Lead WordPress Engineer

The role Important: This role is open solely to Australian residents with full working rights, no international applicants at this time will be considered. As a Lead Engineer at The Code Company you will spearhead the most complex and high-profile enterprise WordPress projects in APAC. These are large, high-performance builds for major publishers and global brands, and you will be the person responsible for their technical success from the first discovery session through to launch and beyond. Lead Engineers own the whole technical lifecycle of a project. You shape scope and architecture during discovery, estimate the work, plan it alongside the project manager, and then lead a team of engineers through delivery. You are the person the client looks to for confidence that the right thing is being built the right way, and the person the PM relies on to keep the project on track. This is a hands-on, client facing engineering role with real leadership responsibility. Key responsibilities Own the technical direction of your projects end to end, from discovery and scoping through architecture, estimation, build, migration and launch.Design and champion architectures that perform at scale, integrate cleanly with external systems, and stay simple enough to maintain.Lead complex data and content migrations, including planning, validation and cut-over.Take ownership of the business problem, not just the ticket. Understand the client's goals, constraints and scope well enough to challenge assumptions and land on the simplest solution that will actually work.Act as the primary technical point of contact for the client. Take point from a technical perspective in client meetings, build trust and rapport, and give the client confidence at every stage of the project.Communicate proactively. Identify information gaps early, know who you need to speak to and when, and go and get what the project needs rather than waiting for it to arrive.Be straight with clients about risk, trade-offs and timelines.Estimate large and complex bodies of work with accuracy, and identify risks before they become problems.Partner with project managers to plan, sequence and track delivery, and flag early when things are drifting into scope creep.Lead a team of one to four engineers on each project. Delegate effectively, put the right people on the right work, and structure the team so the project is set up for success. About you Expert-level WordPress experience (7+ years) with a substantial portion of that in enterprise environments, and expert-level PHP and modern JavaScript, including native block development with React and the @wordpress packages.A track record of leading and delivering enterprise-scale WordPress projects, with demonstrable experience on high-complexity, high-performance builds for clients comparable to ours.Strong architectural judgement: designing WordPress platforms that perform at scale, knowing where the bottlenecks in WordPress are and designing solutions accordingly.Experience integrating external APIs and data platforms into WordPress at scale.Experience planning and executing complex data and content migrations.Experience with managed enterprise WordPress hosting such as WordPress VIP, WP Engine or Pantheon.Strong debugging skills and comfortable using APM tooling, Xdebug, and other modern debugging tools and workflows.Extensive, demonstrable experience with agentic development workflows, specifically Cursor and Claude, including building and maintaining agent skills and ideally distributing them across a team.Proven ability to estimate large projects accurately and to act as the senior technical voice within a delivery team.Experience leading, mentoring and delegating to a small team of engineers. About us The Code Company is a globally recognised enterprise WordPress agency and WordPress VIP Gold Partner specialising in solving complex problems at scale for some of Australia's most prominent digital publishers including CarAdvice/Drive, Pedestrian and Val Morgan as well as international brands such as eBay and Fujifilm. Founded in Queensland, our agency has been around for more than a decade and we're made up of experts within the WordPress ecosystem, core contributors, plugin developers, front-end developers and back-end engineers. Our team members work remotely across Australia, NZ and the US however we also have satellite offices across the country for impromptu meetups, project collaboration and for team members that prefer working from an office a few days a week. Our Core Values We live and breathe by our core values as they define us as a business, both internally and externally. We feel so strongly about these that if you don’t feel similarly, we’d suggest not applying. Own the Work: We act like the work is our own. That means we take responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks. We care deeply, follow through, and don’t wait to be told. In a remote, highly autonomous environment, that sense of ownership is essential. Solve with Purpose: We’re not just here to ship code. We solve problems and aim for impact. That means thinking through the why, not just the how. We take pride in doing it properly and delivering value. The Simplest Solution is Often the Best We value clarity and efficiency over complexity. Our approach is practical, not flashy. The best solution is the one that works and is easy to maintain. Clear, Honest Communication: We don’t sugar-coat things or spin. We’re clear and direct with clients and with each other. Good communication keeps things moving. The best ideas can come from anywhere: We’re a lean business that punches above its weight. We acknowledge that anyone on our team can come up with great ideas to improve systems, processes or more – and actively encourage people to speak up. A Good Vibe Workplace: We work hard to create a respectful, ethical, and low-stress environment. We support each other, trust each other, assume the best when interacting with each other and keep things drama-free. What's next If you feel you have the right skills and experience for this role we would love to hear from you, please apply through Seek with a cover letter telling us a bit about yourself, how your experience addresses the requirements of the role as well as what our core values mean to you. Following that, we will review all submissions by hand and reach out to a select number of applicants for first round interviews. We have a two-step interview process and a very short take-home assignment to do at your own pace, the details of which will be shared during the interview.