Lead Engineer MERLx

MERLx (MERLx.org) is a small Spain-based analytics studio building AI-native tools for monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) in the development and humanitarian sector. Our users are M&E and programme teams at NGOs, UN agencies and donors who need to make sense of messy field data, evidence and reporting quickly, and who need to be able to trust what the tools tell them. I am looking for a lead engineer to take ownership of the technical side of the product suite: PRISM, IRIS, Simulation Lab, Rapport and a Theory of Change tester, alongside a learning platform for MERL practitioners. I lead product, domain and design direction. You would own architecture, build and delivery. HOW THIS ENGAGEMENT WORKS This post is deliberately scoped as a short first engagement of under a month so we can test the fit before committing to something longer. In that window I would expect you to get across the current codebase and architecture, agree a technical roadmap with me, and ship one well-defined feature or component end to end. If it works for both of us, the intent is an ongoing lead role across the whole suite. WHAT YOU WOULD WORK ON - Python backends with LLM pipelines, RAG and agent workflows, built so that outputs are traceable and sector-specific facts are flagged for human verification rather than generated with false confidence - React/TypeScript front-ends for data-heavy interfaces, implemented against an existing token-based design system - AWS deployment and data pipelines, kept simple and cost-aware for a small studio - Data and geospatial work with public sector datasets such as HDX, ACLED, DHS and Earth Engine, feeding analytics, simulations and dashboards WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR - You have shipped production LLM/RAG systems, not just prototypes, and you know where they break - Strong Python and solid TypeScript/React, comfortable owning both ends of the stack - You can make architecture decisions and explain them plainly to a product owner who is a data scientist, not a software engineer - You work well asynchronously with a small team, communicate clearly in writing and do not need much hand-holding - Interest in the humanitarian and development sector is a plus. Domain knowledge is not required; I will bring that. TO APPLY Tell me briefly about one LLM or data product you took from idea to production, what you would do differently now, and your availability over the next month.