👋 Hi, I'm Marios Sofokleous

Computer Engineer & Senior Web Developer

I specialize in modernizing legacy web infrastructure. I build highly secure, decoupled architectures that prioritize system stability, exceptional Core Web Vitals, and strict compliance with EU GDPR and WCAG accessibility standards.

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ABOUT ME

Engineering secure, scalable, and highly performant web systems

With 5 years of professional experience in custom CMS development and software architecture, I specialize in engineering headless, highly optimized websites. My background as a Computer Engineer (BSc, University of Cyprus) provides a rigorous foundation in algorithmic logic and system architecture, ensuring that the digital platforms I build are both robust and scalable.

During my time in the fintech sector, I engineered dynamic frontend architectures and proactively resolved severe, undocumented UI/UX issues. I also led technical SEO audits, decoupled legacy monoliths, and integrated enterprise APIs, ensuring 100% data fidelity and system stability.

Today, I focus on architecting modern web infrastructure using headless platforms (Strapi, Decap CMS) and modern frameworks (Next.js, Astro). My core mandate is digital modernization: delivering secure, highly optimized web applications that protect user privacy, achieve perfect Core Web Vitals, and adhere to strict technical and accessibility standards.

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TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

The modern stack for speed, system stability, and secure content operations

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Delivering scalable IT solutions across enterprise and agency sectors

Growth Engineer & Web Performance Architect
Freelance
September 2024 - Present
Paphos, Cyprus
Architecting decoupled, high-performance web experiences and conversion-driven funnels using Next.js, Astro, and headless platforms.

Impact & achievements

Performance architecture & RUM: Achieved 0ms Total Blocking Time (TBT) and flawlessly passed Core Web Vitals by leveraging Astro's zero-JS architecture alongside strict asset pipelines (precise srcset/sizes and native lazy-loading). Engineered Real User Monitoring (RUM) to correlate speed with conversion rates by injecting live web-vitals telemetry directly into the dataLayer. Furthermore, architected a WordPress real estate platform (200+ properties), overcoming constrained shared hosting by deploying Cloudflare Edge caching and automated image processing to guarantee elite 95+ mobile Lighthouse Performance scores.

Technical SEO & semantic architecture: Achieved flawless 100/100 Lighthouse scores across SEO, Accessibility, and Best Practices by authoring deeply semantic HTML, enforcing strict ARIA standards, and optimizing UI legibility. Replaced AJAX-based filtering with indexable page routes, and structured custom data using Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), automated JSON-LD schemas, and XML sitemaps to maximize organic search visibility.

Telemetry & GDPR compliance: Engineered interaction-driven lazy-loading for Google Tag Manager (GTM), preserving attribution data without blocking the main CPU thread. Integrated CookieYes with Google Consent Mode v2 via GTM, utilizing cookie-less pings to maintain behavioral modeling under stringent EU privacy laws.

Lead generation pipelines: Architected conversion-focused property landing pages featuring interactive SVG masterplans and interactive maps. Engineered advanced dataLayer payloads to segment lead tracking, routing behavioral indicators to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) while structuring encrypted user_data schemas for ad network APIs. Secured data pipelines by embedding native HubSpot CRM scripts, implementing strict Zod validation, and deploying anti-scraping obfuscation alongside honeypot spam protection.

Pragmatic UI & localization: Engineered zero-JS frontend baselines, deliberately prioritizing standard MPA navigation over brittle SPA-like transitions (View Transition API) to ensure third-party marketing telemetry and consent managers remained perfectly stable across routes. Authored custom build scripts to compile scoped Sass into dynamic RTL stylesheets for global market localization.

DevOps & infrastructure: Provisioned self-hosted Linux VPS infrastructure using Coolify to deploy full-stack decoupled environments (Strapi/Next.js). Established webhook-driven CI/CD pipelines to Netlify Edge, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and enabling rapid, autonomous marketing iterations.

Core architecture & tooling

Next.js, Astro, TypeScript, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, HubSpot CRM, Strapi, Cloudflare, Netlify, Coolify, WordPress, Advanced Custom Fields, Decap CMS, Tailwind CSS, GSAP, Zod, CookieYes, web-vitals, Lighthouse
Frontend Developer
IronFX
January 2022 - August 2024
Limassol, Cyprus
Architected scalable frontend infrastructure, led headless R&D, and engineered data pipelines. Acted as a proactive bridge between marketing and engineering, directly aligning technical execution with user acquisition, localization, and revenue.

Impact & achievements

Marketing operations velocity: Architected highly modular, parameterized WordPress plugins to replace hardcoded, repetitive campaign builds. This abstraction reduced the rollout time for API-fed competition landing pages from 4 days to a single day, drastically cutting engineering overhead.

Headless R&D & SEO architecture: Led the technical evaluation for decoupling a legacy WordPress brand via WPGraphQL. Conducted dependency risk assessments and successfully advocated against client-side rendering (CSR) by proving the SEO necessity of SSR/SSG frameworks. Co-engineered the Next.js frontend prototype and established the team's collaborative Git branching strategy.

Revenue engineering & integrations: Independently deciphered undocumented Solace APIs to engineer live financial data feeds into the frontend. Collaborated with external vendors to integrate the PIX payment gateway into WooCommerce, successfully unlocking new user conversion streams in the LATAM market.

Developer Experience (DX) & tooling: Modernized legacy development workflows across the team by introducing @wordpress/env and containerized build pipelines, eliminating manual setup friction and accelerating team onboarding.

Lead acquisition & data pipelines: Engineered custom web forms with strict validation logic to sanitize and push leads directly into a proprietary CRM via API, integrating SendGrid to bypass spam filters and guarantee 100% deliverability for conversion notifications.

Proactive localization & QA: Independently identified and resolved widespread Right-to-Left (RTL) layout inconsistencies across various brand websites without formal ticketing. Embedded strict bi-directional QA checks into the development lifecycle, ensuring a seamless user experience for Arabic and Farsi-speaking markets.

Technical leadership: Awarded "Top Tech Contributor" for architectural leadership. Championed tighter alignment between design and development, prompting project managers to establish dedicated communication channels. This eliminated persistent UI inconsistencies, driving component reusability and accelerating development velocity. Maintained architectural documentation to prevent bottlenecks during team onboarding.

Core architecture & tooling

React, Next.js, WPGraphQL, Postman, SendGrid, Screaming Frog, Recoil, Tailwind CSS, Sass, React Hook Form, Zod, WebSockets, @wordpress/env, @wordpress/scripts
Frontend Developer
Webmors
August 2019 - December 2021
Remote
Led solo frontend engineering for a fast-paced agency, architecting scalable development workflows and delivering 20+ CMS platforms from the ground up.

Impact & achievements

Solo frontend engineering: Acted as the sole developer for a new agency, owning the end-to-end technical delivery of 20+ custom October CMS websites for real estate and e-commerce clients.

Component architecture: Pioneered a component-based development structure using Twig and Sass, maximizing code reusability and significantly improving page rendering times.

Strategic UI architecture: Deployed Vue.js to build dynamic, client-side features within traditional CMS pages, strictly isolating client-side rendering (CSR) to non-SEO-critical components to protect search visibility.

Design-to-code alignment: Acted as the technical bridge between design and engineering. Guided graphic designers in web design principles within Figma to ensure prototypes translated into pixel-perfect DOM structures.

Workflow & architecture: Architected the agency's foundational development pipeline from scratch using Gulp, and utilized BEM methodology alongside Sass to ensure long-term CSS maintainability and scalable styling across all client projects.

Core architecture & tooling

October CMS, Vue.js, Vuex, Twig, Sass, BEM, Gulp, Figma
WordPress Developer
Enigma Global
June 2018 - July 2019
Paphos, Cyprus
Managed the full technical lifecycle of client web projects, rapidly mastering WordPress and Elementor to deliver customized, responsive solutions for diverse business requirements.

Impact & achievements

Technical problem-solving: Researched and integrated third-party plugin ecosystems to resolve client requirements and extend core CMS functionality.

Theme customization: Engineered extensive child theme overrides using custom CSS and JavaScript to deliver pixel-perfect designs while maintaining core system stability and update compatibility.

Project lifecycle management: Handled requirements gathering, theme development, deployment, and ongoing maintenance.

Tooling advocacy: Introduced and championed Elementor for specific projects to accelerate the delivery of custom designs and reduce project turnaround times.

Proactive UI alignment: Independently initiated cross-functional reviews with the design team to refine visual aesthetics, bridging the gap between technical execution and high-quality frontend presentation.

Client success: Delivered technical documentation and training to ensure smooth project handoffs and long-term site stability.

Core architecture & tooling

WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, Elementor

CASE STUDIES

Engineering scalable web applications, custom plugins, and secure digital platforms

GK Architects

A headless architectural portfolio engineered with Astro and Decap CMS. Achieved 0ms Total Blocking Time (TBT) and perfect Core Web Vitals while architecting robust, GDPR-compliant telemetry pipelines.

Next.js, Strapi Portfolio Starter

A production-ready decoupled architecture leveraging Next.js and Strapi. Features Static Site Generation (SSG) and automated JSON-LD schemas to deliver lightning-fast load times and optimal search visibility.

JobLister plugin

A React SPA engineered for WordPress to eliminate constant server round-trips. By fetching data through a single initial payload, it delivers instantaneous search, lag-free filtering, and seamless hash-routed navigation to secure application forms.

Sentiero Luxury Villas

A conversion-driven property landing page engineered for high-intent lead generation. Combines heavy interactive web components with strict GDPR consent management while maintaining elite 90+ PageSpeed scores.

View all projects

PROFESSIONAL ENDORSEMENTS

What teams and stakeholders say about my work

Marios has been professional, collaborative, efficient, and honest. With strong technical knowledge and natural creativity, he helped us communicate our vision through a streamlined and attractive website.

— George Kalaitzides, Architect & Founder, GK Architects

A great professional, very hardworking and able to tackle any challenge on time. It was a great pleasure working with Marios. He is an amazing person, with top notch technical skills and experience in building beautiful highly responsive web applications. I wish we have the chance to work together in the nearest future Marios. I am sure you will thrive even more in the tech industry. Nowadays, is not so common to find professionals like you. All the best!

— Christophoros Demetriou, Product manager, IronFX

An expert in front-end web development with great attention to detail. We have worked together during several projects, and Marios has delivered beautiful and fully responsive UIs every time.

— Marios Kleanthous, CEO, Webmors

Having worked with Marios for almost a year as a fellow WordPress developer, I must say he instills positive energy in the team and is a true professional. What makes him stand out is his willingness to help others. I am impressed by his work ethic, communication skills and the fact that he easily adjusts to any given situation and can perform under pressure. I am glad to have worked with him!

— Pavlina Kyriacou, WordPress developer, IronFX

Marios is one of the most hardworking persons I had the pleasure of working with, always willing to go above and beyond to complete a project assigned to him.

— Marios Polyviou, PHP developer & online marketing manager, Enigma Global

LATEST POSTS

Sharing knowledge & technical insights

Posted on:: 18/09/2025

A smarter heading hierarchy for embeddable React apps

Adaptive React headings that respect any host page. Learn accessible hierarchy, dynamic level mapping, and safe CMS HTML sanitization without brittle, hardcoded levels.

Posted on:: 25/07/2025

Protecting API keys in frontend apps with Netlify Functions

Build a secure Netlify serverless proxy to hide API keys from client-side code. Includes cross-domain setup and CORS handling.

Posted on:: 11/04/2025

How to self-host Supabase with Coolify and migrate your project from the official Supabase platform

Discover how to self-host Supabase with Coolify, gain full control of your infrastructure, and seamlessly migrate your project from the official platform!

View all posts

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Technical strategies and system stability

How do you ensure modern web infrastructure meets strict compliance and performance standards?

In public and enterprise sectors, infrastructure must prioritize security and accessibility. I build decoupled architectures that allow organizations to deploy digital portals safely and autonomously. This includes setting up secure, role-based editing dashboards and configuring third-party integrations without compromising system stability or violating WCAG accessibility guidelines.

How do you implement tracking and telemetry while maintaining GDPR compliance and page speed?

Standard third-party scripts often destroy performance and risk privacy violations. I implement interaction-driven telemetry. By deferring heavy tracking containers until explicit user intent is detected, I ensure organizations maintain vital metrics while the site maintains a 0ms Total Blocking Time (TBT) and strictly adheres to EU GDPR and Consent Mode v2 requirements.

Why do you advocate for headless CMS and component-driven architecture?

Monolithic systems often force a compromise between content management ease and frontend performance, while exposing the database to security vulnerabilities. I use component-driven engineering to assemble interfaces block-by-block, decoupling the backend (Strapi, Decap CMS) from highly optimized frontends (Next.js, Astro). This guarantees zero-bloat delivery, tighter security protocols, and scalable infrastructure without traditional database constraints.

How do you guarantee high-performance Core Web Vitals?

Performance isn't an afterthought; it is the foundation of the architecture. I refuse to use bloated legacy themes or heavy page builders. Instead, I prioritize shipping zero JavaScript to the client by default using Astro or leveraging Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) with Next.js. By optimizing LCP through edge caching, automated image pipelines, and critical CSS extraction, I ensure pages load instantly, which reduces server load, ensures high availability, and delivers an optimal, accessible user experience.