Solutions Architect / Backend Engineer

Who We Are

Unruled Masses (UM) is a New York-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit building new and dynamic public civic intelligence and nonviolent action infrastructure. Our mission is to help ordinary people expose abuse, map corruption networks, and coordinate peaceful, strategic resistance and democracy-building worldwide. We are nonpartisan, evidence-driven, and partner-focused — uniting people with intelligence, materials, and communications to help reclaim institutions and rebuild equitable communities.

Who You Are

You are a solutions architect or a backend engineer who knows that the right system, in the right hands, can change the world. You have hands-on experience building database-backed applications — designing schemas, writing APIs, deploying to production — and you know how to build systems that are secure, reliable, and maintainable.

You'll be building the core of what makes this organization work: a civic intelligence database that tracks verified incidents of corruption and abuse of power, the entities involved, and the networks that connect them. Our Chief Data Officer has the domain knowledge and analytical frameworks. Your job is to turn that expertise into a production system — the database, the admin interface, the API that powers our public-facing search, and the infrastructure that keeps it all running securely.

You are a builder and a problem-solver, and you believe that civic technology deserves the same engineering rigor as any enterprise system.

What You'll Do

• Database Design & Implementation: Collaborate with our data expert to design and implement a PostgreSQL database for intelligence and research operations, including geographic data (PostGIS) and complex entity relationships.
• Admin Interface: Build a Django-based admin UI where analysts can enter, review, verify, and manage incident data — with role-based permissions, audit logging, and a workflow that protects source confidentiality.
• Public API: Design and build a read-only REST API that exposes published intelligence data to our public website, with appropriate rate limiting, caching, and security boundaries.
• Infrastructure & Deployment: Provision and configure cloud hosting (VPS), set up automated encrypted backups, and manage the deployment pipeline. Our edge security layer (Cloudflare, including Zero Trust for internal access) is already in place.
• Security: Implement best practices for data protection, access control, and encryption — this system handles sensitive research data and must be built with a security-first mindset.
• Documentation: Maintain clear technical documentation so the system can be understood, maintained, and handed off as the organization grows.

Exceptional volunteers may:

• Advise leadership on data infrastructure strategy as we scale
• Build data visualization features (geographic maps, entity relationship graphs) for the public site
• Help recruit, onboard, and mentor additional engineers as the data and infrastructure team grows
• Grow into a technical leadership role — the person who builds this system is the natural candidate to lead the engineering team around it

Ideal Qualifications:

• Python & Django: Comfortable building applications in Python, ideally with Django (models, admin customization, REST framework)
• PostgreSQL: Experience designing schemas, writing queries, and managing relational databases in production. PostGIS experience is a strong plus.
• API Design: Experience building RESTful APIs with authentication, pagination, filtering, and versioning
• Cloud Hosting: Comfortable provisioning and managing Linux VPS environments (DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS, or similar)
• Security Mindset: Familiarity with role-based access control, encrypted backups, audit logging, and secure API design
• Collaborative Spirit: Ability to work alongside a Chief Data Officer and a CTO who operates as technical lead, translating requirements into working systems
• Mission Alignment: A demonstrated commitment to democracy, transparency, and the belief that technology can be a powerful tool for civic good

Nice to have:

• Experience with Cloudflare (Workers, Zero Trust, Tunnel)
• Data visualization (D3.js, Leaflet/Mapbox)
• Civic tech or nonprofit technology experience
• Familiarity with geographic information systems (GIS)

The Technical Context

Our public-facing editorial website (Next.js + Sanity CMS + Cloudflare Workers) is already operational. The intelligence database you'll build is a separate, independent backend system. Your API will be consumed by the existing website to power public search and research pages. You won't need to work on the frontend unless you want to — the CTO handles that side.

Your system's architecture:

• PostgreSQL + PostGIS on a managed VPS
• Django application (admin UI + read-only public API)
• Behind Cloudflare Zero Trust for internal access
• Read-only API exposed through Cloudflare for public consumption
• Separate security boundary from the editorial site

Compensation & Commitment

This is an unpaid volunteer role. We are flexible on hours and can work around your schedule, but ask for a meaningful initial commitment (roughly 8–10 hours/week for 2–3 months) to get the system built and operational, followed by lighter ongoing support. As we grow our 501(c)(3) funding, paid staff roles may be offered to those who demonstrate exceptional dedication and impact.

Benefits of Volunteering with Unruled Masses

• Founding Architect Status: Be the person who builds the technical backbone of a first-of-its-kind public civic intelligence organization
• Real-World Impact: Your system will directly power research that exposes corruption and supports democracy movements worldwide
• Shape the Stack: Because we are early-stage, you will have significant influence over the technology choices that define our platform for years to come
• Elite Network: Collaborate with a global team of professionals across intelligence, law, human rights, and civic technology
• Mission-Driven Work: Use your technical skills for something that genuinely matters — helping ordinary people reclaim their institutions