WordPress Optimization Specialist (Remote)

We are a 10-years-old digital agency and we are looking to extend our DEV team with a remote, full time WordPress developer to work with us on a full-time basis.

We need somebody who can help us optimising our websites. Our desktop scores are good, but we generally have to increase the mobile SEO page speed score of our existing and future projects. We need much more than just activating a caching plugin, or Cloudflare CDN etc. – as most of these are already done, but our team currently doesn’t have the capacity for researching not so straightforward possibilities. Rather than concentrating on one given project, the new colleague has to find solutions with which we can increase the score of all, or at least many of our websites.

While we have to improve our sites’ performance, particularly on mobile devices, it’s especially important that any optimization solutions maintain the current aesthetics, user experience, and core functionalities of our websites. We believe that performance enhancements shouldn’t come at the cost of our sites’ look or user functionality.

We would like to explore – in order of importance:

• Improvements by theme (Impreza/The7) option changes/optimisations
• Improvements by any other ALREADY installed and activated plugin option changes/optimisations
• Possible improvements by any other NOT YET installed and activated plugin usage
• Possible improvements by switching an existing plugin with a completely new, better optimised one
• If there is anything else which would help us to constantly achieve a mobile performance score higher than 80 (we are not interested in using NitroPack).

As stated above, it is very important that the look of the websites must remain intact. We can’t use optimisations which would affect the look and/or functionalities. For ex.: if minifying CSS and JS would break the website, we either fix it until the website is not broken at all, or we can’t use the minify option.

Trial Period (paid)

Selected candidates may undergo a short trial period to evaluate their skills and compatibility with our team’s workflow. This allows both of us to check if it’s a perfect match before a full commitment.

About Our Team

We are a hands-on digital agency where everyone collaborates and has a say in the projects. Clear communication and working as a team are at the heart of our success. However, it’s equally important that you can work independently. While we are here for guidance and collaboration, there will be times when you’ll need to take initiative and progress on tasks without waiting for input. If you encounter roadblocks, we expect proactive problem-solving and the ability to handle tasks on your own too. Our DEV and QA teams are reliable, direct in their communication, and always open to feedback. If you’re skilled, self-driven, ready to learn, and can balance teamwork with autonomy, we’d like to hear from you.

You Must:

• Have at least 2+ years’ experience developing websites with WordPress, as well as using WordPress.
• Have excellent written and good spoken English.
• Be confident with coding JS, PHP, HTML and CSS by hand.
• Have a work style that is extremely detail oriented.
• Be contactable through your working hours via Trello and IM, sometimes Email.
• Put the word “jellybeans” at the top of your application to show you have read the whole job description.
• Have strong communication skills.
• Be proactive and naturally curious.
• Have a complete freelancer profile.
• Provide references

Required Skills

• WordPress
• JS
• PHP
• CSS
• HTML
• Proficiency in performance analysis tools like Google Lighthouse and GTmetrix
• Ability to research and find solutions for arising problems

Your Responsibilities

• Your main responsibility will be to research solutions to optimise our existing and future websites in order to get higher mobile SEO speed scores (optimisations for desktop are also welcome, but are not a priority);
• Occasionally you may have to solve tasks which need PHP coding. For ex. a customer needs a special booking form integration/modification, CRM integration, etc.
• Occasionally you may have to transform a non-WP website into a WP based one;
• Occasionally you may have to make small modifications and updates to existing WordPress websites.