Senior WordPress Developer

About Nexcess

Nexcess specializes in cloud solutions for organizations demanding high performance and strict compliance. We support a global client base, from agencies scaling client sites to enterprises running mission-critical operations. Our reputation is built on deep technical expertise and genuine client partnership. Our managed environments are supported by a dedicated team committed to operational excellence.

We also develop software that runs on our infrastructure, including The Events Calendar, LearnDash, Kadence, and SolidWP, which are installed on millions of WordPress sites worldwide.

Compensation: The base salary for this role ranges from $80,000-$120,000, varying based on location, experience, and skill set.

Senior Software Engineer Opportunity

We are seeking several Senior Software Engineers to contribute across our managed WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento hosting platform, as well as our WordPress product portfolio. The ideal candidate will be comfortable with both PHP development and server-side operations, possessing a strong operational instinct to diagnose performance issues beyond surface-level observations.

This is a permanently remote, full-time position, open to global candidates where legally permissible. A key requirement is at least four hours of daily overlap with US Eastern time (approximately 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET) for team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own substantial features and systems end-to-end, covering design, implementation, testing, and rollout.
• Build and ship solutions across customer-facing platform and product surfaces.
• Diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks from slow queries through caching layers to user response times.
• Develop robust PHP code resilient to hostile plugins, legacy data, and unexpected user actions.
• Contribute to system consolidation and modernization efforts, ensuring backward compatibility.
• Design within existing architecture while knowing when to advocate for changes.
• Deconstruct complex problems into shippable, incremental work units.
• Write and maintain automated tests as an integral part of feature development.
• Actively participate in code reviews to enhance codebase quality and team skills.
• Improve tooling, scripts, and CI/CD pipelines to boost team confidence and automate operational tasks.
• Mentor junior engineers, formally or informally.
• Document decisions and processes effectively for a distributed team.

Skills, Competencies, and Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional PHP experience, focusing on building and maintaining production software, including modern PHP 8.x (object-oriented design, dependency injection, Composer, PSR standards, static analysis).
• 3+ years of deep WordPress experience, including hooks, filters, REST API, WP-CLI, plugin/theme architecture, and upgrade-safe code development for large installed bases.
• Proficiency with Linux operating systems: process/service management, systemd, filesystems, permissions, networking fundamentals, and system load analysis.
• Practical shell scripting skills for automation (deployments, migrations, maintenance, diagnostics).
• Hands-on experience with the hosting stack: nginx/Apache, PHP-FPM tuning, MySQL/MariaDB query performance, and object caching (Redis/Memcached). Ability to profile slow requests.
• Experience with automated testing using PHPUnit, Codeception, wp-browser, or similar.
• Comfort with Git, code review, and CI/CD practices.
• Strong written communication and ability to work autonomously across timezones.
• A degree in Computer Science or related field is welcome; equivalent practical experience is equally valued.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• React for admin interfaces, Block Editor UI, and control-panel development.
• Block Editor and block development, including the @wordpress/* package ecosystem.
• WooCommerce at scale: managing large catalogs, high order volume, and checkout performance.
• Magento or Adobe Commerce: building, operating, or hosting at scale.
• Configuration management and server automation with Ansible, Puppet, Chef, or Salt.
• Observability and profiling tools like New Relic, Xdebug, Query Monitor, or comparable APM.
• Infrastructure as code with Terraform, containers, and CI/CD pipeline ownership.
• Accessible site building adhering to WCAG 2.1 AA and WAI-ARIA standards.
• Contributions to WordPress core or the wider open-source ecosystem.

Why Join Us?

This role offers a unique opportunity to work on both infrastructure and software within the same company. Your product decisions will directly impact the infrastructure, and platform decisions will be informed by those who write WordPress code professionally.

We are a remote-first, globally distributed team spanning multiple countries. Our work culture emphasizes asynchronous communication, documented decisions, and efficient meetings. We foster small teams, promote real ownership, and maintain a sustainable pace.