Head of Development
About Growth Leads
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.