Volunteer Backend Engineer – Native Mobile App
Organisation:
Nurture the Children International– a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity number: 1173351) dedicated to the fight against poverty globally.
Supporting our education, feeding, water, and health programs provides individual sponsors a simple way to support the world’s most vulnerable children and put an end to child hunger, poverty, and exploitation.
Location:
Fully remote / home-based (UK time zone preferred for easier collaboration)
Virtual meetings via Zoom / Microsoft Teams / Slack
Hours:
Flexible – approximately 4–10 hours per week (arranged around your availability)
Minimum commitment of 6–12 months preferred to support meaningful progress and hand-over
Role Purpose:
To design, build, maintain and secure the backend infrastructure that powers our native mobile app (iOS and Android), ensuring reliable data services, secure user authentication, smooth API performance, and compliance with UK data protection laws (UK GDPR). Your work will directly enable thousands of users / beneficiaries to access critical features such as [e.g. donation processing / resource libraries / peer support / progress tracking / emergency alerts].
Main Responsibilities:
- Design, develop and maintain robust, scalable RESTful (or GraphQL) APIs that connect the native mobile apps to backend services
- Implement and manage authentication & authorisation flows (e.g. JWT, OAuth2, Firebase Auth, or similar)
- Build and optimise data models, database schemas, and queries for user data, content, analytics, etc.
- Integrate with third-party services (e.g. payment gateways like Stripe, push notifications, cloud storage, analytics tools)
- Ensure high availability, performance and security of the backend (rate limiting, input validation, encryption, vulnerability scanning)
- Handle data migration, backups, monitoring, error logging and basic DevOps tasks (CI/CD pipelines if applicable)
- Collaborate remotely with frontend/mobile developers, product owners / trustees, and any external consultants via Git, shared docs, and regular stand-ups / sprint reviews
- Write clean, documented, testable code and contribute to code reviews
- Help maintain compliance with UK GDPR, Charity Commission expectations on data handling, and any sector-specific regulations (e.g. safeguarding for vulnerable users)
- Document architecture, APIs (e.g. OpenAPI/Swagger), deployment processes and troubleshooting guides
Tech Stack (Current or Target – we can discuss alignment with your expertise):
- Backend language/framework: Node.js (Express/NestJS), Python (FastAPI/Django), Java (Spring Boot), Go, or similar
- Database: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Firebase Firestore, Supabase, or equivalent
- Cloud / hosting: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Heroku, Railway, Render, or Firebase (cost-effective options preferred)
- Other tools: Docker (nice-to-have), Git/GitHub, Postman/Swagger for API testing, Sentry/New Relic for monitoring
Skills and Experience (Essential):
- Proven experience building and maintaining production backend services / APIs (commercial, open-source or personal projects)
- Strong knowledge of at least one modern backend language/framework (Node.js, Python, Java/Kotlin, Go, etc.)
- Experience with relational or NoSQL databases and writing efficient queries
- Understanding of REST API design principles, authentication patterns, and basic security best practices
- Comfortable with Git version control and remote collaboration tools (GitHub, Slack/Teams, etc.)
- Self-motivated, reliable, and able to work independently while communicating progress clearly
- Commitment to writing readable, maintainable code
Desirable (but not essential):
- Previous work on mobile app backends (especially native iOS/Android integrations)
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, Firebase) and serverless architectures
- Familiarity with CI/CD, containerisation (Docker), or infrastructure-as-code
- Knowledge of UK GDPR / data protection in charities / non-profits
- Experience contributing to open-source projects or volunteering in tech-for-good
- Interest in our mission area (e.g. health, education, environment, humanitarian)
What We Offer:
- Direct, high-impact contribution to our charitable mission through technology
- Opportunity to apply / deepen backend engineering skills in a real-world, user-focused product
- Supportive remote environment with regular check-ins, code reviews, and feedback
- Flexible hours – work when it suits you
- Recognition of your contribution (e.g. credits in app/about page, thanks in annual report/website – with consent)
- Potential professional reference after sustained contribution (6+ months)
- Out-of-pocket expenses reimbursed per our volunteer policy (very limited – mainly specialist tools if pre-agreed)
Job Types: Part-time, Volunteer
Benefits:
Work Location: Remote
