Lead Software Engineer - Frontend (Remote)

DHIS2 is a web-based software platform for data collection, management, and analysis. Today, it is the world’s largest Health Information Management System (HMIS) platform, in use by ministries of health in 73 mostly low and middle-income countries. 2.4 billion people (30% of the world’s population) live in countries where DHIS2 is deployed. Including programs run by non-governmental organizations, DHIS2 is in use in more than 100 countries.

DHIS2 is a free and open source global public good with ample support from the likes of WHO, CDC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Vaccine Alliance, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and others. It is a general-purpose data collection and analytics platform used to manage routine health service delivery as well as interventions targeting COVID-19, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, maternal and child health, education, logistics, and more.

We are a well-funded not-for-profit project located at the HISP Centre at the University of Oslo (UiO), where we operate as an independent software development organization.

With us you get a chance to work on problems which really matter: Improving the health and well-being of people around the world through access and use of information. We give you a lot of flexibility and freedom and there is no micro-management or strict hierarchies. At DHIS2 we believe you will do your best work if you fully understand the context in which the system operates. As a result you are encouraged to engage directly with our projects, take part in the design process and get feedback from users in the field. If you like traveling there will be opportunities to go to other continents and be part of requirement meetings and workshops.

DHIS2 is hiring an experienced Lead Engineer for our global frontend engineering team. This is a full-time position, with the option to work remotely or from Oslo, Norway. Join us to be part of an open-source digital health project with worldwide impact.

About this role

This is a leadership position in the DHIS2 core development team, involving both technical and team leadership. As lead engineer you will help to nurture a growing team of capable, dedicated engineers working to build a world-class platform and improve healthcare at a global scale. DHIS2 is currently deployed at scale in almost half of the countries in the world, giving the opportunity to make an outsized impact.

At DHIS2 you will be part of the software design process and have great influence on the end product. We give you the vision and the challenge — you have the freedom to choose your own approach to problem solving. And of course, you can pick your hardware, tools and IDE. Our front-end is built with modern frameworks including React and Redux, and we maintain a powerful developer toolchain (called the application platform) which is used both internally and externally by DHIS2 application developers.

DHIS2 has been built API-first with an extensible app architecture. We continuously deliver our applications and have short development iterations. You can find our source code on GitHub (github.com/dhis2) and learn more about the technology we use to provide a scalable platform to a global developer community at developers.dhis2.org.

What you’ll do

There are two components to this role: Frontend architecture technical leadership and engineering team management and. Note: If only one of these roles fit you, we may be able to split the position.

Frontend architecture technical leadership

• Work with software tech leads to develop and improve the technical architecture of DHIS2 frontend applications.
• Co-develop complex frontend applications with developer teams.
• Identify and implement shared libraries, development tools and processes.

Engineering team management

• Team management (coordination, professional development).
• Task distribution (backlog management, team role assignments).
• Work closely with product managers and other stakeholders.
• Liaise between technical team and management to manage expectations.
• Perform technical level of effort estimations.
• Lead development sprints and coordinate releases.

• Passionate about working on a meaningful, impactful, and challenging global project.
• 6+ years of experience building rich, performant, and scalable web applications.
• 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams.
• Strong skills in technical writing and communication.
• Expert knowledge of Javascript.
• Expert knowledge of web technologies (HTML/CSS).
• Strong experience with and deep understanding of React or similar frameworks.
• Experience designing system architecture for platform systems.
• Strong experience working with REST Web APIs and JSON.
• Experience building technology for low-resource settings is a plus, but not required.
• Experience in public health and international development is a plus, but not required.

Location and Employment Details

You can work remotely or from our office in Oslo, Norway. If working remotely, we strongly prefer candidates who can have at least 4 hours of overlap with Central European Time Zone working hours.

This is a full-time position on an annual renewable contract. We are focused on building long-term contract relationships. Our contracts support flexible work arrangements, and we offer the option to renew for longer contract periods over time.