Dejan Markovic

WordPress developer, architect, and author based in Toronto. Twenty years building custom themes, plugins, enterprise integrations, and AI automations for organizations that needed the work done correctly.

20+ Years Experience

15+ Services

80+ Automations Built

My WordPress Development Story

Table of Contents

Senior WordPress Consultant Based in Toronto

I am Dejan Markovic, a Senior WordPress Developer, Team Lead, and Solution Architect based in Toronto, Canada. With 20+ years of web development experience since 2003, I specialize in enterprise WordPress solutions, custom plugin and theme development, WooCommerce, REST API integrations, and performance optimization.

I started working with WordPress before it was the obvious choice for anything. My first commercial site went live in 2005, a small business directory built on a platform that no longer exists.

WordPress came later, first as the path of least resistance and then as a deliberate technical choice. That shift from workaround to architecture is the foundation behind every project I take on.

I have delivered projects for enterprise clients including Rogers Media (Sportsnet, Chatelaine), The Great-West Life Assurance Company (Great-West Life, Canada Life, London Life), WP Engine, Munich Re, and the Ontario Ministry of Education.

These organizations have internal IT departments, security review processes, procurement cycles and editorial teams that need the work done correctly from day one. That is a different problem from a marketing agency WordPress install, and it shapes my architecture decisions, handover documentation and post-launch support.

It also means I have written code that a client's internal developers reviewed and signed off on. On one of those projects, Munich Re's IT security team audited the platform before deployment, and it passed.

WordPress Community

WordCamp & WPToronto

Lead Organizer - WordCamp Toronto 2016
Co-Organizer - WordCamp Toronto 2015
Co-Organizer - WordCamp Toronto 2014
Co-Organizer - WPToronto (Toronto WordPress Meetup) 2014-2016

Regular speaker at WordCamps across North America and Europe.

Books

Author - WordPress Responsive Theme Design Essentials, Packt Publishing
Technical Reviewer - Learning Yeoman, Packt Publishing

WordPress Responsive Theme Design Essentials covers the structural and CSS architecture choices that decide whether a theme holds up across devices or breaks under real editorial workloads. It grew out of enterprise theme work, where a theme failing on mobile during a live broadcast or a ministry announcement is not acceptable.

Open Source

Plugin Developer - HYPESocial Buffer Pro, Buffer My Post, Tweet Old Custom Post - published on WordPress.org
Theme Developer - Topcat Lite, free open-source WordPress theme on WordPress.org
Translation Contributor - WordPress core project
Support Contributor - Active on WordPress.org support forums

Selected Enterprise Work

WP Engine - Built the Amazon Personalize for WooCommerce feature for the AWS for WordPress plugin; AI-powered product recommendations using Amazon Personalize, Lambda, Step Functions
Great-West Life - Site architecture, advanced WP_Query search, Leadership Team plugin, multilingual, AEM migration across Great-West Life, Canada Life and London Life websites
Rogers Media - Custom taxonomies, plugins, and child themes for Sportsnet and Chatelaine
Munich Re - Custom theme and plugin development, automated Azure cloud deployment scripts, multilingual, WordPress migrations
Ontario Ministry of Education - Newsletter application, advanced Relevanssi search, custom file manager plugins for EO Portal and MyEIOS
Pixel Dreams - CTO and team lead, architected multi-developer WordPress projects

What I Do

Custom WordPress theme and plugin development
Enterprise WordPress consulting and architecture
WooCommerce development and optimization
WordPress performance audits and optimization
REST API integrations and headless WordPress
WordPress multisite and WPML multilingual builds
WordPress security auditing and hardening
AI automation workflows for WordPress-powered businesses (via HYPESTUDIO)

In practice, that means themes built around editorial workflow requirements rather than around what a page builder can do. Integrations with CRM, ERP, marketing automation and data pipelines include error handling, retry logic and logging beyond the happy path.

Performance audits find the actual bottleneck, which is usually database queries and unoptimized third-party scripts, not image formats. On WooCommerce builds the work covers custom pricing logic, checkout extensions, fulfilment integrations and subscription models the plugin ecosystem could not deliver out of the box.

WordPress and AI

Since 2023 I have added AI workflow automation built around WordPress and the tools that connect to it. Content classification, document processing, repetitive data extraction and structured output from unstructured input are problems I solved with brittle manual processes for a decade before the tooling caught up.

This is not a pivot away from WordPress development. It is the same work: understand the operational workflow, find the bottleneck and build something that removes it reliably.

How I Work

Every engagement begins with a scoping call, not a sales call. Before I give you a number that means anything, I need to understand the technical requirement, the existing stack, your internal constraints (IT sign-off, security policy, deployment environment) and a realistic timeline.

For custom project work, I deliver a written specification before writing a line of code, so you know exactly what will be built and what the acceptance criteria are. Retainer work carries a 6-Month Minimum Commitment, the shortest window in which I can learn your workflow and deliver meaningful results.

The developer who writes the code is the developer who answers your questions. There is no account manager layer, and no work is passed to a junior developer after the contract is signed.

Find Me Online

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Dejan Markovic?

Dejan Markovic is a Senior WordPress Developer, Solution Architect, and Team Lead based in Toronto, Canada. He has been building websites and web applications since 2003 - more than 20 years of hands-on development, with a focus on enterprise WordPress platforms, custom plugins, and complex integrations.

What does Dejan Markovic specialize in?

Enterprise WordPress development - custom plugin and theme development, multisite architecture, WPML multilingual builds, WooCommerce, REST API integrations, performance optimization, and WordPress AI automation. He works primarily with regulated industries: financial services, government, insurance, and media.

Where is Dejan Markovic located?

Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He works with clients across Toronto and remotely across Canada and North America.

What enterprise clients has Dejan Markovic worked with?

Rogers Media (Sportsnet, Chatelaine), Great-West Lifeco (Great-West Life, Canada Life, London Life), WP Engine, Munich Re, and the Ontario Ministry of Education, among others.

Is Dejan Markovic available for contract or freelance WordPress work?

Yes. He takes on both direct client engagements and white-label work for Toronto agencies that need senior-level WordPress delivery under their brand. Engagements range from short-term audits to ongoing retainers.

Has Dejan Markovic published any books?

Yes - WordPress Responsive Theme Design Essentials, published by Packt Publishing. He also served as Technical Reviewer for Learning Yeoman, also published by Packt. He also writes about WordPress development on Medium.

What is Dejan Markovic’s role in the WordPress community?

He was Lead Organizer of WordCamp Toronto 2016 and Co-Organizer in 2014 and 2015. He has been a regular speaker at WordCamps across North America and Europe, and has contributed to WordPress core through translations and support forum activity.