Developer and Web Designer Subject Matter Expert (SME) Job Description

Position Overview

The Developer and Web Designer Subject Matter Expert serves as the organization’s senior technical lead for the enterprise WordPress platform and broader digital experience initiatives. This role defines architecture, development standards, governance practices, and implementation strategies for secure, scalable, maintainable, and accessible web solutions. The SME partners with executive leadership, product owners, developers, designers, content strategists, and business stakeholders to strengthen customer engagement, improve digital delivery, and support organizational priorities.

The successful candidate should be able to set technical direction, guide implementation teams, advise stakeholders, and establish repeatable standards for secure, scalable, and maintainable digital platforms.

Essential Functions

WordPress Architecture and Governance

• Define enterprise WordPress architecture, development standards, governance practices, and implementation patterns that align platform decisions with security, performance, accessibility, maintainability, and business requirements.
• Establish governance for themes, plugins, custom code, roles, permissions, content workflows, deployment, and release management.
• Design scalable enterprise or multisite WordPress environments aligned with security, performance, maintainability, and business requirements.
• Evaluate and manage the WordPress plugin lifecycle, including selection, licensing, security review, update cadence, and retirement strategies.
• Minimize custom code and technical debt by using WordPress Core capabilities first and defining clear extension patterns for plugins, themes, blocks, and integrations.
• Lead CMS migration planning from Contentful to WordPress, including architecture, content structure, workflows, and implementation standards.

Enterprise Web Strategy

• Define enterprise web architecture and digital experience strategies that support organizational priorities.
• Develop technology roadmaps for web platforms, CMS capabilities, design systems, integrations, and modernization initiatives.
• Evaluate and recommend platforms, frameworks, tools, and emerging technologies that improve scalability, usability, accessibility, and maintainability.

Web Development Leadership

• Lead development of enterprise websites, web applications, and digital services using modern front-end practices, CMS capabilities, and API-driven architectures.
• Architect solutions using WordPress, Contentful, React, Next.js, JavaScript frameworks, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL.
• Establish reusable frameworks, templates, components, and development patterns that promote consistency and efficient delivery.

User Experience and Accessibility

• Lead UX research, design reviews, usability assessments, and continuous improvement efforts.
• Ensure web solutions comply with Section 508, WCAG 2.1/2.2, ADA accessibility standards, and inclusive design practices.
• Contribute to and help govern enterprise design systems, user experience guidelines, and reusable design patterns that improve consistency across digital properties.

Technical Leadership and Mentoring

• Provide technical guidance, coaching, and mentoring to developers, designers, and cross-functional delivery teams.
• Lead architecture reviews, design discussions, peer reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions to strengthen delivery quality.
• Promote consistent engineering practices, documentation standards, reusable patterns, and continuous improvement across web initiatives.

Content Strategy and CMS Governance

• Design and govern structured content models, metadata standards, taxonomy frameworks, and publishing workflows.
• Oversee content lifecycle management, localization strategies, editorial governance, and CMS publishing controls.
• Partner with content, design, and business teams to ensure CMS structures support usability, findability, reuse, and long-term maintainability.

Technical Oversight

• Serve as the senior technical authority for WordPress architecture, custom themes, plugins, integrations, security, performance, deployment strategy, and platform governance.
• Review custom development and third-party extensions for maintainability, security, compliance, and alignment with enterprise standards.
• Establish secure development practices aligned with OWASP, least-privilege principles, organizational security policies, and quality review expectations.
• Define development workflows for coding standards, pull requests, peer reviews, architectural decision records, documentation, CI/CD, deployment readiness, and release governance.
• Lead performance optimization, platform modernization, and technical debt reduction initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Advise leadership, product owners, and business units on digital strategy, platform capabilities, implementation tradeoffs, risks, and recommended paths forward.
• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions, clear recommendations, and actionable implementation plans.
• Present architecture decisions, risks, roadmaps, and modernization strategies to executive and cross-functional stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Web Development, Digital Media, Human-Computer Interaction, or related discipline.
• Equivalent professional experience may substitute for formal education.

Experience

• 8+ years of progressive experience in web development, web design, or digital platform management.
• 5+ years of experience leading or supporting enterprise CMS migrations from Contentful, Drupal, Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, or comparable platforms into WordPress.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise WordPress implementations, including solution architecture, governance, custom development, plugin strategy, security review, and release planning.
• Experience establishing WordPress development standards, plugin governance, and secure implementation practices.

Technical Skills

• WordPress expertise: Core architecture, Gutenberg/Block Editor, custom themes and plugins, Custom Post Types, taxonomies, roles and capabilities, REST API, WP-CLI, and plugin lifecycle management.
• Front-end development: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, responsive design, reusable components, and modern UI frameworks.
• APIs and integrations: RESTful APIs, GraphQL, headless CMS architecture, third-party integrations, and API-driven content delivery.
• Development operations: Git, CI/CD tools, coding standards, peer review workflows, documentation, deployment management, and release governance.
• Security and performance: Secure software development, OWASP Top 10, cloud-hosted environments, caching strategies, performance optimization, and technical debt reduction.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal government, healthcare, education, or regulated industries.
• Professional certifications in:
• AWS
• Azure
• Scrum/Agile
• UX Design
• Accessibility
• Experience with enterprise design systems.
• Experience managing digital transformation programs.
• Knowledge of SEO, analytics, and customer experience platforms.

Core Competencies

• WordPress Platform Governance
• Engineering Standards and Quality Assurance
• UX and Accessibility Leadership
• Content Strategy and CMS Governance
• Technical Leadership
• Communication and Presentation Skills
• Stakeholder Engagement

Work Environment

• Remote work environment.
• Collaboration across cross-functional and geographically distributed teams.
• Supports Agile, DevSecOps, and continuous delivery methodologies.
• May participate in strategic planning sessions, architecture reviews, and executive briefings.