I'm Aubrey

Performance-first web developer with over a decade of experience

Aubrey Portwood

What I Do

I'm a web developer who helps businesses create experiences on the web when performance matters most. When your livelihood depends on leads, sales, or search visibility, performance isn't optional—it's required.

Everything I do is done with a performance-first mindset from beginning to end, resulting in solutions that are fast, responsive, search optimized, and goal oriented.

  • Core Web Vitals
  • SEO Optimization
  • WordPress Development
  • Semantic Architecture
  • Static Sites & Landing Pages
  • Browser Optimization
  • CDN & Asset Delivery
  • Server Optimization

Why Performance?

Performance matters because the systems that power the web don't care about your message or products—ouch! They only care about how well your site performs inside that system. If your site is slow or inefficient, those systems stop promoting it, and the people who do reach it leave within seconds.

Real world data shows that even small delays reduce conversions, increase abandonment, and hurt rankings. A performant site doesn't just fast when it loads—it behaves efficiently within these systems before they even get there, which is why performant experiences earn more trust, generate more leads, and produce better results.

That's why I build performance-first. Performance isn't something I do at the end; it guides every technical decision from the very beginning—no matter the project.

About

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My mission is to give those I partner with complete confidence that I can build senior-level solutions without ever losing focus on how much performance matters.

When you work with me, you're not getting just another developer—you're working with someone who prioritizes what truly matters and cares deeply about quality, integrity, and what matters most.

Values

  • Performance Matters
  • Build on Fundamentals
  • Simple Performs Better
  • It Should Just Work
  • Less Code is Fast Code
  • Quality Delivers Results
  • Straight Talk
  • Be Rebellious

Experience

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My background includes over a decade working at agencies like WebDevStudios and Awesome Motive, where I built high-performing websites and products for major brands like AffiliateWP, Microsoft, and Monster.com.

Awesome Motive

 Product Plugin Development

  • Team AffiliateWP
  • Type Agency
  • Length 3 years
  • Industry Affiliate Marketing

https://awesomemotive.com
https://affiliatewp.com

Awesome Motive & AffiliateWP

As a Senior Developer at Awesome Motive over a three-year period, I helped modernize the AffiliateWP team by introducing smarter development practices, demanding code quality standards, and delivering new, high-impact features—one of which was the company's first practical use of AI inside WordPress.

Each project required balancing long-term maintainability of a legacy codebase while adding new and modern features, ensuring the codebase remained stable while evolving to meet the needs of our customers.

Notable features I developed:

  • AI-Driven Affiliate Review
  • Affiliate Email Summaries
  • Affiliate Groups
  • Affiliate Program Directory

The result was a stronger, more modern AffiliateWP—with better processes, higher code quality, and a faster, more consistent rollout of new features each quarter.

The AffiliateWP team reached a new level of efficiency—shipping features at a steady, reliable cadence and delivering updates to customers faster than ever before. The plugin also expanded its reach through new integrations with third-party platforms, reinforcing its position as a dependable, forward-looking affiliate marketing solution.

WebDevStudios

 Website Development

  • Type Agency
  • Length 7 years
  • Industry WordPress Development

https://webdevstudios.com

WebDevStudios

During my seven years at WebDevStudios, I worked as a Senior WordPress Engineer on large-scale, enterprise-level WordPress projects for clients such as Microsoft and Monster.com

My role focused on solving scalability challenges for high-traffic WordPress sites—architecting stable systems, integrating complex API's, and ensuring strict brand and performance standards.

I worked across both frontend and backend teams, led optimization efforts, and guided key architectural decisions.

  • Team Leadership & Architecture
  • Enterprise WordPress Development
  • Performance & Scalability
  • Custom Plugin & Development
  • Large Site Migrations
  • WordPress VIP
  • Headless Websites
  • Post-launch Support

Microsoft

While at WebDev, I helped maintain and developed enterprise WordPress solutions for Microsoft's Office 365 and Microsoft DEV Blogs.

One of my key responsibilities was managing "The Mule," a background content-sync system that syndicated posts across a handful of Microsoft properties. The system parsed and reformatted content in a clean, editable structure, while giving editors full control over what was imported or published.

My work focused on improving the reliability, flexibility, and performance of this complex system—keeping it compliant with Microsoft's strict publishing workflows, scalability requirements, and technical standards.

  • Automated Content Syndication
  • System Reliability & Maintenance
  • Editorial Workflow Integration
  • Architectural Enhancements

Among these I also developed new features, fixed tough issues, and consulted with Microsoft leadership in order to maintain and improve these projects.

Monster Logo Hiring

I helped lead the Core Web Vitals and performance-engineering efforts for the employer-facing site, hiring.Monster.com.

I helped identifiy and resolved performance bottlenecks across both the frontend and backend, improving search rankings and user experience overall. This included deep work in Google Search Console, optimizing caching layers with Redis and Memcached, refining PHP-FPM configurations, and working directly with WP Engine's performance engineers.

These optimizations produced measurable gains in load times, responsiveness, and SEO performance—enhancing the site's searchability for sustained rankings—all while Core Web Vitals was new at the time.

  • Core Web Vitals Optimization
  • Caching Strategy
  • Search Console Tracking
  • Backend Optimizations

Other projects I contributed to at WebDevStudios:

  • Care.com
  • Starbucks
  • Love Is Respect
  • Skype Media
  • Roadkill
  • Discovery Communications
  • Uber
  • Newscorp

Contact

I work independently—partnering directly with businesses who want solutions that are performance-first from the very beginning. — If this is you let's talk!

Send me a message using the form below, or use these other methods .