WooCommerce Technical Operations Manager & Developer — Payments, Checkout & Site Reliability

We are looking for an experienced WooCommerce Technical Operations Manager & Developer to become a long-term technical partner for our established U.S.-based e-commerce company selling research-use-only (RUO) peptides. This is not simply a website design project or a one-time development job. We need someone who can work directly with company ownership to operate, troubleshoot, maintain, and continuously improve our WordPress/WooCommerce website, with particular expertise in payment processing, checkout reliability, order management, integrations, site performance, and the day-to-day technical operation of an active e-commerce business. Our ideal candidate combines strong WooCommerce development skills with an operator mindset — someone who proactively identifies problems, recommends solutions, and helps keep the store running smoothly rather than waiting for us to provide a list of tasks. Background Our website was recently migrated from Shopify to WordPress/WooCommerce using Manus AI. The website is live and operational, but because the migration was AI-assisted, we want an experienced human WooCommerce professional to thoroughly audit and fine-tune the implementation, identify any migration-related issues, and take ongoing technical ownership of the platform. We are also transitioning to new payment-processing solutions and need someone experienced with implementing, troubleshooting, testing, and maintaining payment gateways for WooCommerce. Experience with high-risk or specialized e-commerce businesses is strongly preferred. Primary Responsibilities 1. WooCommerce Operations & Technical Ownership Serve as our primary technical resource for the website and help manage its ongoing technical health. Responsibilities include: * Monitor and maintain WooCommerce/WordPress * Quickly investigate customer-reported website or checkout problems * Troubleshoot WooCommerce, WordPress, plugins, themes, PHP, JavaScript, databases, APIs, webhooks, caching/CDN, and server-related issues * Review logs and determine root causes rather than guessing * Maintain plugins and integrations safely * Identify potential problems proactively * Maintain backups, staging, testing, and rollback procedures * Coordinate with outside vendors/processors when technical issues involve their systems * Recommend improvements as the business grows 2. Payment Processing & Checkout Payment reliability and checkout conversion are major priorities. We are currently transitioning to new approved payment-processing solutions and expect to maintain more than one payment option for redundancy. Responsibilities may include: * Integrating approved payment processors/gateways into WooCommerce * Configuring and testing gateway plugins or custom integrations * REST API and webhook integration * Troubleshooting failed transactions and checkout errors * Diagnosing card declines vs technical failures * Testing authorization, capture, refunds, retries, and payment-status callbacks * Ensuring WooCommerce order statuses correctly synchronize with payment status * Working directly with payment providers when technical issues arise * Monitoring checkout performance * Identifying where customers abandon or fail to complete payment * Helping establish a reliable primary + backup payment architecture Experience with NMI, Authorize.net, FluidPay, USAePay, or similar payment gateways is a significant plus. We are hiring for technical integration and management. Merchant underwriting and approval will be handled directly between our company and the payment providers. 3. Order Management & Owner Experience We want WooCommerce to be easy and intuitive for company ownership and our operations team to use every day. We need help improving the backend workflow so that non-developers can easily: * Receive and review new orders * Identify paid, unpaid, pending, failed, cancelled, and refunded orders * Process orders efficiently * Track fulfillment and shipping * Handle exceptions * Search customer/order history * Understand payment status * Identify orders requiring attention * Manage refunds when appropriate * Reduce unnecessary manual steps * Quickly understand the overall status of the business We are open to dashboards, workflow improvements, automation, carefully selected plugins, or custom development where appropriate. 4. Shopify → WooCommerce Migration Audit Because the website was recently migrated, one of the first projects will be a comprehensive technical review. We want you to evaluate: * WooCommerce configuration * Shopify migration quality * Custom code * Plugins and dependencies * Theme overrides * Customer and order data * Checkout sessions/cookies * WooCommerce scheduled actions and cron jobs * APIs and webhooks * Database health * Caching/CDN configuration * Mobile behavior * Site performance * Security-related configuration * Transactional emails * Shipping/tracking integrations * Affiliate/coupon functionality * Any migration-related issues that could affect reliability or customer experience We want problems reproduced, diagnosed, and documented — not guessed at. 5. Customer Experience & Site Optimization Continuously review and improve: * Checkout experience * Mobile usability * Site speed * Navigation * Cart behavior * Customer account experience * Order confirmation * Transactional emails * Coupons/discounts * Affiliate-attributed orders * Shipping/tracking workflow * Plugin configuration * General website reliability This role includes technical UX improvements, but we are not primarily looking for a graphic designer or Elementor specialist. How We Want to Work Together We are looking for an ongoing relationship, not someone who completes one task and disappears. The ideal person will: * Work directly with company ownership * Be responsive on a daily basis * Have reasonable overlap with U.S. Eastern Time * Respond promptly when urgent checkout/payment/site issues occur * Communicate technical issues clearly in plain English * Proactively identify and recommend improvements * Keep us informed about what was changed and why * Document important configurations, integrations, credentials locations, and procedures * Use staging/backups rather than experimenting directly on production * Take ownership of problems and follow them through to resolution We do not necessarily need someone working full-time. We need someone who is reliable, technically strong, proactive, and consistently available when the business needs technical support. Required Experience Strong experience with: * WordPress * WooCommerce * WooCommerce administration and operations * WooCommerce payment gateways * PHP * JavaScript * REST APIs * Webhooks * Checkout troubleshooting * WooCommerce order lifecycle * Server/PHP/WooCommerce logs * Browser developer tools * Plugin/theme troubleshooting * Database troubleshooting * Staging environments * Backups and production deployment * Performance optimization * Mobile WooCommerce troubleshooting Experience providing ongoing technical support for an active e-commerce business is strongly preferred. Experience with specialized/high-risk e-commerce payment processing is a major plus. This Role Is NOT a Good Fit If * Your primary experience is website design or Elementor * You mainly install themes and plugins * You have limited experience troubleshooting payment gateways * You cannot diagnose API/webhook problems * You make major changes directly on production without staging/backups * You routinely disappear for days at a time * You require the client to identify every technical problem and tell you exactly what to fix * You are looking only for a quick one-time development project We need someone who can take ownership of the technical health and day-to-day reliability of our WooCommerce store. When Applying Please answer the following: 1. Tell us about a WooCommerce store you currently or previously helped operate on an ongoing basis. What were you personally responsible for? 2. Describe a difficult WooCommerce checkout or payment-gateway problem you personally diagnosed and fixed. What was the root cause? 3. If customers suddenly began reporting that payments were failing, walk us through how you would investigate the problem. 4. A payment succeeds at the gateway, but the WooCommerce order remains “Pending Payment.” How would you troubleshoot this? 5. What experience do you have with NMI, Authorize.net, FluidPay, USAePay, or custom payment APIs/webhooks? 6. Our website was recently migrated from Shopify to WooCommerce using an AI development platform. What specifically would you audit to determine whether the migration introduced technical, checkout, database, plugin, session, or payment-related problems? 7. How would you improve the WooCommerce admin/order-management experience so company owners can quickly understand what orders require attention and efficiently manage day-to-day operations? 8. What ongoing monitoring or maintenance would you recommend for an active WooCommerce store rather than waiting for customers to report problems? 9. What time zone are you in, what hours do you normally work, and how quickly can you generally respond to an urgent checkout or website problem? Please begin your proposal with: “WOOCOMMERCE OPERATIONS” Generic WordPress proposals that do not address the operational and payment requirements above will not be considered.