Senior Web Developer

Job Description The Ad Firm is a Digital Marketing Agency based in Southern California, serving clients nationwide. Since 2009, we’ve helped businesses grow through SEO, content, and performance-driven digital strategies. We’re expanding our team and looking for a Senior Web Developer to lead how our websites are built from the ground up. This is not a production role. This is a systems-level engineering role for someone who understands that websites are not just design deliverables, they are performance assets that need to rank, scale, and hold up under real-world conditions. This is a remote position with flexible working hours from day one. About the Role Own the technical foundation of the websites we build Architect, develop, and optimize custom builds for SEO, performance, and scalability Work closely with SEO, Content, and Digital PR teams to ensure strong technical execution Build systems that are clean, scalable, and maintainable Focus on engineering quality over page builders or pre-built themes Key Responsibilities Architect and build fully custom WordPress websites (themes, plugins, ACF-driven structures) Engineer sites for speed, scalability, and strong Core Web Vitals performance Handle server environments, deployments, and infrastructure decisions Integrate APIs and third-party systems cleanly and reliably Own technical SEO implementation (crawlability, indexation, structured data) Manage DNS, CDN (Cloudflare), SMTP, and hosting configurations Work across Shopify and BigCommerce at the code level when needed Implement accurate tracking (GA4, GTM) without compromising data integrity Debug issues across the full stack (server, backend, frontend performance) What We’re Looking For 5+ years of web development experience in agency or performance-driven environments Deep expertise in PHP (including WordPress core-level development) Strong JavaScript experience with modern frameworks and tooling Working knowledge of Python (automation, scraping, tooling) Proven experience building custom WordPress websites from scratch Strong understanding of technical SEO and its impact on architecture and performance Ability to diagnose and solve full-stack issues independently What Sets You Apart You think in systems, not pages Experience working on large-scale or SEO-heavy websites Strong understanding of crawlability, indexation, and internal linking at scale Experience with schema and structured data implementation Exposure to programmatic SEO or dynamic page generation Experience handling real-world constraints (traffic spikes, broken deployments, legacy rebuilds) Strong Advantages Experience with CI/CD pipelines and Git workflows Familiarity with Docker or modern dev environments Experience with log analysis and advanced debugging Security hardening and site recovery experience Experience with multi-site or multi-location SEO builds What We Don’t Want Heavy reliance on page builders Plugin-first approaches to performance and SEO Developers who need constant direction or step-by-step instructions Why Join Us? High ownership with real technical decision-making Clean builds with no unnecessary bloat Direct collaboration with SEO, Content, and Digital PR specialists A team that values performance, scalability, and engineering quality Competitive salary and performance-based incentives Flexible remote work from day one 2 weeks Paid Time-Off Paid Sick Leave 8 Paid Holidays Health Insurance Ready to Apply? Submit your resume Include a portfolio with examples of custom builds Add a short note on how you approach building high-performance websites