HealthLearn is looking for a Full Stack Software Engineer to help build the technology that is transforming professional learning for health workers across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since early 2024, our mobile-first courses have been completed over 100,000 times. Our flagship program, Newborn Care Foundations, has already reached 60,000 health workers. Most importantly, our modeling suggests the program may be well above GiveWell’s bar for cost-effectiveness.
We are continually working to improve our monitoring and evaluation, but we’re confident enough that the tech works and that the demand is there. Now we need a skilled, mission-driven engineer to help us scale it.
Overview of the Role
The Full Stack Software Engineer is a hands-on, high-ownership position on a lean 3-person engineering team. You'll be the second full-time engineer, meaning your contributions will be significant and visible from day one.
The full job description is here, but here is a snapshot of what you'll be doing:
- Full-Stack Development: Contributing to both the front- and back-end of our online learning web application, built on a modern TypeScript/Next.js/NestJS/Postgres stack.
- Code Review: Reviewing pull requests from teammates and providing thoughtful, constructive feedback — we have a high bar for correctness and stability.
- End-to-End Ownership: Working with the team to develop the product roadmap, spec features, build them, deploy them, and evaluate them.
- Platform Stewardship: Sharing responsibility for maintaining a stable, high-performance product serving health workers who are often on slow connections or older devices.
- AI-Assisted Development: Embracing AI coding tools — a majority of new lines are already co-authored with Claude or other agents, and this will grow over time.
This is a full-time, fully remote position with flexible working hours and unlimited PTO.
Who Should Consider Applying?
We are looking for an experienced, self-starting engineer with strong product instincts. You might be a great fit if:
- You have 5+ years of experience in software development, across both front-end and back-end.
- You are highly independent and comfortable taking full ownership of tasks without close supervision.
- You have a strong product sense and genuine empathy for end users — we don't have a separate product or design team, so engineers drive the full development cycle.
- You write clearly and communicate well in an async, distributed environment.
- You are available for a weekly 1-hour team call at ~19:00 UTC on Mondays.
Bonus points if you bring familiarity with our stack (TypeScript, React, Next.js, NestJS, Prisma), experience with GCP or Terraform, a feel for UX and UI design, or enthusiasm for integrating AI/LLM tools into your workflow.
A Few Practical Details
- Compensation: $60,000–$78,000/year for US-based candidates. We recognize this is below senior market rate — we are looking for candidates motivated by the mission and flexibility of the role. Salary bands will be adjusted by cost-of-living for candidates outside the US to ensure pay equity.
- Application Deadline: March 20, 2026.
- Start Date: April 20, 2026.
Please apply only if you have substantial experience — we aren't in a position to provide significant mentorship to get someone up to speed. If you're ready to do some of the most cost-effective engineering work of your career, apply here.
Other Ways to Engage
Not the right fit for this role but still want to support the mission?
- Spread the Word: If you know a senior full-stack engineer who cares about global health, please share this post with them. Many of our best leads come through referrals.
- Follow Our Work: Check out our 2025 wrap-up blog post to learn more about what we're building and why we believe it matters.
