WordPress Engineer - Elementor Removal and Template-Driven Rebuild

Wordpress (4.5 yr.), Full Stack Web (3.5 yr.).

Senior

English C1

Required Skills

WordPress

Gutenberg

PHP

ACF

Nice to Have

Elementor

Unreal Engine

Cypress

Ember.js

WP-Rocket

WP Mail SMTP

AWS Cloudformation

TDD

Optimism

Summary

Experienced WordPress engineer specializing in performance-first, template-driven site architecture with 4+ years optimizing large-scale CMS platforms. Proficient in Gutenberg block development, custom post types, taxonomies, and ACF Pro for scalable content management. Skilled in PHP, JavaScript, and plugin ecosystem management, including complex migrations and Elementor removal. Adept at maintaining SEO integrity, multilingual setups, and membership integrations while delivering sub-2 second PHP execution and sub-1 second cached loads. Strong background in SDLC, code-driven templating, and automated bulk content migration.

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Job Description

Role Overview:
This position involves serving as a WordPress Engineer responsible for the comprehensive refactoring and performance optimization of the Cycle Norway website. The primary objective is to replace the existing Elementor and JetPlugins-based architecture with a fast, template-driven WordPress solution while preserving all existing content, multilingual capabilities, memberships, URLs, and SEO structures. The role demands expertise in Gutenberg, custom post types, taxonomies, and performance-first architecture, with a focus on maintaining the site's visual appearance and functionality without redesign or CMS migration.

Responsibilities and Contributions:

Conduct a thorough audit and foundation setup by cloning the live site to a staging environment, inventorying layouts, auditing plugins, and securing SEO configurations.
Develop and implement a new WordPress theme, including rebuilding typography, spacing, buttons, header, footer, core templates, and reusable Gutenberg block patterns to replace the blank theme and Elementor-based design.
Re-register custom post types and taxonomies outside of JetEngine using code or ACF Pro, ensuring existing content integrity, URL consistency, and editor usability.
Recreate route fields and rebuild route listing pages using template logic and Gutenberg Query Loops, eliminating reliance on JetEngine listings and dynamic widgets.
Map existing pages to new templates and perform bulk content migration by layout type, minimizing manual page-by-page intervention.
Execute quality assurance processes including verification of links, multilingual functionality, and membership flows on the staging site.
Remove Elementor, JetEngine, and all associated JetPlugins completely from the site post-migration.
Perform final performance tuning to meet strict targets: zero Elementor runtime, PHP execution time under 2 seconds uncached, cached page loads under 1 second, and responsive backend administration without editor lag.
Collaborate within a milestone-based payment engagement model over a 4–6 week timeline, ensuring all deliverables such as layout-to-template mapping, plugin keep/remove plans, CPT/taxonomy ownership plans, migration strategies, and removal checklists are completed.

Project Chronology:

Cycle Norway – WordPress Rebuild & Elementor Exit

Project Phase	Role	Area of Responsibility	Technologies, Tools, and Methodologies
Phase 1 – Audit & Foundation	WordPress Engineer	Site cloning to staging, layout inventory (~10 layouts), plugin audit, SEO lock-in	WordPress staging environment, plugin analysis tools, SEO management
Phase 2 – Theme, Templates & Patterns	WordPress Engineer	Theme replacement, rebuilding UI elements (typography, spacing, buttons), header/footer, core templates, reusable Gutenberg block patterns	WordPress theme development, Gutenberg block editor, template-driven architecture
Phase 3 – JetEngine Exit	WordPress Engineer	Re-registering custom post types and taxonomies outside JetEngine, recreating route fields, rebuilding route listing pages without JetEngine	ACF Pro or custom code for CPTs and taxonomies, Gutenberg Query Loops, template logic
Phase 4 – Content Migration	WordPress Engineer	Mapping pages to templates, bulk migration by layout type, minimizing manual intervention	Data migration strategies, WordPress content management, template mapping
Phase 5 – Cutover & Cleanup	WordPress Engineer	Quality assurance (links, languages, membership flows), removal of Elementor and Jet stack, final performance tuning, site go-live	QA methodologies, performance benchmarking, WordPress plugin management

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