Senior Custom WordPress Theme Developer

We are looking for an experienced Senior WordPress Developer to join our team and lead the development of high-quality, bespoke WordPress websites and custom themes. This is a senior-level role for a developer with 10+ years of professional WordPress development experience who is confident working from Figma designs through to fully responsive, production-ready websites.

The ideal candidate will have strong technical expertise in custom WordPress theme development, advanced PHP, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, performance optimisation, technical SEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), and custom schema markup.

You will be responsible for building scalable, secure and technically excellent WordPress solutions rather than relying on off-the-shelf themes or page builders.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop fully bespoke WordPress themes from Figma designs and technical specifications.
• Build reusable, scalable and maintainable WordPress components and templates.
• Develop custom WordPress functionality, integrations and features.
• Write clean, well-structured and well-documented PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
• Create custom Gutenberg blocks and flexible content components where required.
• Develop and maintain custom post types, taxonomies, fields and WordPress functionality.
• Integrate third-party APIs and external platforms into WordPress websites.
• Ensure websites are fully responsive and perform consistently across modern browsers and devices.
• Optimise websites for Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed and overall technical performance.
• Implement technical SEO best practices within WordPress builds.
• Develop and implement custom Schema.org structured data based on the requirements of individual websites and content types.
• Understand and implement AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) strategies to improve content visibility across search engines and AI-driven search experiences.
• Structure content and data so that it can be effectively understood by search engines, answer engines and AI systems.
• Work closely with UX/UI designers, project managers, SEO specialists and other developers.
• Troubleshoot complex WordPress, hosting, plugin and integration issues.
• Conduct code reviews and maintain high development standards.
• Ensure websites are secure, accessible and built according to modern web development standards.
• Manage development across staging and production environments.

• Support ongoing website maintenance, improvements and technical enhancements.

   

Essential Experience

• 10+ years of professional WordPress development experience.
• Extensive experience developing custom WordPress themes from scratch.
• Advanced knowledge of PHP and WordPress architecture.
• Strong HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript skills.
• Extensive experience with WordPress APIs, hooks, filters and custom functionality.
• Experience creating custom Gutenberg blocks and/or block-based WordPress builds.
• Strong understanding of responsive web development.
• Experience integrating APIs and third-party platforms.
• Strong knowledge of website performance optimisation and Core Web Vitals.
• Advanced understanding of technical SEO.
• Proven experience implementing custom Schema.org structured data and JSON-LD.
• Strong understanding of AEO / Answer Engine Optimisation and how search behaviour is evolving beyond traditional Google search.
• Experience structuring websites and content for search engines, featured snippets, knowledge systems and AI-powered search.
• Strong understanding of accessibility, security and web standards.
• Experience working with Git and modern development workflows.

• Ability to work independently and take ownership of technical decisions.

   

Desirable Experience

• Experience working with ACF (Advanced Custom Fields).
• Experience with WooCommerce and complex ecommerce builds.
• Experience with REST APIs and third-party integrations.
• Experience working with WordPress multisite.
• Experience with headless WordPress.
• Experience with JavaScript frameworks such as React.
• Experience working with WP Engine or similar managed WordPress hosting environments.
• Experience with technical SEO tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix.
• Understanding of structured data testing and validation.
• Experience working within an agency environment across multiple client projects.

AEO & Structured Data Expertise

A key requirement of this role is the ability to go beyond traditional WordPress development. You should understand how websites can be technically structured to support modern search and AI discovery, including:

• AEO and answer-focused content structures.
• Schema.org and JSON-LD implementation.
• Custom schema for different page types, entities and content.
• FAQ, Organisation, LocalBusiness, Product, Service, Article, Breadcrumb and other relevant structured data.
• Entity relationships and semantic content structures.
• Search engine crawling and indexing.
• AI search and answer engine visibility.
• Structured content designed to provide clear, machine-readable information.
• Identifying opportunities to improve a website's ability to be understood and surfaced by search and AI systems.

We're looking for someone who is technically strong, detail-oriented and genuinely experienced in WordPress development.

You should be comfortable taking a design and turning it into a technically robust website without relying on shortcuts or excessive plugins. You should also be able to challenge technical decisions when necessary and recommend better solutions. This role would suit someone who considers themselves a WordPress engineer rather than simply a WordPress implementer.

What Success Looks Like

• High-quality custom WordPress builds delivered to specification.
• Clean, scalable and maintainable code.
• Strong website performance and Core Web Vitals.
• Robust technical SEO foundations.
• Correct and meaningful custom schema implementation.
• Websites structured for both traditional search and emerging AI/answer engines.
• Minimal reliance on unnecessary plugins.
• Secure, accessible and responsive websites.
• Strong collaboration with design, UX, SEO and project management teams.

10+ years professional WordPress development experience — essential. Candidates without substantial experience building custom WordPress themes and bespoke WordPress functionality will not be suitable for this role.