Client: National media publisher with high-traffic content platform
Role: Lead Developer • Migration Strategist • Performance Optimizer
Timeline: ~1 month
Stack: AWS (legacy), WPEngine (new), WordPress, CI/CD, CloudFront
🚨 The Problem
The client’s AWS infrastructure had become an expensive crutch—masking performance issues with over-scaling instead of addressing root problems.
- Legacy code was bloated and fragile
- Hosting bills were skyrocketing into the five figures
- A migration to WPEngine was planned—but the codebase and infra setup weren’t ready
- Risks included site downtime, broken deployments, and unstable performance
They didn’t just need a hosting switch. They needed a full-stack intervention.
🧠 My Role
I led the cleanup and migration prep, coordinating across teams to stabilize the platform and execute a zero-downtime migration—while also building a pipeline that didn’t rely on hope and elbow grease.
🔧 What I Delivered
- Directed and contributed to a full codebase cleanup and cross-team performance optimization
- Resolved critical bottlenecks:
- Transitioned blocking scripts to lazy loading
- Reworked frontend and server-side caching to align with WPEngine architecture
- Cleaned up autoloaded values and transient bloat at the DB level
- Standardized error handling to reduce system load and debug time
- Redesigned and rebuilt CI/CD pipelines, cutting build times and simplifying deployment
- Collaborated with QA and dev leads to prioritize launch-critical fixes and reduce risk
📈 Business Results
- Successful, zero-downtime migration to WPEngine—ensuring continuity for millions of monthly visitors
- Significant reduction in infrastructure costs, cutting AWS waste and maintenance overhead
- Streamlined deployment workflows, freeing up engineers to focus on feature delivery
- Stabilized legacy codebase, allowing for future redesigns without fear of collapse
- Reduced reliance on manual ops and emergency fixes—replaced chaos with confidence
* * *
Infrastructure eating your budget?
Let’s fix the code before it eats your roadmap.
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