Senior Full-Stack Web Developer / Development Team — Scalable, social and marketplace platform

Project: Creatives World Engagement: Contract, milestone-based Experience: Senior / Expert Budget: Open to detailed, competitive proposals based on verified scope Location: Remote About the Project Creatives World is an anime-, gaming-, cosplay-, and art-centered social ecosystem designed to connect fans, content creators, and independent artists in one platform. The platform combines three core experiences: 1. Social Community: A content-driven social network where members connect, follow interests, publish content, participate in discussions, and communicate privately. 2. Creator Marketplace: A marketplace allowing artists and creatives to display their work, operate storefronts, receive structured commission requests, and conduct transactions. 3. Creator Business Tools: A subscription-based suite providing creators with audience insights, content management, scheduling, and business-related functionality. We have an existing Figma prototype and are developing a detailed technical roadmap and Phase 1 specifications. We are looking for an experienced developer or established small team capable of transforming these assets into a secure, scalable, production-ready web platform. This is not a request for a landing page, static website, or visual-only prototype. Important: Phase 1 is a browser-based web application with full mobile-browser compatibility. Native or hybrid iOS and Android applications are not included in the initial development scope. Phase 1 — Core Development Requirements 1. Social Network & Community Features The platform must support a dynamic, mobile-friendly social experience, including: - User registration, authentication, profile creation, and account management. - Personalized Home Feed based on selected interests, followed accounts, and relevant content. - User-generated posts containing text, photos, and supported video formats. - Likes, comments, replies, reposting/sharing, and account following. - Notifications for relevant engagement and activity. - Search and discovery for creators, artists, content, and interests. - My Fandoms: interest-specific feeds and discussion areas, including the ability to share relevant content into the main feed. - Ongoing Conversations: functionality for users to follow and return to active discussions. - Private user-to-user messaging. - User-controlled visibility and privacy settings, with clearly enforced permissions for supported content and account types. - Reporting, blocking, and basic moderation controls. The social system must be designed for efficient feed retrieval, concurrent engagement, reliable notifications, and growing content volume. 2. Media Uploads, Storage & Delivery Media handling is a critical component of the platform. Required capabilities include: - Secure image and video uploads from desktop and mobile browsers. - Multiple media attachments where permitted. - Configurable media limits by content type and account privileges. - Image compression, thumbnail generation, and responsive image delivery. - Video processing/transcoding and streaming-compatible playback. - Appropriate file validation, upload restrictions, and malware scanning. - Reliable media delivery through suitable storage and CDN infrastructure. - Efficient handling of simultaneous uploads, browsing, and playback. - Prevention of unauthorized access to private or restricted media. - Secure storage, backup, and retention processes. Applicants must explain their proposed approach to media storage, bandwidth, processing, and cost management. We are particularly interested in avoiding an architecture where increasing engagement results in uncontrolled infrastructure expenses. 3. Marketplace, Artist Profiles & Storefronts Approved sellers must have access to a basic public-facing storefront and a separate seller-management experience. Requirements include: - Artist/seller profiles and discovery. - Public storefronts displaying available artwork, products, services, and commission offerings. - Storefront accessibility from Marketplace listings, search results, and seller profiles. - Seller dashboard for managing listings, pricing, availability, and orders. - Listing visibility controls, including published, draft, and unavailable statuses. - Product and service categories. - Secure listing-image and preview handling. - Seller verification, eligibility, and permissions. - Buyer access to order information and transaction status. Navigation must be functional throughout the application. Creating standalone screens without connecting the required user journeys will not satisfy acceptance criteria. 4. Structured Commission & Order Processing The commission marketplace will not rely solely on informal direct messages. We require a structured workflow that clearly documents buyer requirements and seller commitments. Buyer request - Detailed description of the requested work. - Required specifications and reference materials. - Budget, desired completion date, intended usage, and licensing-related information. - Required fields and validation designed to reduce incomplete or ambiguous requests. Seller offer - Seller reviews the buyer's submitted specifications. - Seller provides pricing, delivery timeline, applicable deposit, revision allowance, additional revision fees, and licensing terms. - Buyer can review and accept or decline the complete offer. Agreement and fulfillment - Accepted order specifications and terms become locked, versioned records. - Subsequent scope modifications require documented approval. - Clear order statuses, communications, and notifications. - Support for work-in-progress updates, protected previews, revisions, and final delivery. - Buyer and seller order dashboards. - Transaction and agreement histories. - Dispute-related documentation and evidence retention. Custom-commission deposits must follow platform-defined risk controls. Initial standard limits are expected to be no more than 50% of the order value and $500, with exceptions subject to platform authorization. The architecture must accommodate different rules for completed, ready-made products versus customized commissions. 5. Payments & Commerce Security Stripe Connect is the preferred payment infrastructure, subject to validation of the platform's business model and Stripe requirements. The development team should have experience with: - Connected seller onboarding and required identity verification. - Platform fees and configurable payment rules. - Deposits and final payment processing. - Webhook-driven transaction-state updates. - Refunds, failed payments, payout handling, and disputes. - Secure payment records and audit trails. - Preventing duplicate charges and inconsistent order statuses. - Appropriate payment-event and order-history retention. The system must not store raw payment-card information. We are not requesting a custom escrow system for Phase 1. 6. Creator Business Suite The Phase 1 product also includes a creator-facing business toolkit. Expected capabilities include: - Creator dashboard. - Content creation and publishing management. - Scheduled posting within Creatives World. - Audience and content engagement analytics. - Creator messaging and interaction management. - Account-level permissions and configurable subscription entitlements. Applicants should explain how analytics events will be collected and stored without excessively increasing costs or slowing down the social platform. Advanced future capabilities should not be included in the Phase 1 quote unless expressly requested. 7. Security, Bot Prevention & Platform Integrity Security and abuse prevention are mandatory considerations, not optional enhancements. The architecture must include appropriate protections for: - Authentication, account recovery, and multi-factor authentication. - Role-based authorization and server-side access controls. - Bot registrations, automated spam, and abusive account behavior. - Brute-force and credential-stuffing attempts. - Excessive or automated posting, commenting, messaging, and engagement. - Malicious file uploads. - Payment fraud and suspicious marketplace activity. - Account impersonation and unauthorized access. - Insecure APIs and data exposure. - Content reports, moderation actions, and repeat offenders. We expect a layered approach using appropriate verification, rate limiting, traffic controls, abuse monitoring, and automated risk indicators. Sensitive personal, device, and transaction information must be collected and retained only where justified, disclosed, and legally appropriate. The platform should incorporate reasonable content-protection deterrents, including controlled media access and protected previews, without making unrealistic guarantees against screenshots or copying. 8. Scalability & Performance Creatives World is being designed for growth, not just a small demonstration environment. Our longer-term planning includes the potential to support 200,000 registered users and beyond. Applicants must propose an architecture capable of scaling progressively as real activity increases. We expect discussion of: - Database design and indexing. - Feed performance and pagination. - Concurrent-user capacity. - Real-time messaging and notifications. - Background jobs and processing queues. - Caching and CDN architecture. - Horizontal scaling and infrastructure monitoring. - Media processing and storage growth. - Backup and disaster recovery. - Performance testing and load testing. - Infrastructure cost projections at multiple usage levels. Please distinguish registered users, daily active users, concurrent users, and peak requests. We expect realistic engineering assumptions rather than unsupported scalability claims. 9. Administration, Moderation & Operational Controls The company requires administrative tools to manage routine operations without direct developer intervention. This includes user and account management, seller approval status, content reports, account restrictions, marketplace disputes, subscriptions, platform settings, audit logs, and basic operational monitoring. An internal admin interface is part of the expected MVP architecture. 10. Website & Mobile-Browser Requirements Creatives World will launch as a responsive web application, accessible through modern desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers. We are NOT commissioning a native mobile application during Phase 1. The website must provide a smooth, intuitive experience across devices, particularly smartphones, because a significant portion of our expected audience will engage through mobile browsers. Required capabilities include: - Responsive layouts optimized for desktop, tablet, and smartphone screen sizes. - Touch-friendly navigation, buttons, menus, forms, and interactive components. - Mobile-friendly Home Feed, My Fandoms, ongoing discussions, and messaging. - Photo and video uploads directly from supported mobile browsers, including device photo libraries and supported camera capture functionality. - Efficient image loading, video playback, and scrolling on mobile devices. - Functional marketplace browsing, public storefront access, buyer requests, seller management, checkout, and order tracking on mobile. - Responsive Creator Suite dashboards and analytics. - Browser-based authentication and secure session management. - Reasonable performance across typical mobile networks and devices. - Cross-browser compatibility testing, including current supported versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, as applicable. - Accessibility considerations, including readable typography, sufficient contrast, keyboard navigation, and usable mobile controls. The architecture should support potential future mobile application development without requiring an unnecessary rebuild of core backend services. Explicitly excluded from Phase 1: - Native iOS application development. - Native Android application development. - App Store or Google Play deployment. - Hybrid mobile application development. - App-specific features requiring separate native development. Any proposed Progressive Web App (PWA) capabilities or installable browser-app functionality should be identified separately as optional enhancements, not silently included in the core quote. 11. Development Process & Accountability We expect a professionally managed development process with documented milestones and transparent progress reporting. The selected developer or team must provide: - An architecture and implementation proposal. - A clearly defined Phase 1 scope and exclusions. - A milestone-based development plan. - A proposed technology stack with justification. - Regular progress reporting and functioning milestone demonstrations. - A documented issue/bug tracking process. - Functional, integration, and automated testing where appropriate. - Staging/testing and production deployment procedures. - Technical documentation and deployment instructions. - Source code committed to a company-controlled repository. - Clear handoff procedures and ownership terms. - Post-launch maintenance and support options. We will have an independent technical advisor reviewing important milestones, architecture, and launch readiness. Completed deliverables must be internally tested before being submitted for client acceptance. We value clear communication and accountability. We do not expect repeated meetings to restate previously documented requirements. Who Should Apply We are particularly interested in developers who have successfully built production applications involving at least two of the following: - Social networking or community platforms. - High-volume user-generated content. - Photo/video upload and streaming infrastructure. - Real-time messaging. - Multi-vendor or creator marketplaces. - Stripe Connect payments. - Subscription SaaS products. - Content moderation and anti-abuse systems. Experience maintaining and scaling an application after launch is highly desirable. We are open to individual senior developers who can demonstrate the necessary expertise and to small teams with clearly defined engineering, project management, and quality-assurance responsibilities. What to Include in Your Proposal Please answer the following: 1. What comparable production web platforms have you personally built? Provide links, screenshots, architectural summaries, or verifiable work samples where permitted. 2. Which parts of the project would you build yourself, and which would require additional specialists? 3. What technology stack would you recommend for a scalable, mobile-responsive web platform, and why? 4. How would you structure the social feed, messaging, marketplace, and media infrastructure? 5. What is your experience implementing Stripe Connect and handling payment disputes? 6. How would you address bot activity, content abuse, security, and scalability? 7. What development timeline and milestone structure would you propose for Phase 1? 8. What budget range would you anticipate, including assumptions and exclusions? 9. How would you estimate monthly infrastructure costs at different levels of activity? 10. Who would be responsible for project management, QA, deployment, and post-launch maintenance? 11. How would you ensure strong performance on mobile browsers without developing separate native apps? Please do not submit a generic proposal. We are looking for applicants who demonstrate that they understand the complexity of developing an interconnected social and commerce platform. Qualified applicants will receive additional design materials and technical requirements during the evaluation process. Our objective is to build a reliable, secure, maintainable foundation that supports the initial user experience and can evolve as the Creatives World community grows.