Senior WordPress Developer (Solution Architect Level)

Start Date: Immediate

Language Level: Fluent English (spoken and written)

About the Role

We are looking for a senior WordPress Developer with Solution Architecture-level experience to join an active project.

Full technical brief and documentation are still being finalised, so we need someone senior enough to work effectively from partial information, ask the right questions, and help shape technical decisions as scope firms up — not just execute a fixed spec.

This is a genuine hands-on build role, not a purely advisory one — you'll be writing code as well as making architectural calls.

What You'll Be Doing

• Architecture & Design: Design and implement a scalable WordPress architecture (custom theme and/or plugin development, not page-builder/template work).
• Technical Decision-Making: Make and document key technical decisions: hosting approach, caching strategy, plugin vs. custom-build trade-offs, data structure, and third-party integrations.
• Custom Development: Build custom post types, taxonomies, and Gutenberg blocks/ACF field groups as required.
• Audit & Optimization: Review and advise on performance, security, and scalability of the existing/planned build.
• API Integrations: Integrate with third-party APIs and services as the project scope develops.
• Collaboration: Work closely with the internal team to help define requirements as the brief solidifies — comfortable operating with ambiguity in the early stages.

• Technical Leadership: Provide technical leadership/mentoring input if the engagement extends and additional developers are brought in.

   

Requirements

• Deep WordPress Expertise: Extensive senior-level WordPress development experience — strong PHP, MySQL, and WordPress core/hooks/filters knowledge.
• Solution Architecture Experience: Demonstrable experience architecting custom WordPress builds (not just theme customisation) — happy to see examples of past architecture decisions or system diagrams.
• Tech Stack: Hands-on experience with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), custom post types/taxonomies, and Gutenberg block development.
• Performance & Security: Solid understanding of performance optimisation (caching, query optimisation, asset loading) and security best practice at scale.
• Integrations: Experience integrating third-party APIs and external services.
• Proactivity & Independence: Comfortable working without a complete brief — able to ask clarifying questions, flag risks, and propose approaches rather than waiting for a full spec.
• Communication: Fluent English (spoken and written) — this role involves direct architectural discussion with the team, not just ticket-based delivery.
• Timezone Overlap: Able to provide a minimum 4-hour daily overlap with UK working hours (GMT/BST).

• Availability: Available to start immediately.

   

Nice to Have

• Experience with Headless WordPress (WP as REST/GraphQL API) or decoupled front-ends.
• WooCommerce or other e-commerce platform experience.
• Experience with managed WordPress hosting platforms (WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, etc.).
• CI/CD pipeline experience for WordPress deployments.
• Prior experience joining a project "at risk" or mid-flight, without a finished spec.