Senior WordPress Backend Engineer (PHP)

Role Overview

Own the WordPress platform Patrika's newsroom publishes on — the content model, the custom plugins, and the performance that keeps a high-volume news site fast under load. This is not a theme-tweak role. You build plugins and editorial tooling, design taxonomy across sections and editions, land upgrades through WordPress 6.9 to 7.x, run migrations without losing URLs, and feed the apps through APIs.

What You'll Work On

• Own the WordPress platform the newsroom publishes on, end to end.
• Build custom plugins, blocks and editorial tooling that fit how journalists actually work under deadline.
• Design the taxonomy and content model across sections, cities, editions, authors and story formats.
• Keep the site fast under load — object caching, full-page caching, CDN purge-on-publish and relentless query tuning.
• Plan and land the upgrade path across WordPress 6.9 to 7.x, including Phase 3 collaboration changes, without disrupting the newsroom.
• Run large content migrations and remappings without losing history, URLs or search rankings.
• Build and maintain the APIs that feed the apps and any decoupled front ends.
• Harden the stack, keep dependencies current, and respond fast when a plugin vulnerability is disclosed.
• Work directly with editors — watch them use what you built, and fix what slows them down.
  
  

Who Is Right for This Role

• 5–8 years in PHP, with the majority spent on WordPress in production.
• Has built custom WordPress plugins from scratch — not only installed and configured existing ones.
• Has designed a taxonomy and content model for a large site: custom post types, custom taxonomies, term relationships and metadata.
• Has run WordPress at high traffic and can describe the caching layers they put in place, with numbers.
• Writes modern PHP 8.x: typed code, Composer, PSR standards, automated tests.
• Current on WordPress 6.9 through 7.0 / 7.1, including the block editor and Phase 3 collaboration work.
• Has done at least one large content migration and knows where the bodies are buried.
• Ships through version control and CI, not by editing files on the server.
• Can join immediately (0–15 days).
  
  

Who Isn't a Fit

• Mostly configured existing plugins and themes; has not built custom plugins from scratch.
• Cannot describe high-traffic WordPress caching layers with numbers.
• PHP without 8.x typing, Composer, PSR and automated tests.
• Not current on WordPress 6.9–7.x / block editor / Phase 3.
• Has never run a large content migration.
• Deploys by editing files on the server rather than git and CI.
• Notice period longer than 15 days.
  
  

How You'll Work

• Full-time contract, remote / flexible (India).
• Immediate joiners only — notice period 0–15 days.
• Experience required: 5–8 years.
• Works directly with editors; watch them use what you built and fix what slows them down.