RLC Forward Deployed Engineer Intern

RLC Forward Deployed Engineer Intern

Remote

Who we are:

Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC) is a nonprofit organization committed to fighting food insecurity and preventing wasted food. We have cultivated a network of dedicated food rescuers who bring food directly from our donors to nonprofit organizations, letting neighbors help neighbors while reaping the environmental and economic benefits of reducing wasted food. Founded in 2013, our simple but elegant model has redistributed over 24 million pounds of food cumulatively.

What you'll do

RLC is piloting a new web tool, inspired by platforms like map.rethinkfood.org, that lets the community directly fund individual food rescues. Three groups will use it: food donors offering excess food, funders covering the cost of a specific rescue, and the nonprofit recipients who receive it. Every rescue shows live funding and delivery status, and any rescue that doesn't reach full funder coverage is automatically backstopped by RLC's earned revenue, so no rescue goes unfunded.

The pilot launches in New York City. It's a standalone, custom-built web app (not a low-code or template tool), kept in its own repository, that reads upcoming NYC rescues from RLC's existing Rails website from day one. It does not build its own Salesforce integration; Salesforce data reaches it indirectly through the Rails site's existing sync. The goal of the pilot is to find out, with real users and real dollars, whether this funding model works before RLC invests in a full build.

Responsibilities:

• Build the pilot web app end to end: donor, funder, and recipient views; rescue funding and status tracking; and the hybrid funding logic (crowdfunded first, earned-revenue backstop if a rescue isn't fully funded).
• Build and maintain a small, read-only interface on RLC's Rails website that exposes upcoming NYC rescues, and consume it from the new app's own repository.
• Integrate Stripe for funder payments, including partial-funding and funding-threshold logic.
• Add a map view of rescues (for example with the Google Maps API), consistent with RLC's existing use of it elsewhere.
• Work in a PR-based workflow: branch from staging, never commit directly to staging, main, or master, and open pull requests for review.
• Use Claude Code as a core part of how you build, and be comfortable directing and reviewing AI-assisted code rather than writing everything by hand.
• Keep the app mobile-browser-friendly, since it's a desktop-first web app that also needs to work well on phones.

Who you are:

• Full-stack web development experience, able to build and ship a production feature end to end (frontend, backend, data model).
• Comfort using AI coding assistants like Claude Code as a primary way of building, not just as an autocomplete.
• Experience integrating a web app with payments (Stripe or similar).
• Experience with Git and pull-request workflows on a shared codebase.
• Ability to work independently on a self-contained pilot, with light oversight from RLC's Tech Department.

Nice to have:

• Experience with Ruby on Rails, since the pilot integrates with RLC's existing Rails website.
• Experience with maps or geospatial features (Google Maps API, PostGIS, OpenStreetMap, or similar).
• Experience with Google Cloud, AWS, or another cloud platform for deploying and running a live app.
• Familiarity with nonprofit, marketplace, or crowdfunding products.
• Interest in food rescue or food security work.

RLC interns have the chance to work closely with the executive team and have the opportunity to make a true, meaningful impact during their time with the organization. This is a part-time, unpaid remote internship, although interns will be reimbursed for travel if local to an operational RLC branch and actively complete food rescue pickups. Interns are expected to work 20 hours per week. The anticipated start date is November 2026, with the end date to be mutually agreed upon by both parties. Students should consult with academic faculty to determine if this unpaid experience will earn academic credit. To express your interest, please send an email to the HR Manager, Shilpi Tandon, at shilpi@rescuingleftovercuisine.org and attach a copy of your resume.