Hello XWP

I’d like to join your journey.

I’m an experienced WordPress developer who has a deep love of building customer focused solutions for enterprise clients.

About Me

I’m Jess. An intrapreneur, wordsmith, code wrangler, and visual artist.

I am looking for a senior engineering role where I can remove operational roadblocks.

I value people, understanding urgency, and flexibility.

I have 10 years of experience as a WordPress developer and have been publishing content since 2006.

My goal would be to have a positive influence on people and financial revenue.

Role

My ideal role would be a senior engineering position that focuses on operational roadblocks. I get excited about deeply learning new topics and stacks to solve client issues. This is especially true about the problems no one wants. Dusty pain points are a thrill to heal, whether that be for internal operations or external clients. In time, I would like to grow to a place where I could lead a group of like minded “fixers”.

Values

Everyone matters, not everything is urgent, and blessed are the flexible.

People

Every person has inherent value and worth. All deserve to be treated with respect, grace, and kindness. This informs every part of how I interact with others.

Understanding Urgency

Meaningful momentum gets killed by interruptions from false urgency. Incoming items get tracked, measured for impact, and prioritized. This enables me to work in order of importance.

Flexibility

Sometimes days get rearranged. I keep a cool head and switch contexts as efficiently as possible. Being flexible brings calm to others and makes me an agile asset.

Practical Experience

I have significant experience working with enterprise WordPress solutions.

WordPress.com Subscriptions

Users were faced with a clunky interface which didn’t allow for searching or filtering active subscriptions. Implementing these features improved the UX for millions of WordPress.com users.

Project Management
WordPress DataViews
Typescript & React
Code Refactor

E-Mandates Implementation

Auto-renewal success rates for credit cards issued from Indian banks saw a near drop to zero. Implementation of e-mandate authentication resulted in a trend towards previous success rates.

Debugging & Investigation
Stripe API Integration
Rescued $240k in annual revenue
Project management

Local Payment Method API

Local payment methods (iDEAL, Bancontact, etc) were using the deprecated Stripe Sources API. Migrating to the PaymentIntent API allowed users to continue paying with preferred local payment methods.

Retained $1.5M in annual revenue
Zero down-time for payment method use
Completed 6 weeks ahead of deadline
PHP & PHPUnit

Technical Support

Publishers with varying levels of WordPress skills, from beginner to agency developers, needed educational and technical support. Communicating clearly and debugging issues which affected thousands of sites at a time unblocked users.

Stakeholder communication
Site Triage & Debugging
Enterprise WordPress hosting
Balanced working with multiple users at once

Impact

I help teams with creating healthy rhythms and rituals. I set good examples of proactive communication, help with managing the administrative load of leadership, and enjoy planning meetups that blend in-person work with activities that promote bonding and clarity into what makes teams tick.

The first step in positively influencing revenue is to do the job. Executing client requests and getting to the next task ensures revenue flow. The second step is to close gaps which leave opportunities on the table or slow-leak revenue in unnecessary cost.

Ideas

💡 Create a tool that records user actions each visit so users can easily get straight to what they need to do.

💡 Train an LLM to develop plugin boilerplates so common functionality is available as a starting point.

💡 Build an API that provides a client “Approval” button which merges changes into production.

Ideas are fun but few withstand first contact with reality. I love learning from others and believe the best posture for collaboration is curiosity. Asking questions leads to robust solutions which survive to production.

What people are saying

“Jess’ biggest strength is her curiosity and tenacity.”

Payton Swick
_{Senior Software Engineer, Automattic}