Head of Development

Growth Leads is a lead generation company building and scaling high-performance content websites across iGaming, Financial Services, Health, and Communications. We operate a network of high-traffic digital properties where success depends on speed, technical excellence, and the ability to scale complex systems that power content, SEO, tracking, and conversion at volume. 

Role Overview

You will own technical direction across multiple teams and systems, including WordPress platforms, PHP backend services, and distributed infrastructure supporting a large portfolio of websites. You will set engineering standards, define architecture strategy, and ensure the platform is built to scale reliably under high traffic and fast growth.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical vision, architecture, and engineering standards across all systems
• Lead and manage the development team across multiple projects and systems
• Define long-term technical strategy and platform direction
• Oversee architecture for distributed systems, backend services, and WordPress platforms
• Ensure scalability, performance, and reliability across all websites and services
• Guide development of complex WordPress builds including custom themes, plugins, and frameworks
• Oversee backend PHP systems, APIs, integrations, and data flows
• Ensure strong performance across caching, databases, and system layers
• Integrate tracking, analytics, SEO systems, and external data sources
• Translate business and growth requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Identify system bottlenecks and redesign architecture where needed
• Set and enforce engineering standards, code quality, and best practices
• Mentor senior engineers and improve overall technical capability of the team
• Own long-term roadmap for system architecture and platform evolution
• Align with various cross-department stakeholders
• Turn loosely defined features into implementable work
• Write specifications and acceptance criteria for developers
• Answer implementation questions without escalation

Requirements

• Strong advanced WordPress development experience
• Expert-level PHP 8+ engineering skills
• Deep understanding of WordPress core architecture and internals
• Experience building custom WordPress themes and plugins
• Strong focus on WordPress performance optimisation
• Experience integrating WordPress with external APIs and services
• Ability to work with and improve complex WordPress codebases
• Strong systems thinking and problem-solving ability

Preferred Experience

• Experience in lead generation, affiliate marketing, or performance-driven web environments
• Experience managing large WordPress ecosystems or multi-site platforms
• Experience with SEO-driven website networks at scale
• Experience with analytics, tracking, or attribution systems
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines, DevOps, or cloud infrastructure
• Experience in high-growth digital businesses
• Experience improving or rebuilding complex legacy systems

What Success Looks Like

• A stable and scalable technical ecosystem across all websites
• Clear technical direction and strong engineering standards across the team
• Improved system performance, reliability, and maintainability
• Scalable WordPress and backend systems supporting rapid growth
• Reduced technical debt and improved engineering efficiency
• Strong alignment between engineering, SEO, and growth teams
• Systems capable of handling increasing traffic and content scale without degradation

Why Join Growth Leads

This is a senior ownership role where you will be responsible for the entire technical foundation of a multi-vertical lead generation business. Your decisions will directly impact scalability, performance, and growth across the platform, with full responsibility for shaping how the engineering function operates and evolves.