Wordpress Web Engineer

American IT Systems•New York City, NY

About The Position

We are seeking a skilled WordPress Web Engineer with extensive experience in custom plugin and theme development, as well as a strong background in modern frontend technologies and GraphQL. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of running WordPress at scale, integrating various APIs and services, and a deep understanding of WordPress content modeling and best practices for performance, security, and accessibility. You will be responsible for debugging production issues, collaborating with non-engineering partners, and contributing to technical documentation.

Requirements

5+ years of hands-on WordPress engineering experience.
Custom plugin and theme development in PHP.
Strong React and modern JavaScript/TypeScript experience.
Experience with component architecture, state/data loading, testing, performance, and accessibility.
Strong GraphQL experience: schema design, resolver implementation, query performance, caching, authorization, backward-compatible evolution, and API documentation.
Experience running WordPress at scale, ideally on WordPress VIP or a comparable managed, high-traffic platform.
Experience integrating WordPress with REST and GraphQL APIs, scheduled jobs/cron, webhooks, third-party content feeds, and cache layers.
Deep knowledge of WordPress content modeling: custom post types, custom fields/meta, taxonomies, Gutenberg blocks, revision/publishing workflows, redirects, and search/indexing.
Experience debugging production issues across CMS, frontend, API, caching, and external integrations.
Strong understanding of web accessibility (WCAG), responsive design, SEO fundamentals, Core Web Vitals, and secure development practices.
Ability to communicate clearly with non-engineering partners.
Ability to write maintainable technical documentation.

Nice To Haves

Media, publishing, streaming, newsroom, or other high-traffic consumer-web experience.
Live-streaming or VOD integrations, DRM-protected content, identity/authentication, and subscription/entitlement flows.
Experience with Node.js, build tooling, CI/CD, Docker, cloud services, and observability tooling.
Experience with Elasticsearch/search, CDN/image optimization, ad-tech, analytics, and community/commenting platforms.
Experience supporting mobile teams through GraphQL contracts, mocks/schema introspection, versioning, and integration testing.
Familiarity with performance/load testing and cache invalidation strategies.

Responsibilities

Develop custom WordPress plugins and themes using PHP.
Implement and manage custom component architecture, state/data loading, testing, performance, and accessibility in React and modern JavaScript/TypeScript.
Design and implement GraphQL schemas, resolvers, and optimize query performance, caching, and authorization.
Manage and scale WordPress instances, ideally on platforms like WordPress VIP.
Integrate WordPress with REST and GraphQL APIs, scheduled jobs, webhooks, third-party content feeds, and cache layers.
Utilize deep knowledge of WordPress content modeling, including custom post types, custom fields, taxonomies, Gutenberg blocks, and workflows.
Debug and resolve production issues across the entire stack: CMS, frontend, API, caching, and integrations.
Ensure adherence to web accessibility standards (WCAG), responsive design principles, SEO fundamentals, Core Web Vitals, and secure development practices.
Communicate effectively with non-engineering stakeholders.
Write and maintain technical documentation.