naming conventions and clear regions; document custom Twig extensions if you add them.
How to Display Twig Skills on Your Resume
5. JavaScript
JavaScript powers interactivity. In Drupal, that means behaviors, libraries, and increasingly decoupled front ends when needed.
Why It's Important
Modern UIs demand it. Whether progressive enhancement or a headless app, JS shapes user experience.
How to Improve JavaScript Skills
ES6+: modules, async/await, fetch, destructuring, and sensible patterns for state.
Drupal behaviors: attach/detach lifecycles, the once() utility, and libraries.yml for dependency management.
API-savvy: handle JSON:API responses, pagination, filters, sparse fieldsets, and caching headers.
Accessibility: focus management, ARIA states, keyboard interactions, and reduced-motion respect.
Tooling: linting, type checking (TypeScript optional), and bundling only when the project justifies it.
How to Display JavaScript Skills on Your Resume
6. CSS
CSS defines the look and feel. Drupal themes thrive on structure: components, utilities, and consistent patterns.
Why It's Important
Good CSS turns a functional build into a polished product. Responsive, accessible, fast—users feel the difference.
How to Improve CSS Skills
Modern layout: Grid, Flexbox, container queries when available, and fluid typography.
Maintainability: BEM or an equivalent convention; component-driven styles over page-level sprawl.
Performance: critical CSS where appropriate, trim unused rules, and keep specificity low.
Pre/Post-processing: Sass or PostCSS for variables, nesting, and autoprefixing—used thoughtfully.
Drupal integration: libraries.yml, breakpoints.yml, and theme inheritance to keep assets organized.
How to Display CSS Skills on Your Resume
7. HTML5
HTML5 gives structure, semantics, and media capabilities. It’s the backbone of accessible, SEO-friendly Drupal themes.
Why It's Important
Semantic markup improves screen reader navigation, search indexing, and maintainability. Clean HTML keeps everything else simpler.
How to Improve HTML5 Skills
Semantics first: landmarks, headings, lists, and meaningful elements. Let structure carry the weight.
Accessibility: ARIA when necessary (not by default), correct roles, labels, and focus order; WCAG 2.2 awareness.
Responsive media: picture/source for images, lazy loading, and captions where context matters.
Forms: native validation, proper input types, and error messaging tied to inputs.
Integration: ensure template HTML aligns with Drupal’s render arrays and theme suggestions.
How to Display HTML5 Skills on Your Resume
8. Git
Git tracks your changes, protects your history, and lets teams collaborate without chaos.
Why It's Important
Every Drupal project benefits from disciplined version control: safer releases, reviewable changes, and smooth rollbacks.
How to Improve Git Skills
Clear commits: small, focused, with meaningful messages. Reference issues when relevant.
Branching strategy: pick one that fits your team (feature branches, trunk-based, or a light GitFlow). Be consistent.
Automation: pre-commit checks for PHPCS/PHPStan and tests in CI; block merges on failures.
Hooks and templates: enforce commit message patterns and run formatters automatically.
Healthy reviews: merge requests/pull requests with code owners and required approvals.
How to Display Git Skills on Your Resume
9. MySQL
MySQL (often MySQL 8 in Drupal stacks) stores content, config, and everything dynamic. Tuning it smartly pays back in page speed and stability.
Why It's Important
Drupal’s entity-heavy workloads touch the database constantly. Efficient queries and sane configuration keep response times low under load.
How to Improve MySQL Skills
Indexes matter: add the right indexes to custom tables; confirm with EXPLAIN and watch cardinality.
Query health: use entity queries and the database API; batch heavy work; avoid N+1 patterns.
Tune InnoDB: buffer pool sizing, log file sizes, and flush settings tuned to your hardware and traffic.
Observe: enable slow query logs, review regularly, and optimize the worst offenders first.
Cache all the things: lean on Drupal’s caches; prefer Redis or Memcached rather than hammering MySQL.
Maintenance: analyze/optimize tables periodically and archive stale data where appropriate.
How to Display MySQL Skills on Your Resume
10. Composer
Composer manages dependencies for Drupal core, modules, and themes. It keeps versions compatible and deployments predictable.
Why It's Important
Modern Drupal is Composer-first. Reliable installs, repeatable builds, smooth updates—no drama.
How to Improve Composer Skills
Use recommended project templates: start clean with a structure that separates web root and vendor code.
Version constraints: follow semantic versioning; avoid overly broad constraints that cause surprise upgrades.
Performance: prefer Composer 2, optimize the autoloader for production, and cache dependencies in CI.
Patches safely: manage patches via a dedicated plugin; document why each patch exists and when to remove it.
Security: run audits, keep dependencies current, and watch for advisories affecting core and contrib.
Automation: composer scripts for routine actions (cache clears, tests, scaffolding) to keep workflows consistent.
How to Display Composer Skills on Your Resume
11. RESTful APIs
APIs connect Drupal to the world. Core offers JSON:API with solid conventions, plus classic REST if needed. Headless or hybrid—your choice.
Why It's Important
Integrations, mobile apps, microservices, third-party systems—APIs make Drupal a nimble content hub.
How to Improve RESTful APIs Skills
HTTP done right: clean use of GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE; correct status codes; idempotency where required.
Lean payloads: sparse fieldsets, pagination, filtering, and includes—ship only what clients need.
Caching and ETags: respect cache headers; use Drupal’s cache metadata so intermediaries can help.
Security: strict permissions, authentication (OAuth 2 when appropriate), and HTTPS everywhere.
Versioning: prefix routes or negotiate via headers; document breaking changes clearly.
Testing: automated tests for endpoints (happy paths and edge cases) plus load testing on critical flows.
Documentation: describe schemas, auth flows, error shapes, and examples. Keep it close to the codebase.
How to Display RESTful APIs Skills on Your Resume
12. Drush
Drush is the command-line workhorse for Drupal. It speeds up repetitive tasks and stabilizes deployments.
Why It's Important
From cache clears to database updates to config imports, Drush turns multi-step chores into reliable one-liners.
How to Improve Drush Skills
Stay current: match Drush versions with your Drupal version and keep the launcher handy.
Aliases: define local, staging, and production aliases for instant context switching and safe remote execution.
Deployment helpers: run database updates, import config, and execute post-deploy hooks in a single scripted flow.
Custom commands: wrap team-specific routines into annotated commands; document args and options.
Environment sync: rsync files, grab database dumps, and sanitize data for local work.
Scripting: compose reliable shell scripts using Drush commands to standardize processes across the team.
How to Display Drush Skills on Your Resume
