Ryan Welcher is a Developer Relations Advocate at Automattic with 11 years of web engineering experience, steeped in WordPress core and plugin development. Previously a lead engineer at 10up, he combines hands-on full-stack work—refactoring build systems, improving authentication flows, and enhancing the Gutenberg block editor—with developer-facing advocacy. Based in Toronto, he’s an active open-source contributor to prominent projects like Google Site Kit and Gutenberg, where he’s shipped UI/UX improvements and text-counting features used by millions of WordPress users. Ryan’s background spans leadership roles in agency and product teams, giving him a pragmatic blend of client-facing delivery and platform-scale thinking. He started his career in multimedia and recording engineering, a foundation that informs his attention to detail and user experience in web products.
11 years of coding experience
18 years of employment as a software developer
Diploma, Music Industry Arts - Recording Engineering, Diploma, Music Industry Arts - Recording Engineering at Fanshawe College
Diploma, Digital Media Design, Diploma, Digital Media Design at International Academy of Design and Technology
Examples for extending WordPress/Gutenberg with blocks.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Contributions:2 releases, 29 reviews, 71 commits in 7 months
Contributions summary:Ryan primarily contributed to updating and modernizing various examples within the Gutenberg examples repository. Their work involved migrating existing blocks to use `block.json`, incorporating the latest API versions, and refactoring code for improved structure and maintainability. They updated the editable and controls examples, replacing older implementations with new block API features. Additionally, the user made enhancements to the recipe card and inner blocks examples.
Site Kit is a one-stop solution for WordPress users to use everything Google has to offer to make them successful on the web.
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Contributions:38 reviews, 209 commits, 60 PRs in 7 months
Contributions summary:Ryan contributed to various aspects of the Google Site Kit WordPress plugin, indicating a full-stack role. Their work included refactoring build commands in `package.json`, updating UI elements and message strings within the AdSense settings, and integrating changes from the `develop` branch. Furthermore, the user was involved in enhancing the user authentication logic within the application, illustrating a broad understanding of the project's codebase.
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