Engineering Head and WordPress Expert
I’m Yoren Chang, formerly the Head of Engineering at CosmicGiant, and I currently run my own WordPress plugin development business.
Journey from Political Science to Software Engineering
Being a professional software engineer has been my dream job since I graduated from university over 20 years ago. Coming from a Political Science background, it seemed impossible to switch gears at that time. But soon I realized it was actually my advantage because I’m much more communicative and approachable than regular developers and engineers, which hugely benefited my freelancing business in the first ten years. Eventually, when I shifted my focus to WordPress plugin development, it led me to the great team at Rocketgenius for the role of senior developer, and later on to Head of Engineering at CosmicGiant, summing up my past experiences in software engineering.
Highlighted Works
Gravity Forms Add-ons
I worked at Rocketgenius for four years (2018-2022), heavily focusing on third-party API integrations. My work includes Stripe, PayPal Checkout, Mollie, and other CRM add-ons. I also worked at CosmicGiant (2022-2025) with two of my former colleagues from RG, and we built solid Gravity Forms solutions.
Client Portal
Client Portal is the very first commercial WordPress plugin I built. I was hired by Laura in 2016 to turn her idea into a WordPress plugin business, and we’ve worked together on it ever since. CP is a unique product in the WordPress space; the founder is non-technical, and the target audience is also very non-technical. In 2024, we brought it to another level by completely rewriting it to utilize the Block Editor.
Other WordPress Plugins
I have built several small plugins and hosted them on the wp.org repo. Most of them are not receiving updates nowadays, but one or two still are. Seeing them still being used and trusted by hundreds of websites is very satisfying as an open-source enthusiast.
Freelancing Services Offered
I’m open to taking WordPress-related development work on a freelancing basis. There are two collaboration styles I’m offering:
Pay as You Go
USD $600 as a unit for 5 hours of development work. Once you fund the payment, I will code your WordPress project for five hours. This would be ideal for clients who have a minimal amount of development work, like website or plugin maintenance.
Moonlighting
USD $3,000/month: to hire me as a part-time developer in your team. This is not a subscription; I will send out the invoice every month, and the work will start once payment is funded. There will be no guaranteed working hours per week or month, but I offer a FULL refund for the month if you’re not happy with the deliverables.
This is ideal for clients who run a WordPress-related business and have the capacity to hire a part-timer to work on the products in a professional manner, like adding automated tests and ensuring security. Basically, stabilizing the products and also enhancing their features.
Unique Selling Propositions
What makes my offerings unique in this freelancing market are:
Self-Management and Results
You don’t have to manage me. I’ve hired employees and freelancers, and the best professionals are people who manage themselves well, and you only have to deal with the results. With almost 20 years in the web industry and most of the time as a freelancer, I’m very good at managing myself and optimizing my workflow so my clients can all get the best results.
Flexible Payment with Guaranteed Results
According to talent.com, a senior WordPress developer’s average salary in 2024 is USD $95,000 per year; this does not include other benefits or health care. For many of you that are not ready to hire a full-time in-house developer yet but do have the need to work with talent who can deliver or maintain your project, I’m the best available option in the market.
Passion for Building Products
I’m passionate about building products and have firsthand experience in top-notch teams. I learned all the best practices in software engineering back when I was in the product team at Rocketgenius. I write secure, accessible, and testable code. I’ve always been passionate about building software, but instead of coming up with ideas by myself, I enjoy more fulfilling someone else’s vision. If you’re more of a designer or a general non-technical founder, I’m the person you’re looking for.
Commitment to Your Project’s Success
I commit to helping your project cross the finish line. Starting a new project is exciting, but if you’ve been there, you know how hard it is to ship it. It may be perfectionism, scope creep, or your cat accidentally deleting everything from your computer. In the past, I’ve helped big projects cross the finish line no matter what. Like the GravityForms.com redesign in 2021, several major Gravity Forms add-ons’ initial releases, including PayPal Checkout and Mollie, and in 2024, I pushed the launch for CosmicGiant OTP add-on along with Client Portal Five.
Ready to Collaborate?
If you’re interested in working with me, especially to ship your first WordPress plugin, shoot me an email at yoren [at] 1fix.io, and we can go from there. Or if you fancy a physical meetup, I now live in Tokyo, Japan, and sometimes I travel back to my hometown Taipei, Taiwan; we can always grab a drink and chat.
Oh and if you still call that thing “Twitter”, please definitely follow me and I will follow you back.