Senior WordPress Developer — Custom Themes & Plugins

Planet Pharma; Pennsylvania; Hybrid; USD 55,000 - 66,000; Part time

Job summary

Planet Pharma is seeking a WordPress Developer (Contract) with strong full-stack skills and deep WordPress architecture knowledge. The role focuses on building fully custom themes and plugins without ACF or page builders, using native WP APIs and REST endpoints.

The candidate will review unfamiliar codebases, troubleshoot production issues, and implement secure, maintainable solutions while collaborating with cross-functional teams. Remote options may apply depending on project needs.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional WordPress development experience with extensive hands-on custom development.
• Advanced proficiency in PHP including object-oriented programming and modern PHP development practices.
• Demonstrated experience developing custom WordPress themes from scratch.
• Ability to develop custom WordPress functionality without relying on ACF or third-party page builders.
• Strong experience authoring custom WordPress plugins.
• Deep understanding of WordPress core architecture, template hierarchy, hooks, filters, metadata, and REST APIs.
• Proficiency in JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, SCSS, and responsive front-end development.
• Experience with Node.js-based tooling, npm, and customized Bootstrap implementations.
• Strong understanding of WordPress Coding Standards and secure coding practices.
• Experience with Composer, PHP namespaces, autoloading, dependency management, and modern PHP architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to independently assess unfamiliar code, debug complex issues, and perform root cause analysis.
• Practical experience with application security assessment, vulnerability identification, and remediation.
• WordPress websites hosted on WP Engine.
• Proficiency with Git-based development and deployment workflows.
• Knowledge of technical SEO, structured data, and AEO implementation.
• Experience documenting custom development, technical findings, and deployment procedures.
• Excellent communication, organizational, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and enhance fully custom WordPress themes and plugins.
• Build WordPress websites from ground up using native WordPress functionality without third-party builders.
• Implement custom post types, taxonomies, metadata, interfaces, and content-management using native WordPress APIs.
• Develop reusable templates, components, and custom functionality via WP hooks, filters, and REST APIs.
• Follow WordPress Coding Standards and PHP/JS best practices.
• Write clean, secure, maintainable, well-documented code.
• Evaluate existing implementations and recommend improvements to architecture, performance, and maintainability.
• Develop responsive, accessible front-end interfaces using HTML5, CSS3, SCSS, and JavaScript.
• Work with Node.js, npm, and front-end build tooling.
• Translate Figma designs into production-ready WordPress implementations.
• Optimize assets for performance and maintainability.
• Apply WCAG 2.1/2.2 accessibility standards.
• Independently review unfamiliar codebases and debug issues.
• Perform root cause analysis and sustainable remediation.

Skills

WordPress

PHP

JavaScript

REST APIs

Git

HTML5

CSS3

SCSS

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science

Tools

Node.js

npm

Bootstrap

Composer

WP Engine

Job description

Planet Pharma is seeking a WordPress Developer (Contract) with strong full-stack skills and deep WordPress architecture knowledge. The role focuses on building fully custom themes and plugins without ACF or page builders, using native WP APIs and REST endpoints.

The candidate will review unfamiliar codebases, troubleshoot production issues, and implement secure, maintainable solutions while collaborating with cross-functional teams. Remote options may apply depending on project needs.