A WordPress Developer is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining websites using the WordPress platform. This role involves both front-end and back-end development, and often includes customizing themes, plugins, and ensuring the website's performance and functionality. Below are the typical job requirements for a WordPress Developer:
1. Educational Qualifications:
- A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Web Development, or a related field is preferred but not always required.
- Relevant certifications or courses in WordPress development, front-end/back-end development, or web technologies can be beneficial.
2. Professional Experience:
- WordPress Development: Proven experience in WordPress development with a solid understanding of WordPress core, themes, plugins, and the WordPress admin interface.
- Front-End Development: Strong experience in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery to implement user interfaces and web designs.
- Back-End Development: Experience in PHP, MySQL, and integrating with WordPress back-end (e.g., theme customization, plugin development, custom post types).
- Theme & Plugin Customization: Ability to customize pre-built themes or create custom themes from scratch. Experience with plugin integration and developing custom plugins is essential.
- SEO and Performance Optimization: Experience in optimizing websites for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ensuring high website performance (e.g., faster load times, mobile optimization).
- Responsive Design: Knowledge of creating or adapting responsive web designs that work well on all devices and screen sizes.
3. Core Skills and Competencies:
- WordPress Expertise: Deep understanding of the WordPress ecosystem, including theme and plugin architecture, widgets, shortcodes, and custom fields.
- Front-End Technologies: Proficiency in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, and responsive design frameworks (e.g., Bootstrap).
- PHP & MySQL: Strong command of PHP for WordPress theme and plugin development, and experience working with MySQL databases for data management.
- Version Control: Familiarity with version control systems such as Git for code collaboration and version management.
- Troubleshooting & Debugging: Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills for resolving WordPress-related issues, from front-end UI problems to back-end functionality issues.
- Security Best Practices: Knowledge of best practices for WordPress security to prevent vulnerabilities, malware, and unauthorized access.
- Performance Optimization: Experience in optimizing websites for speed and performance, including image compression, caching, minification, and CDN (Content Delivery Network) integration.
4. Technical Skills:
- Web Development Frameworks: Experience with web development frameworks like Vue.js, React, or Angular is a plus, especially if combining with WordPress for dynamic content.
- REST API & WordPress REST API: Familiarity with RESTful APIs and how to use or create WordPress REST API endpoints to fetch and display dynamic content.
- eCommerce (WooCommerce): Experience with WooCommerce for building and customizing eCommerce websites, including integrating payment gateways, handling orders, and customizing the store functionalities.
- Content Management Systems (CMS): Experience with other CMS platforms (e.g., Drupal, Joomla) is a plus but not always required if focused on WordPress.
- Multilingual Websites: Experience using tools like WPML or Polylang for creating and managing multilingual WordPress websites.
- Web Hosting & Deployment: Knowledge of web hosting environments (e.g., cPanel, FTP, SSH) and deploying WordPress websites to live servers.
5. Soft Skills:
- Attention to Detail: Strong focus on design, layout, and pixel-perfect implementation of websites.
- Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills for interacting with clients, project managers, or team members.
- Time Management: Ability to manage multiple tasks or projects at once, prioritize work, and meet deadlines.
- Problem-Solving: Ability to identify problems quickly and implement solutions to ensure smooth website functionality.
- Collaboration: Ability to work well in a team with designers, project managers, and other developers to ensure seamless project execution.