WordPress Web Engineer

Job Title: WordPress Web Engineer
Location: New York City, NY Local Candidates Only Client: Versant
Rate: $55/hr
Experience: 5+ Years
Work Arrangement: Onsite / Local Candidates Only

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced WordPress Web Engineer with 5+ years of hands-on experience to develop, maintain, and optimize high-performance WordPress-based web applications.

The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in custom WordPress plugin and theme development using PHP, along with modern React, JavaScript/TypeScript, GraphQL, REST APIs, content modeling, caching, accessibility, SEO, and web performance.

Experience running WordPress at scale, particularly on WordPress VIP or comparable high-traffic managed platforms, is highly valuable. The candidate should also be comfortable troubleshooting production issues across CMS, frontend, APIs, caching layers, and third-party integrations.

Core Responsibilities

WordPress Engineering

• Develop and maintain scalable WordPress applications using PHP.
• Build custom WordPress plugins and themes based on business and technical requirements.
• Design maintainable and reusable WordPress components and functionality.
• Configure and optimize WordPress for high-traffic production environments.
• Work with WordPress VIP or comparable managed WordPress platforms where applicable.

React & Modern Frontend Development

• Develop modern frontend experiences using React and JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Design reusable component architectures.
• Implement efficient state management and data-loading strategies.
• Write unit, integration, and frontend tests.
• Optimize frontend performance and accessibility.
• Build responsive web experiences across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

GraphQL Development

• Design and maintain GraphQL schemas.
• Implement GraphQL resolvers and data-access patterns.
• Optimize GraphQL query performance.
• Implement caching strategies for GraphQL APIs.
• Manage authentication and authorization for GraphQL services.
• Support backward-compatible schema evolution and API versioning.
• Create and maintain GraphQL API documentation.
• Support mobile engineering teams through GraphQL contracts, mocks, schema introspection, versioning, and integration testing.

WordPress Content Modeling

• Design and manage WordPress content models using:
  • Custom Post Types
  • Custom Fields / Meta
  • Taxonomies
  • Gutenberg Blocks
• Support revision and publishing workflows.
• Implement redirects and content-management processes.
• Optimize search and indexing functionality.
• Design content structures that support scalable publishing workflows.

API & Systems Integration

• Integrate WordPress with REST and GraphQL APIs.
• Work with scheduled jobs, cron processes, and webhooks.
• Integrate third-party content feeds and external services.
• Implement and maintain caching layers.
• Troubleshoot integrations between WordPress and external platforms.
• Ensure reliable data exchange between CMS, frontend, APIs, and downstream systems.

Production Support & Troubleshooting

• Debug production issues across CMS, frontend, API, caching, and external integrations.
• Analyze application performance and identify bottlenecks.
• Troubleshoot cache-related issues and cache invalidation problems.
• Monitor application health and production performance.
• Participate in incident resolution and root-cause analysis.
• Implement long-term fixes to prevent recurring production issues.

Performance, Accessibility & Security

• Implement web accessibility best practices aligned with WCAG.
• Develop responsive and mobile-friendly web experiences.
• Apply SEO fundamentals across web applications.
• Optimize Core Web Vitals and overall website performance.
• Implement secure coding and development practices.
• Support performance and load testing activities.
• Design effective caching and cache-invalidation strategies.

Collaboration & Documentation

• Work closely with product managers, designers, content teams, editorial teams, and other stakeholders.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly with non-engineering partners.
• Participate in technical design and architecture discussions.
• Create and maintain clear, maintainable technical documentation.
• Collaborate with mobile engineering teams on GraphQL contracts and integrations.

Required Technical Skills

• 5+ years of hands-on WordPress engineering experience.
• Strong PHP development experience.
• Hands-on experience with custom WordPress plugin and theme development.
• Strong React experience.
• Strong modern JavaScript/TypeScript experience.
• Strong understanding of component architecture.
• Experience with frontend state management and data loading.
• Experience writing and maintaining automated tests.
• Strong GraphQL experience including schema design and resolver implementation.
• Experience with GraphQL query optimization, caching, authorization, and API documentation.
• Experience with REST APIs and GraphQL APIs.
• Strong knowledge of WordPress content modeling.
• Experience with Custom Post Types, Custom Fields/Meta, Taxonomies, and Gutenberg Blocks.
• Experience with revision and publishing workflows.
• Experience with redirects, search, and indexing.
• Experience with scheduled jobs/cron and webhooks.
• Experience integrating third-party content feeds.
• Experience working with cache layers.
• Strong production debugging and troubleshooting experience.
• Strong understanding of WCAG, responsive design, SEO, Core Web Vitals, and web security.

Strongly Preferred Skills

• Experience in media, publishing, streaming, newsroom, or high-traffic consumer web environments.
• Experience with WordPress VIP or comparable high-traffic managed WordPress platforms.
• Experience with live-streaming and VOD integrations.
• Experience with DRM-protected content.
• Experience with identity and authentication systems.
• Experience with subscription and entitlement flows.
• Experience with Node.js.
• Experience with modern build tooling.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with Docker.
• Experience with cloud services and observability tooling.
• Experience with Elasticsearch and search technologies.
• Experience with CDN and image optimization.
• Experience with ad-tech and analytics platforms.
• Experience with community/commenting platforms.
• Experience supporting mobile engineering teams through GraphQL contracts, mocks, schema introspection, versioning, and integration testing.
• Experience with performance and load testing.
• Strong understanding of cache invalidation strategies.