WordPress Developer - Custom LMS / Membership / eCommerce Platform (Long-Term)

Remote · Contract (long-term, ongoing) · Stack: WordPress Multisite (PHP), WooCommerce, LearnDash, BuddyBoss, FluentCRM ABOUT US We run an established online education platform in the screenwriting space (courses, live group classes, one-on-one mentorship, a podcast, and a community). Our website is not a simple blog — it is a heavily customized WordPress platform built over ~4 years that runs our entire business: content publishing, e-commerce, subscriptions, e-learning, community, appointment scheduling, and marketing automation, all interconnected. Our current developer, who built and maintained this system, is moving on. We are looking for an experienced WordPress developer (or a small agency) to take over ownership of the platform — first learning it thoroughly from the documentation and walkthroughs being handed over, then keeping it stable and helping us evolve it. WHAT YOU'LL BE WORKING ON The platform is a WordPress Multisite network (a main site plus a separate community sub-site) with roughly 60–70 plugins interconnected by custom code and custom-built plugins. The main functional units: Content & pages: Elementor Pro (page builder, templates), Blubrry PowerPress (podcast) CRM & email: FluentCRM (contacts, tagging, automations, campaigns), FluentSMTP → SendGrid eCommerce: WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, SUMO Payment Plans, custom Deposits logic, WooCommerce Payments e-Learning: LearnDash (courses/lessons), wpDiscuz (lesson comments) Community & events: BuddyBoss community (separate sub-site), The Events Calendar (RSVP / class sign-ups) Appointment scheduling: WooCommerce Appointments — heavily customized for our 1-on-1 mentorship product ("Protrack") Forms & lead capture: Gravity Forms (incl. page-submission forms), eSignature / agreements plugin Tracking & reporting: WooCommerce Reports, Pixel Your Site (GA / Meta Pixel), WP All Export, custom compensations/payroll reporting Integrations & utilities: WP Fusion, Uncanny Automator, Intercom, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Rank Math SEO, Redirection, custom code snippets THE COMPLEX / CUSTOM PARTS (this is the real job) Appointment scheduling (track) is the most complex unit — a product in itself. WooCommerce Appointments has been extended with custom code to integrate with subscriptions (1/2/4 sessions per month per mentor), plus edge cases like booking up to a year in advance, "conflict" appointment statuses, and auto-generated withdrawal coupons / page-read coupons when appointments are created. Page submissions: before a session, writers submit pages for the mentor to read. Up to ~10 pages are included; beyond that, extra pages are billed — so Gravity Forms is wired into WooCommerce for pay-per-page charges. Deposits: most paid products require a deposit (first month's value) that gets redeemed toward the final month after ~12 months — custom e-commerce logic. eSignature / agreements: after checkout, customers sign one or more agreements; signatures are stored/tracked (legally valid records). Subscriptions & access: one-off cohorts vs. ongoing monthly subscriptions, each with different enrollment, access, and billing behavior. Product context (what the site sells): free lead-magnet + community RSVP funnel → one-off & cohort group classes → ongoing/continuous subscription group classes → track 1-on-1 mentorship (subscription or à la carte) → Script Consultations. WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO Onboard fast onto a complex custom system. Absorb the handover documentation and Loom walkthroughs, map how the units connect, and become the person who understands the whole picture. Keep it stable. Own maintenance, bug fixes, plugin/security updates, and small improvements. Near-term priority is stability and documentation over new feature builds. Support an upcoming product launch (a new entry-level subscription product), including subscription/access logic and a marketing landing page. Support CRM integration work. We are feeding WordPress user behavior (purchases, form submissions, event attendance, abandoned carts, etc.) into an external CRM (Go High Level) via WP Fusion, Uncanny Automator, and API/webhook triggers. Simplify where possible. Help us reduce unnecessary custom complexity and manual workarounds without breaking the interconnected systems on top. MUST-HAVE SKILLS Strong PHP and deep WordPress development experience (custom plugins, hooks/filters, custom code snippets — not just theme/page-builder work). Production experience with WooCommerce + WooCommerce Subscriptions and extending them with custom logic. WooCommerce Appointments or comparable complex booking/scheduling customization. Comfort reading, debugging, and safely extending a large inherited custom codebase with many interdependencies. WordPress Multisite experience. Experience with the ecosystem: LearnDash, BuddyBoss, Gravity Forms, FluentCRM, ACF, Elementor. Solid Git, staging/deployment discipline, and a testing mindset (changes here can ripple across e-commerce, scheduling, and access control). NICE-TO-HAVE WP Fusion / Uncanny Automator and CRM integrations (Go High Level or similar) via API/webhooks. SendGrid/FluentSMTP, Rank Math SEO, Pixel Your Site / GA / Meta Pixel. Experience with eSignature plugins and subscription-based membership businesses. Ability to write clear documentation and communicate trade-offs to a non-technical team. HOW WE WORK Communication over Slack (urgent) and Google Docs / Asana (detailed feedback and tasks). Collaborative, business-first: we prioritize by real user value and operational impact, not complexity for its own sake. A structured handover is in progress (documentation + video walkthroughs), so you won't be starting from zero. TO APPLY, PLEASE INCLUDE Examples of complex WooCommerce / WooCommerce Subscriptions / WooCommerce Appointments or membership/LMS projects you've owned. A short note on your experience taking over and maintaining an existing custom WordPress codebase. Your availability, time zone, and rate.