I’m a former U.S. Marine turned WordPress developer with a B.A. in Computer Science. I build fast, secure, and SEO-ready sites and apps that turn traffic into outcomes—whether that means qualified leads, better engagement, or a smoother editorial workflow. mauro-vargas.com
What I Do
- Custom WordPress development: bespoke themes, plugins, and headless architectures.
- Performance & Core Web Vitals: page-speed tuning, accessibility, and best practices for both desktop and mobile.
- SEO implementation: sitemap customization, Yoast/metadata, structured navigation, and content discoverability.
- Cloud, security & ops: Cloudflare WAF/DNS/SSL, DDoS posture, and API integrations that don’t break under load.
Recent Work & Impact
- Forbes Tate (Washington, D.C.) – Built SPA experiences for advocacy campaigns; integrated third-party APIs (Spotify, BeyondWords, Campaign Monitor); collaborated with SEO teams on sitemaps and Yoast; configured Cloudflare WAF/DNS/SSL/DDoS.
- Engage (Alexandria, VA) – Developed/maintained custom themes & plugins, handled multi-host migrations (WP Engine, Pantheon, SiteGround), and QA’d cross-browser functionality.
- Baker Creative (Freelance) – Improved Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO; fixed broken post types, team pages, and permalink issues.
Tech I Reach For
Languages/Frameworks: PHP, Node.js, C++, JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Vue
UI/Styling: CSS, SASS, Tailwind, Bootstrap
Build/Tooling: Webpack, Gulp
Analytics: GA4, Google Tag Manager
Cloud/Certs: AWS Cloud Practitioner; strong API and server background
How I Work
- Outcome-first. Business goals define the backlog.
- Performance by default. Ship fast, measure faster, and iterate.
- Maintainable code. Clear structure, strong typing where it helps, and documentation clients can actually use.
- Security-minded. Principle of least privilege, audited dependencies, and sane caching/CDN rules.
A Bit of Backstory
Before tech, I served in the United States Marine Corps (Okinawa, Japan), where I led workflows and created an award-winning electronic filing system—experience that still informs my approach to reliability, documentation, and teamwork. After earning my Computer Science degree at the University of Colorado Boulder, I dove into professional WordPress and front-end work across agencies and advocacy.