Lead Developer — Rebuild, Modernize, & Scale (Social Good SaaS, Remote)

Track it Forward

Contract type

Ongoing

Work mode

100% remote

Experience

Senior · 5+ years

Job description

Lead the greenfield rebuild of a legacy SaaS application, modernize mobile apps, and scale the tech effort
Choose the language and build the technical foundation in partnership with the product manager
Migrate all customers incrementally tenant-by-tenant while keeping operations running smoothly
Deconstruct the legacy Drupal 6 / MySQL schema into a clean, domain-driven PostgreSQL database
Offload 100GB+ of media files to AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2
Implement application-layer field-level encryption (AES-256 for PII, Bcrypt/Argon2id for passwords) and build zero-trust dev environments
Establish automated testing pipelines, clean API contracts, and clear runbooks
Maintain and update two Ionic/Capacitor mobile apps using AI coding tools
Partner with the product manager, establish engineering processes, and lead the rebuild from scratch
Company mission
Track it Forward is the leading volunteer time-tracking application for nonprofits and schools, helping thousands of organizations mobilize volunteers and track over 30 million hours

Core technologies

Python (Programming Language)React

Great work-life balance
High-impact work
Fun, puzzle-loving culture (daily crosswords, monthly virtual escape rooms, annual retreats)
Profitable, bootstrapped team of 4 without growth-at-all-costs pressure

5+ years of core software engineering and architectural experience established before generative AI existed
Strong first-principles opinions on database normalization and system patterns
Proven experience architecting and leading at least one legacy monolith migration
Active use of AI tools to multiply output while retaining strict architectural control, unit testing discipline, and manual code review standards
US W-2 Tax Residency Required
Remote flexibility
Python, Django, Laravel, React, PostgreSQL, AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Ionic, Capacitor, Drupal 6, MySQL
Python (Programming Language)
React