👋 Hi, I'm Marios Sofokleous

Growth Engineer & Web Performance Architect

I engineer high-performance web architectures that drive user acquisition and conversion. By bridging the gap between engineering and marketing, I build blazing-fast frontend systems that lower ad CPC, ensure data integrity, and achieve perfect Core Web Vitals.

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ABOUT ME

Engineering scalable systems that bridge code and conversion

With 8 years of experience in custom CMS development and frontend architecture, I specialize in engineering headless, SEO-optimized websites. My career began in agency environments delivering custom CMS solutions, which taught me the critical importance of aligning technical architecture with business and marketing goals.

During my time in the fintech sector, I engineered dynamic frontend architectures and spearheaded global market expansion through robust RTL localization. I also led technical SEO audits and decoupled legacy WordPress monoliths, successfully integrating proprietary CRM data pipelines and payment gateways to directly drive revenue and accelerate user acquisition.

Today, I focus on engineering conversion-driven web architectures using headless platforms (Strapi, Decap CMS) and modern frontends (Next.js, Astro). My core mandate is engineering for growth: delivering secure, highly optimized websites that protect telemetry data, achieve perfect Core Web Vitals, and scale programmatic SEO to maximize organic acquisition.

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TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

The modern stack for speed, SEO, and content operations

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Delivering solutions across fintech and agency sectors

Growth Engineer & Web Performance Architect
Freelance
September 2024 - Present
Paphos, Cyprus
Architecting decoupled, high-performance web experiences using Next.js & Astro, specializing in perfect Core Web Vitals, technical SEO, and modern CI/CD infrastructure.

Decoupled architecture & i18n: Engineered multilingual websites with RTL support using Astro and Decap CMS. Implemented GSAP animations and strict typography systems while maintaining zero-JS performance baselines.

Technical SEO: Architected automated JSON-LD schemas, XML sitemaps, and OG meta tags, alongside advanced asset delivery to eliminate layout shifts, ensure user privacy, and achieve perfect Core Web Vitals.

Performance optimization: Overhauled a real estate website (200+ active properties) by enabling automated image processing pipelines for upload resizing and WebP conversion. Integrated HubSpot CRM and deployed server and edge caching to achieve 95+ PageSpeed scores on shared infrastructure.

Interactive UI & compliance: Developed high-performance property landing pages featuring interactive SVG masterplans, amenity maps, and custom consent management systems to strictly enforce GDPR compliance.

DevOps & infrastructure: Established automated, webhook-driven CI/CD pipelines connecting GitHub to diverse hosting environments. Provisioned and managed self-hosted Linux VPS infrastructure using Coolify for full-stack decoupling (Strapi/Next.js), alongside Netlify for edge-delivered static sites.

Asset delivery & art direction: Implemented highly optimized image pipelines using Astro's built-in image components with strict srcset and sizes attributes. Integrated Unpic to orchestrate art direction across viewports, drastically reducing Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) times and eliminating layout shifts.

Perceived performance & UX: Delivered near-instant page navigations across multi-page architectures by enabling intent-driven link prefetching and integrating the View Transitions API for seamless cross-document fades, matching SPA experiences without the JavaScript bloat.

Core architecture & tooling

Next.js, Astro, Strapi, Decap CMS, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, GSAP, Coolify, Netlify, Cloudflare
Frontend Developer
IronFX
January 2022 - August 2024
Limassol, Cyprus
Architected scalable frontend infrastructure, led headless migrations, and engineered data pipelines, directly aligning technical execution with user acquisition and revenue.

Lead acquisition & data pipelines: Engineered custom web forms to capture user data, writing validation logic to sanitize and push leads directly into a proprietary in-house CRM via API. Integrated SendGrid to bypass spam filters and guarantee 100% deliverability for conversion notifications.

International technical SEO: Conducted audits using Screaming Frog to uncover and resolve critical localized canonical URL errors (e.g., preventing regional routes from cannibalizing the global root). Advocated for technical SEO best practices across the marketing department.

Headless migration & rendering strategy: Led the technical evaluation to decouple monolithic WordPress systems using WPGraphQL and Next.js. Aligned technical architecture with marketing goals by implementing hybrid rendering, utilizing Static Site Generation (SSG) for infrequently updated core pages, Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) for high-velocity blog content (2+ posts/day) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) for dynamic routes to maximize organic growth.

Global market expansion (RTL): Leveraged CSS logical properties to resolve legacy broken right-to-left (RTL) layouts for Arabic and Farsi regions, which improved user acquisition and retention in Middle Eastern markets.

Revenue engineering & integrations: Collaborated with external vendors to integrate the PIX payment gateway into WooCommerce, directly enabling new user conversion streams in the LATAM market. Deciphered undocumented internal APIs using Postman to engineer live financial data feeds (Solace API) into the frontend.

Marketing operations velocity: Standardized the deployment of recurring, API-fed competition landing pages by engineering a parameterized WordPress plugin. By abstracting variables (like API endpoints and row limits) into reusable shortcodes, I eliminated repetitive backend logic, reducing per-campaign engineering to just CSS styling. This cross-brand solution slashed rollout times from 4 days to a single day.

Technical leadership: Awarded "Top Tech Contributor" for architectural leadership. Established documentation standards and acted as the bridge between design and engineering to accelerate development cycles.

Workflow modernization: Standardized local development environments across the team by introducing @wordpress/env and @wordpress/scripts, leveraging containerization and modern build pipelines to drastically reduce onboarding and deployment times.

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.

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.

Technical problem-solving: Researched and integrated third-party plugin ecosystems to resolve complex 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 maintenance for clients across various industries.

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

Cross-functional collaboration: Partnered with designers to evaluate the technical feasibility of layouts and interactive components, ensuring visual assets seamlessly translated into performant DOM structures.

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 conversion-driven platforms

GK Architects

A headless architectural portfolio engineered with Astro and Decap CMS. Delivered 0ms Total Blocking Time (TBT), perfect Core Web Vitals, and scalable RTL localization to maximize organic reach.

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 high-performance React SPA built for WordPress to eliminate legacy load-time bottlenecks. Accelerates user conversion through lag-free filtering, seamless navigation, and secure application pipelines.

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 business value

How do you bridge the gap between engineering and marketing teams?

In competitive markets, engineering must empower growth teams rather than block them. I build infrastructure that allows non-technical staff to launch campaigns safely and autonomously without risking the site's layout or speed. This includes setting up secure editing dashboards and configuring third-party analytics without blocking the main browser thread.

How do you handle marketing analytics without ruining page speed?

Growth engineering requires flawless tracking, but standard third-party scripts often destroy performance. I implement interaction-driven telemetry. By deferring heavy containers like Google Tag Manager until explicit user intent is detected, I ensure marketing teams retain 100% of their attribution data while the site maintains a 0ms Total Blocking Time (TBT).

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

Monolithic systems often force a compromise between content management ease and frontend performance. 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 gives marketing teams an intuitive publishing interface while guaranteeing zero-bloat delivery, tighter security, 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 lowers ad CPC and maximizes campaign ROI.

Growth Engineer & Web Performance Architect

ABOUT ME

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE