Senior WordPress Engineer - Headless

ZipRecruiter; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital media group is seeking a Senior WordPress Engineer in Manchester who specializes in headless WordPress development. This full-time role offers a hybrid working setup, focusing on building scalable, secure, and performant web solutions with an emphasis on modern development practices. Ideal candidates should have substantial backend expertise and a collaborative spirit.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in headless WordPress development.
• Deep PHP knowledge (7/8) and understanding of WordPress core.
• Experience with secure API handling and best practices.

Responsibilities

• Build high-traffic, content-heavy sites with scalable architecture.
• Develop custom plugins and APIs while ensuring performance and security.
• Collaborate with other engineers across the UK and Europe.

Skills

Headless WordPress

PHP

REST APIs

GraphQL

Performance Optimization

Docker

CI/CD

Tools

Docker

Git

Job description

Job Description

Senior WordPress Engineer – Headless

Location: Manchester (Hybrid, occasional office visits, once a month)

Full-time, Permanent

£60,000 - £65,000

I'm currently working with a leading digital media group that's investing heavily in their web platform and they’re looking for a Senior WordPress Engineer with serious backend skills, particularly in headless WordPress at scale.

This is a genuinely exciting opportunity to get stuck into building out high-traffic, content-heavy sites that are powered by clean, scalable architecture and modern development practices. It’s not your average WordPress gig, think API-first, JAMstack, CI/CD pipelines, and containerised environments – all the good stuff.

You'll be part of a growing, forward-thinking team where engineering standards are high, DevOps is a given, and everything is built with performance and security front of mind. This is a hands-on, code-focused role where your experience with custom plugins, GraphQL, REST APIs, and advanced PHP will be key to shaping robust, reusable services across multiple sites and teams.

There’s also a strong collaborative element here, you'll be working closely with other engineers across the UK and Europe as they roll out the next of their platform.

What you’ll need to bring:

• Strong experience in headless WordPress development (enterprise-level experience is ideal)
• Deep PHP knowledge (7/8) and understanding of the WordPress core
• Hands-on experience creating and integrating with REST APIs and WPGraphQL
• Custom theme/plugin development optimised for headless use
• ACF, CPTs, taxonomies – you know the drill
• Secure API handling (OAuth, JWT) and best practices in authentication
• Solid grasp of performance optimisation – query tuning, caching, CDN strategies
• Familiarity with Docker, Git, and modern CI/CD pipelines
• Confidence in delivering clean, frontend-ready APIs (React, Next.js or similar)
• JAMstack know-how and a passion for scalable, API-first design

Location & Working Setup:

The team is mainly based in London, Peterborough or Manchester, but this role is open to hybrid/remote working, with a touchpoint in the office around once every 4–6 weeks.

If you're an experienced WordPress engineer who’s passionate about headless builds, modern architecture, and writing clean, reliable code, this could be a great fit.