Bob Cristello

I’m Bob Cristello, Director of Digital Operations at PKWARE. I build WordPress platforms for enterprises, and I’ve been writing software since 1979.

I don’t just build systems, I teach teams to build themselves.

What I do

At PKWARE I lead enterprise web solutions and marketing operations: WordPress architecture and security, marketing technology integrations, SOC 2 compliance and the attribution systems that show what marketing actually returns. My goal is digital platforms that don’t break, don’t drift and don’t depend on tribal knowledge.

I’m still hands-on. I write themes and plugins in PHP, build REST API integrations and work in SQL, and I run SEO, AEO and GEO strategy, analytics and security alongside them.

How I got here

  • US Army, 1979–1984. I started as a technician on the Nike Hercules missile guidance system, then moved to the Computer Sciences Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in 1982. There I was on the original COBOL team for an Army system running on a Honeywell Level VI mainframe.
  • The Hyde School, 1986–1992. Director of Computer Sciences: I designed the curriculum and ran IT for the whole campus. I also directed the performing arts and coached football, wrestling and tennis.
  • Sallie Mae, 1999–2000. Technical lead on an online self-service student loan center, with a team of five developers in three states. Every change went through dev, QA and production. I’ve believed in that ever since.
  • REBAR IDG, 2000–2002. Head of Development, leading a 17-person internet development team on global intranet, extranet and internet projects.
  • TweetClean, 2001–2015. Independent web development: WordPress, PHP and large-scale data migrations.
  • Davidson Belluso, 2015–2017. Web programmer and digital advertising strategist in Phoenix.
  • Freelance, 2017–2021. Full-stack WordPress architecture, SEO and digital marketing consulting from Rutland, Vermont.
  • projekt202, 2021–2022. WordPress architect on a mission-critical WordPress application for Experian, with full CI/CD from AWS through custom post types and block development.
  • PKWARE, 2022–present. Director of Digital Operations.

Why this site exists

Most of what’s written about WordPress is about building sites quickly: buy a theme, add a page builder, install plugins. That’s fine for a lot of sites. It’s not how I build WordPress for enterprises, and it’s not how this site is built.

wpbob.com is where I write about WordPress built like it matters: custom classic themes, hardened setups, minimal plugins and real development discipline. I call it Classic Enterprise. You’ll find three kinds of posts here:

  • CVE Watch: serious WordPress vulnerabilities, how they work and what to do about them
  • Development: how to build and run WordPress properly
  • Blog: everything else I’ve learned along the way

The views here are my own and don’t represent PKWARE.