Backend Engineer

The Digital Team at RTSL is implementing or helping to implement cutting-edge digital tools such as the Simple app, DHIS2 and Africa Covid Dashboard. We work with national and regional health organizations to accelerate progress and advancing the use of digital technologies to save lives through our approach of simplicity, speed, and scale.

Position Summary

Resolve to Save Lives seeks a Backend Engineer to help build and maintain digital tools that support public health programs focused on cardiovascular health, hypertension, and diabetes control. Our digital tools help Ministries of Health and implementing partners manage large-scale health programs, improve data quality, and support healthcare workers who serve millions of patients. The engineering team works across open-source products and integrations, including Simple, DHIS2, and the HEARTS360 toolkit. 

This role is ideal for a software engineer with professional experience developing backend applications who is looking for an opportunity to grow their technical skills while contributing to meaningful global health impact. You will work closely with engineers, program teams, and external partners to develop reliable software, support system integrations, and improve the quality and scalability of our digital platforms. 

While much of our integration and data-processing work is Python-based, the role also supports applications built in Ruby on Rails and integrations with Java-based systems. We are looking for engineers who are excited to learn new technologies and work across a diverse technical environment. 

Length of engagement: 12 months fixed-term employment with possibility of renewal based on funding and mutual interest. 

Location: This is a remote position open to candidates based in India, Nigeria or Ethiopia 

What You Will Work On 

Simple 

Simple is a free, open-source application and dashboard, written in Ruby, that healthcare workers use to manage patients with high blood pressure.  

DHIS2 

DHIS2 is an open-source health information platform written in Java and maintained by the University of Oslo. Were collaborating closely with the University of Oslo to adapt DHIS2 into a strong alternative to Simple for countries already using it for other health information needs. 

HEARTS360 Toolkit (H360TK) 

H360TK is a lightweight, self-hostable toolkit built by our team for standing up hypertension and diabetes program dashboards with limited infrastructure. It integrates with electronic health record systems, ingests patient line-list data, loads it into PostgreSQL through Python pipelines, and surfaces it through Grafana dashboards. 

As a member of the team, you will contribute to open-source software projects that support public health programs. Your work will help keep these tools reliable, secure, and useful for the teams and partners who depend on them. 

Core responsibilities 

The Backend Engineer will support the development, maintenance, and reliability of our backend systems and integrations. 

Simple 

• Help maintain the Simple application, addressing bugs and security vulnerabilities as they come up. 
• Collaborate with the CVH leadership and country teams to develop new features. 
• Build your understanding of how healthcare workers use the tool day-to-day to inform new features and fixes.

DHIS2 

• Build expertise in DHIS2 over time.
• Support the integration, monitoring, reporting, and configuration of DHIS2. 
• Help identify, define, and implement changes to DHIS2. 

H360TK 

• Build expertise in H360TK and take ownership of parts of the toolkit. 
• Write and maintain Python integration scripts. 
• Help extend H360TK to new use cases and areas of work. 

AI/Machine Learning 

• RTSL is exploring machine learning to help predict patient behavior and improve retention in our programs. This is a chance to build applied ML/MLOps skills alongside the team. 

Support  

• Help tend production environments for Simple and DHIS2, including investigating issues and communicating clearly with internal and external stakeholders. 

Qualifications

We are seeking a candidate with strong software development skills, preferably in the language our software is written in. However, we value motivation and a willingness to learn missing skills just as much. 

Technical skills  

• Python and related frameworks for integration, data management and machine learning 
• SQL (performance investigation, execution plan analysis, etc.)
• Ruby (Rails, ActiveRecord) is a plus
• Docker and Kubernetes. 
• AWS or other cloud platforms. 
• Grafana, Prometheus, or application monitoring tools.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented principles
• Exposure to CI/CD methodology
• Familiarity with APIs and user-facing components

Experience  

• Typically 2–4 years of professional experience writing production Python code.  
• Experience building and supporting backend applications in a production environment. 
• Experience launching and maintaining apps at scale 
• Experience with modern cloud infrastructure 
• Experience supporting apps that are growing quickly
• Knowledge of caching implementation 

Abilities

• Ability and willingness to learn new programming languages 
• Interest in working with a diverse and distributed Engineering team
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Fluent in English

Preferred Qualifications

• Java-based applications or integrations
• Open-source software development. 
• Health information systems, DHIS2, electronic health records, or digital health platforms. 
• Machine learning, analytics, or MLOps concepts. 

Compensation and Benefits 

Resolve to Save Lives prides itself on cultivating a supportive, connected remote team doing work that matters. We do everything possible to ensure our employees are connected and set up for success. 

The salary for this role is competitive and set according to national labor rates for the international NGO sector. The exact offer will be determined by various factors, such as the candidate’s skills and experience relative to the requirements of the role.

In addition to a competitive salary, Resolve to Save Lives provides a generous package of benefits, including: 

• Health insurance for you and your dependents 
• Contributions toward retirement  
• Paid annual leave and sick leave, in addition to public holidays 
• Two paid, week-long organization-wide breaks at mid-year and end-of-year  
• Professional development and home office setup benefits 
• Up-to-date computer equipment