About Cultivating Literacy Cultivating Literacy is a nonprofit organization based in San Jose, CA, dedicated to empowering families and young readers in Santa Clara County. We provide intentional, customized family literacy programs and resources to support a child’s academic and social-emotional growth and family agency. Our growing team partners with local schools to support children and their families through empathy-centered care, innovative programming, and responsive technology solutions.
The Role We are seeking a Full Stack Engineer or Development Agency to help maintain, enhance, and expand our recently developed literacy portal and mobile apps (iOS and Android). This engagement is structured to support either a long-term, part-time contractor or a project-based partnership with an agency, starting in November 2025.
For a part-time individual, this role is a long-term contract with an expected 20 hours/week commitment for about 8 months.
For agencies, we welcome a project-based proposal with a dedicated team that can execute the scope of work and complete the tasks in a more accelerated timeline.
The ideal partner will be organized, proactive, reliable, and comfortable taking ownership of both upkeep and new feature development within an evolving platform. You will work closely with the Director of Programs and collaborate in scheduled meetings (primarily PST), but the role is fully remote. Candidates may be located anywhere in the U.S. or internationally, provided they can align with U.S. working hours.
Key Responsibilities- Maintain and enhance existing features across our literacy portal and apps.
- Troubleshoot and resolve bugs in a timely manner.
- Audit the current system to ensure stability, scalability, and security.
- Lead development of a new dashboard feature for recruitment and program management.
- Develop a new teacher-facing interface that allows educators to upload student data and generate digital, Dual Language Individualized Literacy Plans (IRPs)
- Support integration and enhancement of AI-driven components by enhancing/building a recommendation system and fine-tuning existing AI summarization models.
- Collaborate with staff and advisors to prioritize technical improvements and feature rollouts.
Qualifications- Proven experience with backend and frontend web development (FastAPI, Python, PostgreSQL, React).
- Familiarity with Azure cloud infrastructure, database management with Firebase, and API integrations (Twilio, Google).
- Comfort with system audits, troubleshooting, and handover from previous development teams.
- Demonstrated experience with OpenAI API, building conversational interfaces, and developing recommendation systems.
- Excellent communication and documentation skills.
- Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and collaborate remotely with a small nonprofit team.
Position Details- Type: Ongoing part-time contractor (20 hrs/week) or project-based agency.
- Engagement Timeline:
- Part-time Contractor: Expected to be an ongoing, long-term engagement (8+ months).
- Agency: We are open to a project-based contract with a defined scope and a compressed timeline based on your team’s resources.
- Location: 100% remote; candidates must be available to meet in US Pacific Time (flexible for Central or Eastern US Time as well).
- Start Date: November 2025.
- Reports to: Director of Programs.
Applications: Please apply directly through LinkedIn. For questions, contact hello@cultivatingliteracy.org (applications sent via email will not be considered).
