Data Adviser
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
Berlin
Germany
September 15, 2026
Full-timeSeptember 15, 2026
Job Description
Job Posting Organization:
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, dedicated to saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build pathways to peace, stability, and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impacts of climate change. Established in 1961, WFP operates in over 80 countries and employs around 20,000 people, most of whom work in remote areas directly serving the hungry poor. WFP is committed to diversity and equal employment opportunities, encouraging qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, recognizing its efforts to combat hunger and promote security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">food security globally. WFP's mission is to reach a world with zero hunger, and it actively invests in private sector fundraising and partnerships to mobilize resources and innovative solutions to fulfill this mission. The ShareTheMeal app, launched in 2015, is a key initiative that allows individuals to contribute to WFP's efforts in combating hunger, with over 1.9 million users having shared more than 290 million meals to date.
Job Overview:
The Lead Backend Specialist will serve as the technical leader for ShareTheMeal's backend engineering function, responsible for defining and executing the technology strategy that will enable the organization to scale from 1.9 million to over 10 million users. This role is crucial in maintaining exceptional user experience and operational efficiency, impacting an annual revenue of $30 million USD. The successful candidate will lead the backend engineering vision, aligning it with ShareTheMeal's growth objectives and WFP's mission to achieve zero hunger. The position requires a strong focus on building a high-performing backend engineering organization capable of rapid, high-quality delivery, while also driving engineering quality and technical sustainability. The Lead Backend Specialist will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless delivery of user-facing features and will be responsible for establishing engineering culture and best practices that become organizational standards.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Required Qualifications:
Education: A university degree in computer science or a related field is required. Work History: At least 5 years of experience in developing backend solutions designed to serve millions of active mobile app users. Soft Skills: Strong analytical abilities, both quantitative and qualitative. Ability to make technical decisions that balance platform-specific needs with cross-platform efficiency. Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex mobile issues. Ability to interact with managers and stakeholders with maturity and tact. Mature judgment with strong interpersonal skills. Collaborative spirit able to work effectively across diverse teams and cultures. Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy. Adaptability to rapidly evolving mobile technology landscape. Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the World Food Programme. Hard Skills: Proficiency in node.js and modern backend development patterns. Strong knowledge of TypeScript. Experience with observability best practices. Experience with architecture patterns (Clean Architecture, Domain Driven Design). Knowledge of unit testing, end-to-end, and test-driven development. Expert understanding of app performance optimization techniques. Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes. Familiarity with analytics, crash reporting, and monitoring tools. Experience with agile development processes and cross-functional team collaboration.
Educational Background:
A university degree in computer science or a related field is essential for this position, ensuring that the candidate has a solid foundation in the principles of software development and engineering practices. This educational background is critical for understanding complex backend systems and for leading a team of engineers effectively.
Experience:
The position requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in developing backend solutions that are designed to serve millions of active mobile app users. This level of experience is necessary to ensure that the candidate has the requisite skills and knowledge to lead the backend engineering function effectively, particularly in a high-growth environment where scalability and performance are paramount.
Languages:
The mandatory language requirement for this position is an excellent command of spoken and written English. Additionally, having intermediate knowledge of another official UN language such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish would be considered a plus, enhancing the candidate's ability to communicate in a diverse and multicultural environment.
Additional Notes:
The contract type for this position is CST-1, which is a short-term, regular consultant role with a duration of 11 months. The position is remote, allowing for flexibility in work location. The Lead Backend Specialist will report to the Head of Software Engineering and will be expected to contribute significantly to the ShareTheMeal initiative, which is a key part of WFP's strategy to mobilize resources for combating hunger. The role offers an attractive compensation package, details of which can be found in the Terms and Conditions section of the vacancy announcement. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment and supports individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, dedicated to saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build pathways to peace, stability, and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impacts of climate change. Established in 1961, WFP operates in over 80 countries and employs around 20,000 people, most of whom work in remote areas directly serving the hungry poor. WFP is committed to diversity and equal employment opportunities, encouraging qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, recognizing its efforts to combat hunger and promote security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">food security globally. WFP's mission is to reach a world with zero hunger, and it actively invests in private sector fundraising and partnerships to mobilize resources and innovative solutions to fulfill this mission. The ShareTheMeal app, launched in 2015, is a key initiative that allows individuals to contribute to WFP's efforts in combating hunger, with over 1.9 million users having shared more than 290 million meals to date.
Job Overview:
The Lead Backend Specialist will serve as the technical leader for ShareTheMeal's backend engineering function, responsible for defining and executing the technology strategy that will enable the organization to scale from 1.9 million to over 10 million users. This role is crucial in maintaining exceptional user experience and operational efficiency, impacting an annual revenue of $30 million USD. The successful candidate will lead the backend engineering vision, aligning it with ShareTheMeal's growth objectives and WFP's mission to achieve zero hunger. The position requires a strong focus on building a high-performing backend engineering organization capable of rapid, high-quality delivery, while also driving engineering quality and technical sustainability. The Lead Backend Specialist will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless delivery of user-facing features and will be responsible for establishing engineering culture and best practices that become organizational standards.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Lead Technical Strategy for Backend: Own the backend engineering vision and multi-year technical roadmap, aligning with ShareTheMeal's growth objectives and WFP's mission. Define architecture standards across Backend, Admin, and Infrastructure, ensuring scalability to support 10M+ active users. Establish engineering metrics and SLOs that drive measurable improvements in performance, reliability, and user satisfaction. Drive hiring of key positions and growth of the team. Represent backend engineering in cross-functional leadership forums, influencing product strategy and organizational technical decisions.
- Build and Lead a High-Performing Backend Engineering Organization: Drive architectural decisions with clear rationale, creating decision frameworks that enable the team to move quickly while maintaining quality. Continuously optimize team velocity and engineering effectiveness, eliminating blockers and establishing processes that scale with team growth. Hold regular 1:1's with all direct reports. Develop engineering talent through structured mentorship. Own the technical roadmap, translating business objectives into quarterly engineering initiatives with clear success metrics. Lead drafting of KPIs and SLOs and project initiatives. Establish engineering culture and best practices for code quality, testing, and operational excellence. Build cross-functional partnerships with Product, Design, Mobile, and Data teams to ensure seamless delivery of user-facing features. Spearhead the design of scalable architectures for Android, iOS, and QA platforms.
- Drive Engineering Quality and Technical Sustainability: Own the engineering quality strategy, balancing feature velocity with technical health through data-driven prioritization. Lead technical debt reduction initiatives that measurably improve system maintainability. Establish quality gates and engineering standards that prevent quality erosion. Champion engineering investments in tooling, automation, and infrastructure that multiply team effectiveness. Conduct code reviews and assessments.
- Research, Plan and Facilitate Improvement of Product Quality, Security, and Performance: Design, implement and maintain Backend solutions for ShareTheMeal. Design and implement test automation systems with the QA team. Conduct code reviews and assessments.
- Document architecture/code decisions and APIs. Deliverables at the end of the contract include delivering product features and tech initiatives across Backend, Admin, and Infra platforms, along with documentation and handover to the Head of Software Engineering.
Required Qualifications:
Education: A university degree in computer science or a related field is required. Work History: At least 5 years of experience in developing backend solutions designed to serve millions of active mobile app users. Soft Skills: Strong analytical abilities, both quantitative and qualitative. Ability to make technical decisions that balance platform-specific needs with cross-platform efficiency. Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex mobile issues. Ability to interact with managers and stakeholders with maturity and tact. Mature judgment with strong interpersonal skills. Collaborative spirit able to work effectively across diverse teams and cultures. Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy. Adaptability to rapidly evolving mobile technology landscape. Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the World Food Programme. Hard Skills: Proficiency in node.js and modern backend development patterns. Strong knowledge of TypeScript. Experience with observability best practices. Experience with architecture patterns (Clean Architecture, Domain Driven Design). Knowledge of unit testing, end-to-end, and test-driven development. Expert understanding of app performance optimization techniques. Experience with CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes. Familiarity with analytics, crash reporting, and monitoring tools. Experience with agile development processes and cross-functional team collaboration.
Educational Background:
A university degree in computer science or a related field is essential for this position, ensuring that the candidate has a solid foundation in the principles of software development and engineering practices. This educational background is critical for understanding complex backend systems and for leading a team of engineers effectively.
Experience:
The position requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in developing backend solutions that are designed to serve millions of active mobile app users. This level of experience is necessary to ensure that the candidate has the requisite skills and knowledge to lead the backend engineering function effectively, particularly in a high-growth environment where scalability and performance are paramount.
Languages:
The mandatory language requirement for this position is an excellent command of spoken and written English. Additionally, having intermediate knowledge of another official UN language such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish would be considered a plus, enhancing the candidate's ability to communicate in a diverse and multicultural environment.
Additional Notes:
The contract type for this position is CST-1, which is a short-term, regular consultant role with a duration of 11 months. The position is remote, allowing for flexibility in work location. The Lead Backend Specialist will report to the Head of Software Engineering and will be expected to contribute significantly to the ShareTheMeal initiative, which is a key part of WFP's strategy to mobilize resources for combating hunger. The role offers an attractive compensation package, details of which can be found in the Terms and Conditions section of the vacancy announcement. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment and supports individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.
Info
Job Posting Disclaimer
This job posting is provided for informational purposes only. The accuracy of the job description, qualifications, and other details mentioned is the sole responsibility of the employer or the organization listing the job. We do not guarantee the validity or legitimacy of this job posting. Candidates are advised to conduct their own due diligence and verify the details directly with the employer before applying.
We are not liable for any decisions or actions taken by applicants in response to this job listing. By applying, you agree that all application processes, interviews, and potential job offers are managed exclusively by the listed employer or organization.
Beware of fraudulent job offers. Do not provide sensitive personal information or make any payments to secure a job.
We are not liable for any decisions or actions taken by applicants in response to this job listing. By applying, you agree that all application processes, interviews, and potential job offers are managed exclusively by the listed employer or organization.
Beware of fraudulent job offers. Do not provide sensitive personal information or make any payments to secure a job.