WordPress Playground needs a developer to help us shape the future of WordPress. We’re looking for a senior person, interested equally in the technology, the people using the technology, and the big picture.

There are amazing things you can do with Playground, but we need to tell both developers and users how they can benefit from it. Playground can be a tool that teaches building for WordPress, but it can equally be used for visualizing end-to-end tests, booting WordPress to a desired state, and much more. 

Some of your responsibilities will include: 

Own Playground developer relationships strategy as if you were a startup founder. WordPress Playground can change everything for WordPress. Help the community understand why and how.

  • Make mental connections between Playground and prominent problems in WordPress, PHP, and web development in general. Validate these ideas with developers and popularize them (e.g. pitch Playground for data migrations, slide decks, WCEU workshops; ask GitHub for extended CORS access).
  • Liaising with others—developers, to ingrain Playground in the DNA of their work; marketers, to amplify Playground communication; and other key players in the ecosystem—to inspire them and inform product development.
  • Make strategic ideas happen by rallying support, finding allies, and building consensus (e.g.  bring a WASM runtime into PHP core, remove experimental APIs from WordPress core).
  • Advocate for Playground. Track Playground work and amplify it in the community by writing make.wp.org posts, co-writing posts on prominent blogs like web.dev, talking to WordPress journalists and Youtubers, and making buzz in social media. (e.g. https://web.dev/articles/wordpress-playground).
  • Source feedback and reflect on it to guide product development. Be proactive and reach out to specific developers, contributors, and integrators, but also be reactive, monitoring make.wp.org, Slack, and social media.
  • Encourage new contributions. Show how easy it is, create a library of examples, encourage specific people to make specific changes, lead hackathons and contributor tables at WordCamps (e.g. the Blueprints builder was built by Ajit Bohra after a fruitful conversation on WordCamp EU), and so on.
  • Clarify confusion through thoughtful documentation: pages, guides, examples (e.g. Improving the learning journey of WordPress Playground in the Docs).
  • Establish clear communication channels. Make sure people know how to share feedback, request features, and be noticed for the amazing thing they've built with Playground.

Requirements: 

  • Community Building Expertise: You should have a demonstrated ability to cultivate and manage active developer communities. Experience in scaling community engagement, effectively addressing conflicts, and fostering an inclusive and participatory environment is essential.
  • Collaboration with Engineering and Product Teams: Show a track record of working collaboratively with product managers, engineers, and leadership teams. Your insights should help shape the product roadmap by incorporating developer feedback, and staying attuned to market trends.
  • Strong Online Presence: We are looking for someone who actively engages with developer communities across various platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Mastodon, Reddit, and Stack Overflow. A substantial following that showcases your influence and reputation in the developer space is highly desirable.

Salary range: $70,000-$170,000 USD - Please note that salary ranges are global, regardless of location, and we pay in local currency.

We are searching for high-caliber candidates with the skills and qualities to have a net positive for Automattic. Pay will reflect the potential contribution and the impact you can bring, which may, in some cases, go beyond the range stated for the right candidate.

This isn’t your typical work-from-home job—we are a fully-remote company with an open vacation policy. Read more about our compensation philosophy. To see a full list of benefits by country, consult our Benefits Page. And check out these links to learn more about How We Hire and What We Expect from Ourselves.

About Automattic 

We are the people behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Simplenote, Jetpack, Longreads, Day One, Pocket Casts, and more. We believe in making the web a better place.

We’re a distributed company with more than 1700 Automatticians in 92 countries speaking 110+ different languages. And, even more than growth and profitability (although we’re plenty profitable), above all, we’re driven by a mission:  We democratize publishing and commerce so anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone with a product can sell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or country.

We believe in Open Source, and the vast majority of our work is available under the GPL.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Automattic 

We’re improving diversity in the tech industry. At Automattic, we want people to love their work and show respect and empathy to all. We welcome differences and strive to increase participation from traditionally underrepresented groups. Our DEI committee involves Automatticians across the company and drives grassroots change. For example, this group has helped facilitate private online spaces for affiliated Automatticians to gather and helps run a monthly DEI People Lab series for further learning. DEI is a priority at Automattic, though our dedication influences far more than just Automatticians: We make our products freely available and translate our products into and offer customer support in numerous languages. We require unconscious bias training for our hiring teams and ensure our products are accessible across different bandwidths and devices. 

Automattic is a Most Loved Company and Disability Confident Committed. (Here’s what that might mean for you.) Learn more about our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion and our Employee Resource Groups.

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