Profiles

Bio

I am fueled by a passion for new developments in technology and how the application of these can deliver an awesome user experience while effectively meeting business needs.

Although, over the years I have developed a number of complementary skill bases, my focus is now WordPress architecture, concept design, coding for complex projects and integrating external data sources.

I have made core commits to every version of WordPress since 3.9 and continue to support the wider WordPress community through meetups, WordCamps, etc.

In 2018 I co-founded Matador Sorftware and launched a commercial WordPress Plugin for the recruitment industy, adding to my growing list of plugins.

Interests

Walking, Kayaking, Reading, Theater, PHP, Javascript, CSS

WordPress Origin Story

I discovered WordPress in 2006 when asked to explore the use of collaborative tools internally for a multinational corporation, setting up a 200+ multi-blog site using WPMU on IIS7. As part of this project, I created my first plugin, Author Avatars, (https://wordpress.org/plugins/author-avatars/ ), which currently has 8,000+ active installs. I recently updated this to include Gutenberg support.

From this point on, the community, the flexibility and the velocity of WordPress has made it my platform of choice.

I specialize in creating highly performant scalable, accessible and SEO friendly code (plugins and themes) for large WordPress sites that are often multi-site, multi-language, VIP and/or e-commerce.

In 2018, with a partner, I launched a premium plugin for the recruitment industry, Matador Jobs (https://matadorjobs.com/) and in June Matador Jobs became an official Bullhorn partner (https://www.bullhorn.com/marketplace/matador-jobs/).

I continue to support my growing list of plugins (https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbearne/#content-plugins ) and the wider WordPress community, founded the Kingston WordPress Meetup and speak regularly at WordCamps.

Badges

CODE
5 badges
C Core AI Contributor '26 Core Contributor '15 C Core Performance Contributor '22 C Core Performance Team '22 Plugin Developer
CONTENT
1 badge
Documentation Contributor '17
COMMUNITY
4 badges
Meetup Organizer '18 WordCamp Organizer '16 WordCamp Speaker '14 WordCamp Volunteer '25
PRACTICE
2 badges
Test Contributor '21 Test Team '21
POLYGLOTS
2 badges
Translation Contributor '15 Translation Editor '15

Current Job

Senior WordPress Full Stack Developer
Present
Paul & Gina Bearne (Freelance Consultancy)

Recent impact

Score weights high-impact work (commits, releases, approved translations, props) at 3x routine activity.

Last 30 days
30contributions
high22
medium8
score74
Last 90 days
130contributions
high57
medium73
score244
Last 12 months
278contributions
high141
medium137
score560

Team focus

Share of contributions across teams during the last 365 days

WordPress releases

Contributed to 28 releases
  • 7.0
  • 6.9
  • 6.8
  • 6.7
  • 6.6
  • 6.5
  • 6.2
  • 6.1
  • 6.0
  • 5.9
  • 5.8
  • 5.7
  • 5.6
  • 5.5
  • 5.4
  • 5.3
  • 5.2
  • 5.1
  • 5.0
  • 4.9
  • 4.8
  • 4.7
  • 4.6
  • 4.5
  • 4.4
  • 4.2
  • 4.0
  • 3.9

Time commitment

10 hours per week of sponsored contribution time

Contributions

Type
August 2026
Aug 07 Fri · 22:15
Plugins high
Committed [3638326] to Plugins SVN:
updated content
Aug 07 Fri · 22:13
Plugins high
Committed [3638325] to Plugins SVN:
Tidy up the code
Aug 07 Fri · 22:12
Plugins high
Committed [3638324] to Plugins SVN:
Tidy up the code
Aug 07 Fri · 10:48
Polyglots high
Translated 22 strings on translate.wordpress.org.
Aug 06 Thu · 20:00
Plugins high
Committed [3637015] to Plugins SVN:
new image
Aug 06 Thu · 19:56
Plugins high
Committed [3637013] to Plugins SVN:
updated example content
Aug 06 Thu · 19:55
Plugins high
Committed [3637012] to Plugins SVN:
re-added missing avatar size setting removed by mistake in the control updates
Aug 06 Thu · 19:55
Plugins high
Committed [3637011] to Plugins SVN:
re-added missing avatar size setting removed by mistake in the control updates
Aug 06 Thu · 17:49
Plugins high
Committed [3636923] to Plugins SVN:
Version bump to 2.1.28, add blueprint.json for improved plugin testing.
Aug 06 Thu · 17:49
Plugins high
Committed [3636921] to Plugins SVN:
Version bump to 2.1.28, add blueprint.json for improved plugin testing.

Developer

6 plugins

Translations

5 locales
en_ZA English (South Africa) (English) Translation Contributor
en_NZ English (New Zealand) (English) Translation Contributor