Drupal-to-WordPress Migration Specialist – Technical Audit

Brighta Group is seeking an experienced Drupal technical specialist to assist with the controlled migration of a multinational industrial website from Drupal to WordPress. This is not an ongoing Drupal maintenance position. Our objective is to thoroughly understand the existing Drupal platform, remove technical uncertainty and build a low-risk migration pathway to WordPress. Project Background The existing website is a centralised Drupal platform supporting multiple geographic markets, regional content, product categories, case studies, locations, downloadable resources and other structured content. The website is currently hosted and managed by an external development provider. Direct access to the production infrastructure will not be provided. The current provider can supply the Drupal codebase and database, allowing the website to be established and reviewed locally. Any changes to the existing production website are deployed by the incumbent developer through their own build process and Kubernetes environment. You must therefore be comfortable auditing and working with a Drupal website from a supplied codebase and database without requiring direct server or hosting access. You will work alongside Brighta’s Head of Web and WordPress development team. Initial Scope The first stage will be a paid technical discovery and audit. You will be responsible for: - Establishing a functioning local version of the Drupal website. - Identifying the Drupal version, modules, themes, custom code and dependencies. - Auditing content types, fields, taxonomies, Views, menus, blocks and media. - Reviewing regional and multilingual content configuration. - Identifying forms, search, integrations, redirects and custom functionality. - Documenting how content and functionality should map into WordPress. - Identifying migration risks, dependencies and missing information. - Assessing the SEO and URL redirect requirements. - Recommending a staged migration approach. - Providing a realistic estimate of the migration effort, timeline and resources required. - Identifying exactly what information or support will be required from the current Drupal provider. Potential Follow-On Work Following approval of the audit, the successful contractor may also assist with: - Drupal data extraction and export. - SQL queries and migration scripts. - Media and document migration. - Data transformation and WordPress imports. - Test migrations and data validation. - Redirect mapping and technical SEO checks. - Troubleshooting incomplete or incorrectly migrated content. - Launch and post-launch migration validation. Required Experience You must have demonstrated commercial experience in: - Auditing complex Drupal websites. - Drupal-to-WordPress migrations. - Drupal content types, entities, fields, taxonomy and Views. - Contributed and custom Drupal modules. - PHP, SQL, Composer and Drush. - Establishing Drupal websites locally using Docker, DDEV, Lando or similar tools. - Extracting and transforming structured Drupal content. - WordPress custom post types, taxonomies and custom fields. - Multilingual or multi-region websites. - URL mapping, redirects and technical SEO. - Documenting complex technical environments clearly. Experience with Kubernetes deployment environments is useful but not mandatory, as you will not be responsible for managing the incumbent provider’s infrastructure. Key Deliverables The initial engagement must produce: 1. A functioning local Drupal environment. 2. A Drupal technical and content architecture audit. 3. An inventory of modules, themes, custom code and integrations. 4. A content and media inventory. 5. A Drupal-to-WordPress content mapping document. 6. A URL, redirect and SEO migration assessment. 7. A risk and dependency register. 8. A recommended migration sequence. 9. A realistic estimate of effort, timeline and resources. 10. A clear list of requirements for the current Drupal provider. How to Apply Please answer each of the following questions directly: 1. Describe two Drupal-to-WordPress migrations you have personally completed. What made each migration technically difficult? 2. How would you establish and audit a Drupal website when you have the codebase and database but no direct production server access? 3. What information would you inspect first to identify custom functionality and migration risk? 4. How would you map a multilingual or multi-region Drupal structure into WordPress? 5. What are the three biggest causes of content, SEO or functionality loss during a Drupal-to-WordPress migration? 6. Which local development, Drupal auditing and data migration tools do you use? 7. What would you expect to achieve during your first 10 hours? 8. Please provide your availability, time zone, hourly rate and earliest possible start date. Please include examples of relevant projects and clearly explain your personal role in each project. Applications that provide generic answers or do not address the questions above will not be considered. Engagement Structure We intend to begin with a clearly capped, paid discovery engagement. Following the discovery phase, migration support will be divided into separately approved milestones based on the findings of the audit. Immediate availability is preferred.