WordPress Developer for Site Update

I’m a behavioral scientist and SVP at a communications firm in New York. My personal site, jasonmartuscello.com, hasn’t been updated in years. The design is finished. I have a complete mockup of four pages, and I need a skilled WordPress developer to build it faithfully and leave me able to edit it myself. Important: communicate through Upwork only. Do not email, call, text or message me on LinkedIn or any other channel. Anyone who contacts me outside Upwork will be disqualified immediately and reported to Upwork. Current setup WordPress 5.8 on PHP 7.1 (very out of date) About 50 existing blog posts that must be kept, with their URLs and search rankings intact I have a full backup (UpdraftPlus) Scope Milestone 1: Update the site safely Set up a staging copy Upgrade PHP step by step (7.4, then 8.1 or newer) Update WordPress core and plugins, and remove unused plugins Install the free Twenty Twenty-Five theme (or Kadence, if you can justify it) Load three Google Fonts: Bricolage Grotesque, Inter and JetBrains Mono Milestone 2: Homepage and About page Build both pages to match the mockup, with good responsive behavior on mobile Use native WordPress blocks wherever possible, so I can edit the text and images myself Milestone 3: Thinking page and Running page Thinking: a filterable feed of LinkedIn posts, essays and talks (filter by topic and by format). Each LinkedIn post should be a short WordPress post in a dedicated category, so I can add new ones in a couple of minutes. Running: an interactive marathon chart. Clicking a race shows its story, stats and photo. It also has an animated mileage counter and simple bar charts. The data is provided; you build the interaction in lightweight custom code, not a heavy plugin. Milestone 4: Launch and handoff Set the new homepage live, organize the menus, and add redirects for any URLs that change Basic SEO and speed checks A recorded walkthrough of 30 minutes or less showing me how to edit pages and add posts Not included Design work, copywriting, paid themes or plugins, or an ongoing maintenance contract. Ideal candidate Strong portfolio of modern WordPress builds using the block editor (not only Elementor or Divi) Experience upgrading old WordPress and PHP versions without breaking anything Comfortable with custom CSS and light JavaScript Clear communicator who meets milestone dates To apply, start your proposal with the word “Marathon,” and answer the screening questions. Proposals without both will not be reviewed. I’ll share the full design with shortlisted candidates.