Job Role Insight
Date Posted
Apr 13, 2025
Location
Remote
Salary
$70,000 - $170,000 P/A
Job Type
Full-Time
Description
WordPress Playground is at the forefront of innovation, and we need a passionate and experienced Senior Developer to help us define the next era of WordPress. We're seeking someone who is deeply engaged with technology, empathetic to the needs of its users, and excited by the broader implications of their work.In this role, you will be instrumental in building foundational tools, engaging with the vibrant WordPress community, and prototyping groundbreaking concepts that will inspire the future of the platform.
Some of your responsibilities will include
- Building Core PHP Tools: Develop fundamental, low-level PHP tools with the potential for inclusion in WordPress Core. Examples include WP<->WP synchronization mechanisms, high-performance streaming parsers, and robust git client implementations.
- Engaging with Web Standards: Diligently read and understand technical specifications, RFCs, and web standards proposals from organizations like WHATWG (HTML spec), as well as specifications for protocols like git and emerging proposals like JSPI.
- Community-Driven Prototyping: Publish early-stage, "half-baked" prototypes to spark community interest and gather initial feedback. Examples could include a browser-based WordPress IDE, tools for recording WordPress test runs using Playwright, or an intuitive Blueprints builder.
- Community and Team Collaboration: Actively coordinate and communicate with the broader WordPress community, including contributors and users, as well as collaborating effectively with other teams within Automattic.
Responsibilities
- Code Development & Contribution: Develop high-quality code for WordPress Playground in both TypeScript and PHP, ensuring well-documented Github issues and pull requests, and actively participate in constructive discussions and thorough code reviews.
- Community Engagement & Support: Communicate in a friendly and professional manner with community members, providing guidance and support to help them successfully contribute their submissions.
- Documentation & API Enhancement: Effectively utilize existing documentation resources and examples, proactively identify areas for improvement, and enhance the APIs to empower the community to achieve tasks more efficiently.
Requirements
We are looking for a senior developer with a proven track record of deep technical engagement. You should have significant experience and a deep understanding in one or two (ideally no more than three) of the following areas, demonstrating a willingness to dive deep and build complex solutions:- Web Assembly (WASM): Experience building applications or tools leveraging Web Assembly.
- Offline Apps: Expertise in developing applications that function reliably offline.
- Live Collaboration: Experience building real-time collaborative applications.
- Mobile Apps: Significant experience in mobile application development (native or cross-platform).
- Stream-Processing Data: Expertise in processing and analyzing streaming data.
- Parsers: Deep understanding and experience in building efficient and robust parsers for various data formats.
- Browser Extensions: Experience developing complex browser extensions.
- Web Browser Internals: Familiarity with the internal workings of web browsers (e.g., Chromium codebase).
- PHP Internals: Understanding of the PHP engine's C codebase and its core functionalities.
- Git Internals: Deep knowledge of the .git repository structure and the git protocol.
- Web Standards Contribution: Experience in helping define new web standards, such as participating in WASM standards discussions, contributing to PHP mailing lists with insightful contributions, or proposing RFCs (even informally) for WordPress improvements.
Note: If you feel strongly that you have what it takes for this role but don’t check 100% of the boxes—that’s okay—we encourage you to apply anyway and highlight what you can bring to the table.
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