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WiLL Viljoen
Willie “WiLL” Viljoen
Senior Full-Stack Engineer | PHP 8+ | WordPress Platform (Plugins + REST) | MySQL | Linux
Backend-first. Platform-grade. Production-owned.

Building PHP and WordPress platforms that scale, stay secure, and keep their promises.

I help teams ship and stabilize real systems: custom WordPress plugins, secure WP REST APIs, backend services, scheduled automation, dashboards, and reporting pipelines. If it runs in production and matters, I’m comfortable owning it.

WordPress Plugins
WP REST API
Hooks & Filters
CPT / Taxonomies
PHP 8+
MySQL
Performance & Caching
Security Hardening
Linux + Cron
APIs + Webhooks
For recruiters Senior PHP + WordPress platform engineer who can own production, integrations, and reliability.
For clients Feature builds, plugin work, performance and security hardening, audits, and rescue fixes.
How I work Clean code, clear comms, measurable outcomes, and fixes that stay fixed.

What I bring

  • WordPress platform engineering Custom plugins, admin screens, secure endpoints, performance tuning, maintainable architecture.
  • Backend correctness Data pipelines, reporting, billing-style logic, and audit-friendly logs that explain what happened.
  • Production ownership Deployments, debugging, root cause isolation, and hardening systems under real constraints.

Quick links

LinkedIn
Profile and experience
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CV
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Availability
Remote, US overlap OK
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Contact details are revealed on interaction to reduce scraping. Scrapers hate effort.

What I can do for you

  • Custom plugin developmentNew features, admin tooling, integrations, CPTs, and secure REST endpoints.
  • Performance and stabilitySlow site diagnosis, query tuning, caching, cron reliability, and hardening.
  • Security clean-upCapabilities, nonces, sanitization, escaping, and endpoint lockdown.
  • Rescue and refactorUntangle legacy code, add guardrails, and move it toward maintainable architecture.

Engagement types

  • Fixed-scopeClear deliverables, clear acceptance criteria.
  • RetainerOngoing support, improvements, and operational coverage.
  • AuditPerformance, security, architecture, and a practical punch list.

If you want “cheap and fast”, I’m not your guy. If you want “fast and correct”, welcome.

Services

  • WordPress plugin buildsFeature development, admin tooling, CPTs, WP REST endpoints.
  • API + integration workREST, webhooks, auth, validation, retries, and observability.
  • Automation + scheduled jobsWP-Cron patterns, real cron triggers, idempotency, safe fallbacks.
  • Performance tuningQuery profiling, indexing, caching strategy, bottleneck removal.
  • Security hardeningCapabilities, nonces, sanitization, escaping, and endpoint lockdown.
  • Rescue and modernizationLegacy refactors, guardrails, stability improvements, and cleanup plans.

Proof and signals

I’m a systems builder. I prefer measurable outcomes over buzzwords. If you want specifics, ask and I’ll share relevant examples.

Engineering signals

Clean interfaces, strong validation, secure defaults, predictable data flows, and logs that answer “what happened?” I tune the slow stuff, lock down the risky stuff, and document the sharp edges.

Collaboration signals

Clear written updates, pragmatic estimates, and “no surprises” delivery. I can work solo, or inside a team with reviews and CI.

Contact (scraper-resistant)

Email and phone are revealed only on interaction. It keeps the honest humans happy and makes scrapers work for it.

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Phone
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No backend needed