WP Engine aspires to be the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company by powering the freedom to create amazing digital experiences with WordPress. A big part of making that vision a reality lies in the developer-centric solutions we build for WordPress, which help make the web faster, more delightful, and more effective for everyone.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of the Developer Relations (DevRel) team at WP Engine with an early focus on Headless WordPress.  

Matt Landers leads the DevRel team and joined WP Engine in 2019 as a Technical Architect who was (and still is) super passionate about headless. That passion ultimately played a major role in the release of Headless WordPress, which pairs WP Engine’s industry-leading WordPress platform with Node.js hosting to enable headless WordPress hosting solutions using modern frameworks and technologies like React, Vue, and more. 

Going beyond Headless WordPress, the DevRel team’s purpose is more widely focused on teaching developers, ALL developers, how to get the most out of Headless WordPress, regardless of where or how they host their site(s).

Let’s meet the DevRel team:

Matt Landers – Matt taught himself how to code right out of high school and started coding professionally while attending college. At the young age of 19, he landed his dream job as a Technology Evangelist at Microsoft. There, he educated developers on the advantages of adopting .NET and worked with Fortune 100 companies to build some of the largest enterprise systems as an Architect.

During this time, he fell in love with Node, drawn to its ability to code both the front end and back end using the same language, JavaScript. 

In 2013, Matt left Microsoft to create the first TypeScript-based front end framework called PlatypusTS, which tried to compete with React and Angular. As you might imagine, it didn’t take off, but Matt and team used the framework to build sites and apps for clients. Unwittingly, they ended up creating a headless CMS in 2015 while building a custom content solution for clients.. During this time, Matt started Covalence, a coding bootcamp, channeling his passion for teaching developers. In 2019, Matt joined WP Engine, evangelizing the benefits of headless. 

Will Johnston– Will started coding when he was 10 years old, and began coding professionally at 15. He got his start working on an open source competency tracking tool for schools with Python and Zope. In his spare time while in high school, Will also wrote and sold plugins for video games.

While attending Georgia Tech, Will tried his hand at electrical engineering and quickly realized hardware was a hobby for him, not a career path. After graduating, Will continued his career at Microsoft as a consultant, guiding Fortune 100 companies that were looking to implement cross-platform web and mobile applications during the early days of Node and mobile app development. 

Alongside Matt Landers, Will co-founded Platypi and Covalence. He served as CTO of both companies where he spearheaded numerous software platforms, primarily using Node and TypeScript. At WP Engine, Will is excited to help make the headless CMS world a better place by helping others embrace headless and make the most out of new tools and technologies.

Nate Archer– Nate Archer is a technical writer just getting his start at WP Engine. An avid advocate for the Docs Like Code model, Nate has spent the entirety of his career embedded on development teams as they set up the backend for large enterprise companies, to writing about a front end framework for building AI applications.

He’s just starting to learn the ins and outs of React and Gatsby, but has developed and contributed to many WordPress sites and CMSs as a content creator. 

As a team, DevRel’s mission is to make the lives of WordPress developers easier, and support their growth by: 

  • Engaging them in meaningful ways, especially through thought leadership, content, and conferences including WP Engine DE{CODE}, which is specifically tailored to the needs of developers. 
  • Sharing emerging ideas, best practices, technologies and documentation. 

Download WP Engine’s open source headless framework and get started creating your first headless app. If you have any questions, reach out to WP Engine’s DevRel by:

No matter how you choose to engage with WP Engine’s DevRel team, we’re excited for you to join the Headless WordPress community! 

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