Technology Lead

Would you like to use your software tech skills to save lives? Join us!

Location: Remote within India. Preferably (but not necessarily) based in Pune/Bangalore, which allows for periodic in-person meetings with other team members.

Hours: Full-time

Travel: Once or twice in a quarter to work closely with program teams

Reports to: Head of Tech

Application deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the role will remain open until filled.

About Suvita

Suvita is an impact-driven, evidence-based nonprofit focused on increasing uptake of routine childhood vaccinations in India. Over 4 million children born every year still miss their basic vaccinations in India, leading to far too many vaccine-preventable deaths. We run two rigorously tested, complementary programmes:

SMS reminders: We send personalised SMS messages to caregivers to prompt timely attendance for vaccinations at government clinics.
Immunisation ambassadors: We identify and train local influencers to volunteer as advocates for vaccination with families in their communities.

Since our founding in 2019:

We reach one in ten children born in India through our SMS vaccination reminders. In partnership with the governments of Bihar and Maharashtra, we’ve reached more than 6 million families with routine immunisation SMS reminders and more than 4 million pregnant women with antenatal care-related SMS reminders.
We’ve enrolled almost 15,000 community influencers as local ambassadors in districts in Bihar and Maharashtra.
GiveWell estimates that our SMS reminders increase vaccination rates by approximately 2 percentage points at a current cost of $0.40 per child reached in Maharashtra and $1.71 per child reached in Bihar. The immunization ambassadors programme increases vaccination rates by around 7 percentage points and costs $1 to $2 per child reached.
We are running learning sprints to test our immunisation ambassador model.
We have been incubated and funded by sector leaders like The/Nudge Foundation, Ambitious Impact (formerly Charity Entrepreneurship), Mulago Foundation, GiveWell, D-Prize, Founders Pledge and Schmidt Futures.
We have appeared in Vox, Giving What We Can and the 80,000 Hours Podcast.

About the role

Suvita's tech stack is live, complex, and high-impact. PostgreSQL pipelines processing millions of beneficiary records, SurveyCTO integrations across field teams, Telerivet and WhatsApp messaging systems reaching 1.7 million families, Exotel-based IVRS flows, and dashboards used by leadership and funders every week.

The systems work. But there is real engineering work ahead to make them more robust, observable, and intelligent.

You will be the most hands-on senior engineer on the team. You will build and own systems end to end, set and maintain engineering standards, and be the person others rely on when something hard needs to be solved. You will work closely with the Head of Technology who will set direction and priorities. Your job is to execute on that direction with high technical quality.

Here are examples of real work you will handle:

ETL and pipelines: Our ETL pipelines are Python and cron based, processing data across SurveyCTO, PostgreSQL, Telerivet, and multiple external tools. Review the architecture, identify fragility and hardcoding, and redesign where needed to make them reliable and maintainable at scale.
Monitoring and observability: We have no comprehensive monitoring system today. Design and implement alerting across pipelines, AWS infrastructure, and messaging systems so failures are caught before they affect programs on the ground.
AI and chatbots: Build and deploy AI-powered tools including WhatsApp chatbots and IVRS flows, working with program teams to define the right logic and intervention design.
Infrastructure: Review and improve our AWS infrastructure across EC2, RDS, and S3. Identify cost inefficiencies, reliability gaps, and what needs to change as we expand to new states.
Engineering standards: Set and maintain code quality across the team. Own code reviews, architectural decisions, and documentation practices.
API integrations: Own and improve integrations with SurveyCTO, Telerivet, Exotel, WhatsApp, and government systems like RCH and U-WIN.

This role suits someone who is deeply hands-on, takes full ownership of systems, and can also zoom out to spot systemic problems before they become crises.

Why is this a brilliant opportunity?

This role offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact while advancing your technical skills and working with a dedicated and passionate team.

Impactful Work: Your contributions will directly save lives by improving vaccination outreach.
Skill Development: Gain hands-on experience with cloud, ETL pipelines, AI/ML, and reporting tools while continuously learning and growing.
Diverse Projects: Work on a variety of initiatives, from automation to AI, ensuring ongoing learning and experimentation with new tools and technologies.
Agile & Ownership-Driven: Fast decision-making with opportunities to take ownership of projects.
Collaborative Environment: Work in a values-driven, fun, supportive, and mission-focused team. We are a team with strong values and an energising and effective way of working.
Flexible Work Environment: Fully remote within India, with program-related travel.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for someone who loves engineering and is passionate about using technology to make a difference. Someone who takes full ownership of systems and does what it takes to get things done well.

Must Have Skills and Competencies:

Deep commitment to Suvita's mission and values, motivated by impact and practical solutions
High agency; takes full ownership, solves problems independently, and delivers without close supervision
6+ years of professional experience in backend systems and data infrastructure
Strong Python and SQL, comfortable building, maintaining, and reviewing ETL pipelines and backend systems end to end
Advanced knowledge of PostgreSQL, able to design complex data models and optimise queries
Hands-on AWS experience, EC2, RDS, S3, CloudWatch, comfortable managing, optimising, and debugging cloud infrastructure
Experience designing systems and APIs with reliability and maintainability in mind
Able to review code, catch architectural mistakes early, and explain clearly why something needs to change
Experience with Docker and containerised deployments
Familiar with monitoring and alerting tools such as CloudWatch, Prometheus, Grafana, Victoria Metrics or Sentry
Hands-on experience with AI, chatbots, or automation and genuine interest in applying them to real problems
Strong communicator with both engineers and non-technical teammates
Fluent in both English and Hindi for effective collaboration.

Good to Have Skills and Competencies:

Experience in public health, nonprofits, or social impact organisations
Familiarity with SurveyCTO, Telerivet, Exotel, or similar program delivery tools
Experience with WhatsApp chatbots or conversational AI
Knowledge of India's DPDP Act or data protection more broadly

How to Apply

You’ll first need to complete an automated assessment focused on SQL and a coding problem before accessing the application form.

Much of our work involves working with large datasets, backend pipelines, and real-world data issues. We believe that even in a leadership role, being comfortable with SQL and Python (or other coding languages) is important to work closely with the team and make strong technical decisions.

The assessment also supports multiple languages (including Python, JavaScript, Java, C, C++, PHP, Go, and TypeScript). However, given that most of our systems and pipelines are built in Python, familiarity with a coding language and SQL is strongly recommended.

This assessment is designed to evaluate how you think through practical data and backend problems, not just theoretical knowledge.

Please use a desktop or laptop to complete the assessment.
The assessment opens in fullscreen and should be completed in one go.
Expected Time to complete: 60-75 minutes
After you finish the assessment, the application form will unlock for you to submit your details.
Go to: Click here and enter your email ID to begin the process.

📌 Note:

Do not use ChatGPT or any AI tools to solve the challenge. We are looking for your original problem-solving skills.
We will track each submission as part of our evaluation process.

Please refer to this document for frequently asked questions.

If you have any questions or need more details before starting the process, please feel free to reach out to us at careers@suvita.org

All the best! 🚀