Senior Full-Stack Developer for Secure AI-Assisted OCR and Document Redaction Platform

I revised the description you posted to preserve the core platform, security, permanent-redaction, ownership, and discovery requirements while making it more suitable for a worldwide Upwork posting. This version reflects a global talent search , a fixed-price discovery phase , separate milestones, and a detailed requirements package shared only with shortlisted applicants. Upwork permits global job posts, fixed-price milestones, and separate NDAs; pre-contract communication should remain on Upwork. # Senior Full-Stack Developer for Secure AI-Assisted Document Redaction Platform ## Project Overview We are seeking an experienced senior full-stack developer, technical lead, or small coordinated development team to help design and eventually build a secure, AI-assisted document redaction and records-processing platform. Applicants may be located anywhere. However, all proposed team members, developers, specialists, and subcontractors must be identified before receiving access to the project. This is not a request for: * A basic website * A general chatbot * A simple PDF editor * A basic file-storage application * A public AI wrapper * An automated redaction tool without human review * An application that only places black boxes over visible text The platform will support a managed document-processing operation that receives electronic archives, scanned records, historical documents, and document backlogs from government agencies, regulated organizations, legal offices, businesses, and other clients. Authorized personnel will use the platform to: * Receive client documents securely * Organize records by client, project, batch, file, and page * Perform OCR and document-image processing * Classify documents and pages * Detect potentially protected or confidential information * Present suggested redactions to trained human reviewers * Require human validation of redactions * Conduct secondary quality-control review * Permanently redact and sanitize approved documents * Verify that removed information cannot be recovered * Generate reports, manifests, metadata, and delivery packages * Return completed files securely * Track retention and secure deletion * Produce audit reports and deletion certificates Accuracy, confidentiality, security, human validation, secondary quality control, permanent redaction, records integrity, and traceability are essential requirements. ## Location and Communication Requirements This is a worldwide opportunity. Applicants must: * Identify the country and time zone of every person who will work on the project * Disclose whether the work will be performed by an individual, agency, employees, partners, or subcontractors * Provide at least two hours of communication overlap with Pacific Time * Communicate clearly in English * Attend scheduled video meetings when required * Provide regular written progress updates * Obtain written approval before adding or replacing team members Development may be performed from any approved location. However, live client records and production document processing will remain in a company-controlled environment located in the United States. ## Initial Contract: Paid Discovery Phase The first contract will be a fixed-price discovery, requirements, architecture, and technical-planning engagement. The selected developer will not immediately build the complete production platform. The discovery phase will determine: * Functional requirements * Security requirements * User roles and permissions * Operational workflows * Recommended system architecture * Recommended technology stack * Database and file-storage design * OCR and image-processing approach * AI-assisted detection approach * Human-review workflow * Secondary quality-control workflow * Permanent-redaction methodology * Document-sanitization methodology * Audit-logging requirements * Reporting requirements * Development and production separation * Hosting and deployment architecture * Third-party tools and services * Licensing and recurring costs * Technical risks * Security risks * Proof-of-concept scope * Minimum viable product scope * Development milestones * Estimated schedule * Estimated development and operating costs After successful completion of discovery, the selected developer may be considered for additional milestones involving a technical proof of concept, minimum viable product, security testing, deployment, documentation, maintenance, and support. ## Hosting and Deployment The company does not currently plan to purchase physical server equipment. During discovery, the selected developer must recommend an appropriate company-controlled cloud, private-cloud, dedicated-hosting, or hybrid architecture based on: * Document volume * Page volume * File sizes * OCR requirements * AI-processing requirements * Storage requirements * Security requirements * Backup and disaster-recovery requirements * Client requirements * Expected future growth * Estimated operating costs Development should initially use a company-controlled cloud environment with separate development, testing, staging, and production configurations. All hosting accounts, domains, databases, storage resources, administrator accounts, credentials, encryption keys, source-code repositories, and production configurations must remain under company control. ## Required Platform Capabilities ### Secure Document Intake The platform should support: * Secure client and employee accounts * Individual and bulk document uploads * Large files and large document batches * SFTP or another secure transfer method * Upload progress and status reporting * File-format validation * Malware and virus scanning * Duplicate-file detection * File-integrity verification * Intake manifests * Project and batch identification * File and page inventories * Chain-of-custody tracking * Failed-upload reporting * Exception reporting * Configurable retention requirements ### Supported File Formats The system should support or be designed to support: * PDF * Searchable PDF * PDF/A * TIFF * JPEG * PNG * Microsoft Word files * OCR text * CSV * XML * JSON * Metadata files * Client-specific index and import files The architecture must allow additional document and output formats to be added later. ### OCR and Document-Image Processing Required or anticipated functions include: * OCR for scanned and image-based records * Preservation of page, line, word, and coordinate information * Page-orientation detection * Rotation and deskewing * Noise removal * Image enhancement * Blank-page detection * Searchable-text creation * OCR confidence scoring * Identification of unreadable or low-confidence pages * Manual OCR correction * Document classification * Page classification * Document separation * Document assembly * Batch processing * Reprocessing of failed or rejected files * Processing-status tracking Applicants should explain whether they recommend established OCR products, open-source OCR tools, private services, locally hosted technology, custom models, or a combination. ### AI-Assisted Protected-Information Detection The platform should assist trained reviewers with identifying protected, confidential, personal, or client-defined information, including: * Social Security numbers * Tax-identification numbers * Dates of birth * Driver’s license numbers * State-identification numbers * Passport numbers * Bank-account numbers * Credit-card information * Medical or health information * Signatures * Email addresses * Telephone numbers * Home addresses * Names of protected individuals * Information concerning minors * Legal case information * Property-record information * Client-defined names, words, phrases, patterns, fields, or page areas Detection methods may include: * Regular expressions * Pattern matching * Named-entity recognition * OCR coordinates * Document classification * Machine-learning models * Private AI services * Locally hosted models * Client-specific rules * Manual reviewer selections AI findings will be recommendations only. The system must not independently approve or finalize redactions. ### Configurable Client and Project Rules Administrators should be able to configure separate requirements based on: * Client * Agency * Project * Jurisdiction * Document type * Record series * Confidentiality category * Redaction category * Required output format * Quality-control level * Retention period * Delivery requirements The system should record which rule set and rule version were applied to each file. ## Human Review and Quality Control The platform must include a complete human-in-the-loop review process. Primary reviewers must be able to: * View the original document * View OCR text * Review AI-suggested redactions * Accept a suggested redaction * Reject a suggested redaction * Correct a suggested redaction * Resize or reposition a redaction area * Add a missed redaction * Assign a redaction reason or category * Add reviewer notes * Flag uncertain information * Escalate a document * Submit completed work for quality control Secondary quality-control reviewers must be able to: * Review the original file * Review proposed and approved redactions * Examine primary-review decisions * Approve completed work * Reject completed work * Return work for correction * Add quality-control findings * Escalate unresolved issues * Provide final approval Every action must be associated with the responsible user, date, time, project, batch, file, page, action, and result. The platform should also support: * Reviewer assignments * Supervisor review * Rework queues * Exception queues * Random quality-control sampling * Full quality-control review when required * Error categories * Corrective-action tracking * Reviewer accuracy reports * Productivity reports * Quality trends * Final completion approval ## Permanent Redaction and Document Sanitization The completed system must do more than place a visible rectangle or black box over information. Final processing must permanently remove or sanitize protected information from: * Visible page content * Underlying text * OCR text layers * Hidden objects * Hidden layers * Comments * Annotations * Form fields * Embedded attachments * Scripts and active content * Revision information * Document properties * Unapproved metadata * Thumbnail images * Temporary working files * Intermediate processing files * Other recoverable content The system should verify that protected information cannot be recovered by: * Copying and pasting * Selecting hidden text * Searching the completed file * Removing a visual overlay * Extracting the OCR text layer * Inspecting annotations * Opening embedded files * Reviewing metadata * Examining temporary or intermediate outputs The system must record redaction and sanitization validation results in the document’s audit history. ## Security and Data Boundary This engagement concerns software design and development. It does not include outsourced review or processing of live client records. The following requirements are mandatory: * Development and testing must use synthetic, simulated, or properly de-identified documents. * Developers will not have routine or unrestricted access to live client records. * Live records will remain in a company-controlled production environment. * Production document processing will occur in the United States. * Production databases, credentials, administrator accounts, encryption keys, and security configurations will remain under company control. * Development, testing, staging, and production environments must be separated. * Production records may not be copied into development or testing. * Client files may not be retained or used for demonstrations. * Project information may not be submitted to public consumer AI tools. * Client records may not be used to train public, private, commercial, personal, or developer-owned AI models. * Client information may not be retained by third-party services without prior written approval. * No work may be subcontracted without written approval. * No unidentified person may access the project. * Any exceptional production access must be approved, limited, time-restricted, monitored, logged, and capable of immediate termination. Applicants must identify every proposed external: * OCR service * AI service or model * PDF-processing service * Storage provider * Hosting provider * Logging or monitoring service * File-transfer service * Security service * Third-party library * Licensed software product The applicant must disclose the provider’s purpose, data flow, retention practices, licensing terms, and recurring costs. ## Application Security Requirements Required or anticipated controls include: * Role-based access * Least-privilege permissions * Multifactor authentication * Secure password controls * Encryption in transit * Encryption at rest * Secure secrets management * Secure encryption-key management * Session timeout controls * Account lockout protections * User activation and deactivation * Project-level access restrictions * Separation of client projects * Download restrictions * Access expiration * Administrative approval * Detailed audit logs * Security-event logging * Secure APIs * Input validation * File-integrity controls * Malware scanning * Backup and recovery * Retention controls * Secure deletion * Dependency scanning * Vulnerability scanning * Automated testing * Secure error handling * Production logging and monitoring Development should use recognized secure software-development practices capable of aligning with the NIST Secure Software Development Framework and using the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard as a basis for web-application security verification. ([NIST Computer Security Resource Center][2]) ## Audit Logging The platform should maintain detailed, meaningful, and tamper-resistant records of activities such as: * Login attempts * Authentication failures * Account changes * Permission changes * Document uploads * File validation * Document viewing * Reviewer assignments * Redaction decisions * Quality-control decisions * Administrative actions * File exports * Downloads * Deliveries * Retention changes * Deletion events * Security alerts * System errors Audit events should identify the user, date, time, affected client, project, batch, document, page, action, and outcome. ## Required Output Capabilities Depending on client requirements, the platform should be capable of producing: * Permanently redacted TIFF files * Searchable redacted PDFs * PDF/A files * OCR text files * Metadata files * CSV index files * XML index files * JSON index files * Client-specific import files * Batch manifests * File inventories * Exception reports * Redaction reports * Quality-control reports * Audit reports * Processing statistics * Chain-of-custody records * Secure-delivery confirmations * Retention reports * Deletion certificates ## Reporting and Dashboards The system should provide reports and dashboards showing: * Files and pages received * Files and pages processed * Processing status * OCR completion * OCR confidence * Documents awaiting review * Redactions proposed * Redactions accepted * Redactions rejected * Redactions corrected * Redactions manually added * Reviewer assignments * Reviewer productivity * Quality-control findings * Rework requirements * Error rates * Exception rates * Project completion percentage * Delivery status * Retention status * Deletion status * Estimated processing charges * Actual processing charges ## Future Integrations The architecture should permit future integration with: * Document-management systems * Records-management systems * Government records systems * Archival systems * Secure SFTP servers * Identity-management systems * Cloud-storage environments * Billing and accounting systems * Client databases * Records indexes * APIs * Secure web services The initial version does not need every future integration, but the architecture must support expansion. ## Preferred Experience Applicants should demonstrate relevant experience with several of the following: * Full-stack application development * Secure web-application development * Python * FastAPI or Django * React or Next.js * TypeScript * PostgreSQL * Redis * Background-processing queues * OCR * Computer vision * OpenCV * PDF processing * TIFF processing * Document classification * Named-entity recognition * Private AI models * Locally hosted AI models * Secure API development * Role-based authorization * Multifactor authentication * Audit logging * Secure file transfer * Docker * Cloud deployment * On-premises deployment * Automated testing * Vulnerability testing * Technical documentation General website, chatbot, or basic AI-wrapper experience alone is insufficient. ## Discovery-Phase Deliverables The first paid engagement should produce: 1. Functional-requirements specification 2. Security-requirements specification 3. User-role and permission matrix 4. Operational workflow diagrams 5. System-architecture diagram 6. Data-flow diagram 7. Preliminary database design 8. File-storage and processing design 9. OCR and document-processing recommendation 10. AI and protected-information detection recommendation 11. Permanent-redaction and sanitization design 12. Human-review and quality-control design 13. Audit-logging design 14. Environment-separation design 15. Hosting and deployment recommendation 16. Third-party technology list 17. Licensing and recurring-cost schedule 18. Technical-risk assessment 19. Security-risk assessment 20. Defined technical proof-of-concept scope 21. Defined minimum viable product scope 22. Milestone-based implementation plan 23. Estimated development schedule 24. Estimated proof-of-concept and MVP costs 25. Estimated ongoing hosting, maintenance, licensing, and support costs ## Potential Technical Proof of Concept Using synthetic documents, a later proof-of-concept milestone should demonstrate: * Secure document upload * OCR processing * Preservation of text coordinates * Identification of selected protected information * Human review of suggested redactions * Acceptance of a suggested redaction * Rejection of a suggested redaction * Correction of a suggested redaction * Manual addition of a missed redaction * Secondary quality-control review * Permanent redaction * Metadata sanitization * Redaction validation * Audit logging * Completed-file export ## Source-Code Ownership and Documentation The following requirements are mandatory: * The company must own all paid custom work product. * Source code must be stored in a private company-controlled repository. * Work must be committed regularly during development. * Completed source code may not be withheld until the end of the engagement. * Code must be readable, organized, tested, and maintainable. * Credentials and encryption keys may not be embedded in source code. * All open-source and third-party components must be disclosed. * All licensing, hosting, API, AI, OCR, maintenance, and recurring costs must be disclosed. * The developer may not reuse or resell confidential project materials. * The project may not be published in a portfolio without written approval. * Work may not be subcontracted without written approval. * Architecture, database, APIs, installation, configuration, deployment, security, administration, and maintenance procedures must be documented. * The completed system must be transferable to another qualified developer without requiring a complete rebuild. The selected applicant may be required to sign: * A nondisclosure agreement * A development or independent-contractor agreement * An intellectual-property and work-product assignment * A data-security and access agreement * A subcontractor disclosure ## Proposal Instructions Begin your proposal with: **SECURE DOCUMENT PLATFORM** Then address the following: 1. Identify your location, time zone, and available Pacific Time overlap. 2. State whether you personally perform the work. 3. Identify every person who would have access to the project. 4. Disclose all employees, partners, agencies, or subcontractors who may participate. 5. Describe your experience with OCR and scanned-document processing. 6. Describe your experience with PDF and TIFF processing. 7. Explain your experience with permanent redaction and metadata sanitization. 8. Describe a human-review or quality-control workflow you developed. 9. Explain how you would separate development, testing, staging, and production. 10. Explain how you would prevent unauthorized access to live production records. 11. Provide two relevant project examples and explain which portions you personally completed. 12. Identify your preliminary recommended technology stack. 13. Identify any OCR, AI, PDF, storage, hosting, or security products you would consider. 14. Confirm that source code can remain in a private repository controlled by the company. 15. Confirm that project information and records will not be used for AI training. 16. Confirm that you will not subcontract the work without written approval. 17. Provide a fixed-price estimate and timeline for the discovery phase. 18. Provide a preliminary cost range for the technical proof of concept. 19. State your weekly availability. 20. Describe your proposed milestone and payment structure. Please provide specific responses. Generic proposals will not be considered. ## Contract Structure The initial contract will be a fixed-price discovery phase with defined deliverables, deadlines, acceptance criteria, and milestone payments. Potential additional milestones may include: 1. Technical proof of concept 2. Core platform development 3. Human-review and quality-control functions 4. Reporting and administration 5. Security testing 6. Production preparation 7. Deployment and documentation 8. Maintenance and support Fixed-price milestones allow the project to be divided into defined portions of work with separate deliverables and payments. ([Upwork Support][3]) ## Selection and Next Steps Shortlisted applicants may be invited to: * Participate in an Upwork video interview * Explain a relevant OCR, document-processing, secure SaaS, or redaction project * Complete a small paid technical evaluation * Review and sign required agreements * Review the complete project-requirements package * Submit a final fixed-price discovery proposal A detailed project-requirements package will be provided through Upwork to shortlisted applicants. An NDA may be required before nonpublic business, workflow, architecture, or security information is shared. Cost is important, but the lowest proposal will not automatically be selected. Selection will consider: * Relevant document-processing experience * Permanent-redaction knowledge * Security awareness * Full-stack technical ability * Communication * Documentation * Reliability * Cost * Availability * Ability to preserve the platform’s purpose and requirements All pre-contract communication, interviews, file sharing, and negotiations must remain within Upwork. Do not include an outside email address, telephone number, or meeting link in the public posting.