Jan De Nul: new career website

A new career website was built in Drupal for Jan De Nul, fully aligned with their new branding and designed with a strong focus on the candidate experience.

3 reasons why the job site needed replacement

1. Outdated technology without CMS

Jan De Nul’s previous job site was highly static and lacked flexibility. While the HR team could add pages and publish news updates, they had no control over the site’s structure. Any structural changes required external support, which often led to outdated content remaining live for too long and limited use of video material. What was needed was a modern, user-friendly website that could grow over time and be fully managed by the internal team.

2. No data or insights

Jan De Nul had limited visibility into how visitors engaged with the job site. There were few options to track user behaviour: which content performed well, which pages attracted traffic and where visitors dropped off. Without that data, there was little room for meaningful optimisation. The new job site was built to change that, enabling actionable insights, data-driven decisions and continuous improvement.

3. No integrated experience

After the rebranding of the corporate website, the job site no longer matched the look and feel of Jan De Nul’s digital ecosystem, neither visually nor functionally. It felt like a disconnected component, while candidates today expect a consistent, seamless experience. Although there was a link with the ATS system, the job module offered little usability: candidates were presented with a long list of vacancies and only limited filtering options. The ambition was clear: to tell one coherent story, both in appearance and in experience. Jan De Nul’s new brand identity needed to resonate not just with clients and partners, but also with future employees.

Given these challenges, the objective was straightforward: to build a dynamic, candidate-first website that aligns fully with Jan De Nul’s renewed visual identity.

Dropsolid as a partner: quick implementation with clear focus

Jan De Nul selected Dropsolid as their implementation partner. The decisive factors?

• Proven Drupal expertise: With in-house knowledge of Drupal, Jan De Nul was looking for a partner with a strong track record in delivering high-quality Drupal websites. Dropsolid is Diamond Drupal Partner.
• Open source mindset: Flexibility, scalability and independence without vendor lock-in were essential criteria
• Practical fit: Dropsolid’s proximity and competitive pricing made the collaboration attractive

Before jumping into the development of the new job site, a strategic research laid the foundation. Together, Jan De Nul and Dropsolid explored who the website’s visitors are, what they expect and which information matters most to them. Through surveys, interviews and data analysis, a clear picture of the target audiences emerged. One key insight stood out: dynamic, moving images played a vital role in engaging candidates, a valuable input for the new site.

Read more about the strategic research here 

Jan De Nul had already prepared the designs and mapped out the full structure for the new job site. Dropsolid joined at exactly the right moment, bringing speed, technical expertise and flexibility.

A tight deadline added to the challenge: the new career website had to go live on time. The goal was to move fast and within three months, the new site was up and running.

Built on Drupal: open, intuitive and future-proof

The previous job site was a closed, custom-built solution without a CMS. The new career site, just like the corporate website, was built in Drupal and seamlessly integrated into Jan De Nul’s broader digital ecosystem, with a consistent visual identity and full control for the internal team.

The main reason for choosing Drupal was control and independence. Jan De Nul no longer wanted to rely on an external web development partner to make changes. With Drupal, they now manage their website entirely in-house, quickly and intuitively.

Drupal’s open-source philosophy was another key driver:

• No vendor lock-in – full freedom in partners and technical choices
• No license fees – enabling structural cost savings
• A vibrant community – constant innovation and long-term support
• Modular and scalable – easily adaptable to new needs
• Multi-user and user-friendly – built for collaboration across teams
• Future-proof – technology that keeps evolving and improving

Drupal was more than just a technical choice, it was a sustainable one, fully aligned with Jan De Nul’s long-term ambitions.

One brand experience

A key step in the project was integrating the career site into Jan De Nul’s existing corporate environment. Previously, both websites operated completely separately, leading to a fragmented user experience. The new approach brings them together as one cohesive whole, with a consistent look and feel fully aligned with the refreshed branding. On top of that, the site was connected to the ATS system, ensuring that job listings are always up-to-date and automatically displayed.

A trusted partnership

Throughout the project, it became clear how important flexibility, clear communication and well-defined agreements were. Jan De Nul could count on Dropsolid to stay sharply focused on meeting the deadline.

From the very start, the collaboration was characterised by open and direct communication. The Jan De Nul team knew they could expect quick responses from Dropsolid, and during the testing phase, they had direct contact with the developers.

The use of a ticketing system was experienced as efficient and transparent. Dropsolid kept the agreed timeline in sight and communicated honestly whenever something turned out to be unfeasible.

That combination of resilience, adaptability and clear communication made a real difference. Despite a demanding testing phase, Dropsolid delivered a result the entire Jan De Nul team is proud of today: a stable, user-friendly and future-proof website.

About Jan De Nul

Jan De Nul shapes water, land and energy across the globe. They tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time, from rising sea levels to the energy transition, from polluted soil to sustainable construction. They build solutions known for their complexity and high impact, helping prepare the world for what lies ahead. Their work is centred around four core activities: Offshore Energy, Dredging Solutions, Construction Projects and Planet Redevelopment. Across these domains, their talented teams work together toward one shared goal: securing global quality of life for generations to come.