Frontend Engineer - Wordpress

SemiAnalysis•Chicago, IL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a clever and motivated Frontend Engineer (WordPress) to own and elevate the technical foundation of the SemiAnalysis website. This is a WordPress-focused role centered on semianalysis.com itself (WordPress on Pressable), the institutional portal, the paywalled research experience, and the marketing pages our readers see every day. Comfort reading and writing some React/JS is important for integration work and the occasional cross-stack collaboration. This role is ideal for someone equally comfortable writing clean, modern PHP and JavaScript as they are translating polished design files into pixel-perfect, performant interfaces. You will work closely with our Website Designer and our analysts to ship the surfaces where 200,000+ readers and our institutional clients experience SemiAnalysis. We are hiring across experience levels, from new grad to senior. Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with experience. As part of the interview process, you may be asked to complete a paid 1-2 week work trial. The trial is designed to give us a real-world look at both your implementation and design skills, and typically involves work like building custom Gutenberg blocks, translating a Figma spec into a production template, integrating an ACF-driven data view, and contributing to a redesign of a real SemiAnalysis surface.

Requirements

Proven experience as a WordPress Frontend Engineer with a portfolio of custom (not page-builder-only) builds
Strong proficiency in PHP (8.x), modern JavaScript (ES6+), HTML5, and CSS3/SCSS
Hands-on experience building custom WordPress themes from starter frameworks (e.g., _s, Sage/Roots, or equivalent)
Strong experience with Gutenberg block development, including native React blocks, ACF blocks, dynamic blocks, block patterns, and the WordPress Block API
Deep familiarity with ACF Pro, custom post types, WordPress query optimization, and the WordPress REST API
Working knowledge of React (and ideally Next.js and TypeScript). You don't need to be a React expert, but you should be comfortable reading a Next.js codebase
Proficiency in responsive, mobile-first development and cross-browser testing
Solid understanding of accessibility best practices (semantic HTML, ARIA, focus management)
Comfortable with Git-based workflows, pull requests, and CI/CD
Self-driven and proactive. You take initiative, own your work end-to-end, and operate independently in a fast-paced, globally distributed team
Strong instinct for diagnosing and resolving issues as they come up, without waiting to be told what to do
Strong attention to detail and the ability to deliver within timelines

Nice To Haves

Deeper React/Next.js experience and exposure to headless WordPress setups (WPGraphQL)
Experience with managed WordPress hosting environments (we're on Pressable) and staging/deployment workflows
Familiarity with performance tooling (Lighthouse, WebPageTest, New Relic) and SEO fundamentals
Familiarity with design systems and component-based architecture
Genuine interest in semiconductors, AI infrastructure, or data-driven research products

Responsibilities

Own and evolve the SemiAnalysis WordPress codebase, including themes, templates, custom Gutenberg blocks, and supporting plugins
Partner with our Website Designer to refresh the marketing site, the institutional portal, and key landing pages
Translate Figma designs into clean, semantic, componentized templates with pixel-perfect fidelity
Model dynamic, research-heavy content using ACF Pro (repeaters, flexible content, options pages, custom post types, taxonomies) and connect it to theme views
Build clean integration points where our React/Next.js tools and dashboards are embedded into the WordPress site
Monitor, diagnose, and resolve issues as they come up across the WordPress stack, from theme bugs and broken integrations to performance regressions
Optimize across Core Web Vitals, including image handling, lazy loading, caching, CDN configuration, asset minification, and CLS prevention, on a site read by a technically demanding audience
Ensure cross-browser, cross-device responsiveness and accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA)
Build and maintain integrations with our analytics, email, CRM, and subscription/payment stack
Contribute to a maintainable component library, frontend coding standards, and lightweight design system
Collaborate with our globally distributed team across US, Europe, and APAC time zones