Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellowship

Are you an experienced developer looking to make a difference?

Code the Dream creates opportunity that changes lives, builds technology that benefits our communities, and expands access to the skills we need for a more innovative world.

What is the Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellowship?

The Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellowship is a unique, one-year opportunity for experienced software engineers to mentor and work collaboratively with a diverse community of developers in training, and to make their contribution to building the more inclusive and equitable tech sector our society so badly needs.

We are a growing nonprofit organization where people from diverse low-income backgrounds learn to code. After months of intensive training with Code the Dream’s online curriculum and mentors, new coders have a chance to apply to join CTD Labs, where they gain invaluable real-world experience as full-time software development apprentices.

In our CTD Labs apprenticeship program, experienced developers work alongside student apprentices to produce high quality work for our partners that also offers real experience that will help the apprentices launch life-changing careers.

CTD Labs works with a wide range of companies, nonprofit and government partners, and we are very proud of the broad range of projects that come through CTD Labs every year. Examples of projects include:

• An app for North Carolina residents struggling to make ends meet — who may not know what government assistance they qualify for or how to navigate complex application processes — to anonymously check their eligibility for 18+ benefits, tax credits, and nonprofit programs in about six minutes, with an estimated dollar value so they can plan before they apply.
• An app for migrant farmworkers — who are often particularly vulnerable because they are forced to move frequently and live in substandard housing — to easily locate nearby health, education and legal resources.
• A wide range of technologies for partner companies ranging from small start-ups to established tech companies addressing unmet needs.

In this position, you would serve as a senior developer and mentor, helping our CTD Labs junior apprentice developers keep learning, thinking through obstacles and becoming better developers. Each day you’ll be checking in with student developers working on different projects, and your main areas of focus will likely include:

• Mentoring and supervising: Overseeing all aspects of the development process (with help from the team!), including regular check-ins with junior devs, code reviews, maintaining a balance between learning strong coding principals and using agentic AI coding tools, etc. (~ 60%)
• Coding, white-boarding, planning, and generally making big picture decisions about app structure, technologies, etc. (many of the things you probably do now) (~ 20%)
• Everything else that goes into our unique nonprofit community and software development shop, from meeting with current or potential CTD Labs partners, to providing input on CTD class curriculum updates, to joining in CTD karaoke parties (definitely not required!) (~ 20%)

These bullets are estimates to give you a rough idea, and there’s room for flexibility depending on individual strengths and interests.

Most Code the Dream students follow one of two main paths: (1) full stack JavaScript, primarily using React and Node or 2) Python, via a web or data engineering path

Skills and Experience

• 5-10+ years experience in web development;
• Including at least 3 years of recent full stack web development, including front-end React development.
• Other potentially helpful (but not required) experience:
  • Node.js / Express
  • JAVA
  • Next.js, GraphQL, ElasticSearch, TypeScript, SQL, AWS.
  • Python – web development and/or data science/engineering
  • AI/RAG architecture
  • Agentic AI development
• Teaching experience or an affinity for mentoring others, whether as a development team lead or otherwise.

NOTE: Although we have traditionally focused on web development, we are currently exploring more data science/analytics/engineering-related projects (preferably Python-based), and we’d love to hear from you if you have this or other comparable experience and don’t mind trying new things.

The Right Fit

• You are passionate about broadening access to opportunity in tech.
• You feel comfortable (and enjoy!) working with people of many, diverse backgrounds.
• You are self-motivated and like setting and accomplishing ambitious goals.

• Medical, dental and vision insurance. CTD covers 100% of employee medical insurance premiums and 50% of premiums for spouse/domestic partner and children.
• Generous holiday and vacation benefits.
• The opportunity to gain experience in the non-profit / social impact sector, particularly for those open to a transition toward social impact or public service work.
• Kind, supportive community.