As I mentioned in my post A Decade as a Core Committer: My WordPress Contribution History, my role at Google was sadly eliminated in April. When I was hired at Google back in 2018, I was brought on as a WordPress contributor to be part of a “scaled activation” team to make the web better at scale through WordPress, since it is the largest percentage of the web by far. It was a dream job in many ways. Not only was I primarily sponsored to make the web better, I also just loved everything about working from the Google PDX office. For the past couple years at Google, my work was focused on the Core Performance Team, dedicated to making WordPress fast and improving the user experience. With that chapter at Google coming to a close, I was eager to keep the momentum going by finding a new position that would allow me to continue contributing full time.
In what may be surprising to many, I’ve found this role at WP Engine. I’ve joined WPE as a principal software engineer to work full time on contributing to WordPress core. I’ll be continuing the performance work I had been doing and which I have continued to work on while I was between roles, with thanks to my sponsors! I’ll be working from home, as I was well accustomed to during my 8 years at X-Team/XWP, and like most of us during COVID. I’m looking forward to resuming frequent visits to my Montavilla neighborhood businesses and regular runs up Mount Tabor.
As far as I know, my being hired is not related in any way to the current WP drama. I’ve tried to stay out of the drama. But WP Engine reached out to me, and after many conversations, I was encouraged with the role they were looking to fill: exactly what I had been looking for when I was let go by Google. There are also a couple former fellow XWPeople who are now at WPE who I’m looking forward to working with again!
I attribute WP Engine’s bringing me on board as a testament to their core value to be committed to give back:
We advance the WordPress Community through original contribution, sharing expertise, and active participation.
I’m looking forward to continuing my WordPress core contribution journey now at a company fully immersed and invested in WordPress!
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