Remote Contractor | Candidates who can work within UTC-8 to UTC+2 to align with our team.

Meedan seeks an experienced Lead Software Engineer (Contractor) to help guide technical development on a range of AI-powered initiatives. If you’ve led engineering efforts, shipped production-grade software, and have a strong background in Python and AI product development, we’d love to hear from you.

Description

In this role, you’ll be a technical leader for 6 months (can be extended) on a greenfield project helping shape architecture, implementing production code, mentoring team members, aligning engineering efforts with product goals, and working closely with Meedan’s machine learning research team. You’ll work cross-functionally to bring AI-driven solutions to life, while balancing strategic thinking with hands-on engineering.

This is a contractor role with flexible terms and the potential for long-term collaboration.

What You’ll Do:

• Collaborate with internal teams to define and drive technical direction, especially around AI product development.
• Architect and implement systems, with a focus on scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Mentor and support engineers, driving high-quality code and thoughtful design decisions.
• Lead design and code reviews, help enforce standards, and promote documentation, testing, and observability.
• Contribute to cross-team collaboration, ensuring technical efforts align with broader business and product strategy.
  

What We’re Looking For:

• 8+ years of professional software development experience, including prior leadership roles.
• Deep experience in Python, especially for backend development and AI/ML tooling.
• Demonstrated success building or scaling AI-driven or ML-powered products.
• Strong systems design and architecture skills.
• Excited to be a hands-on developer working independently and leading initiatives.
• Familiar with CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, and monitoring tools.
• Clear communicator.
  

Nice to Have:

• MLOps experience (model deployment, pipelines, etc.).
• Experience working with data science or ML research teams.
• Experience with knowledge graphs.
• Prior work in product-driven environments.

About Meedan

Meedan is a nonprofit focused on building digital tools and community-led programs that enhance the accessibility, reliability, and distribution of information — when and where people need it most. We codesign open-source tools and programs, enabling communities — especially those that have been historically underserved — to access the information they need to organize and mobilize. We also strive to make online ecosystems safer, more inclusive, and more equitable, so that existing pathways for content production and distribution can better serve the needs of all communities, regardless of their location, language, or income.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We actively recruit and encourage applications from individuals from historically underrepresented communities, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, women, people of color, and people with disabilities.