Volunteer for a startup breaking down tech barriers for social-good organizations! 💻✨

Making Biscuits Collective provides affordable digital services to non-profits and social-impact organizations through volunteer networks and flexible, sliding-scale pricing.

The Challenge: Non-profits and grassroots social-impact organizations face an immense financial barrier when trying to build essential digital infrastructure due to the exorbitant costs of traditional tech agencies. Commercial development, design, and product management services are frequently priced at inflated market rates that exploit resource-strapped teams. This economic gatekeeping forces "do-good" organizations to either compromise on the quality of their technology or divert critical funding away from their core community missions, ultimately widening the digital divide and limiting the real-world scale of social change.

The Solution: Making Biscuits Collective bridges this technological gap by assembling a dedicated network of skilled engineers, developers, designers, and product managers who deliver high-quality digital solutions through volunteerism and sliding-scale models. By matching premium technical expertise with flexible pricing, we ensure that modern digital tools are no longer a luxury reserved exclusively for high-budget corporations. Our collective framework empowers impact-driven organizations to optimize their software, elevate their brand design, and maximize their world-changing potential without facing financial exploitation.

Role (Volunteer, unpaid): Technical Lead / Software Architect.

Role Description: We're looking for a highly autonomous Technical Lead to drive architectural decisions and maintain code quality for our pro-bono non-profit projects. Currently, we are working with CultureHouse to build a data-heavy urban observation application.

Please note that all volunteer roles are Making Biscuits are structured around your availability. This role is for someone who wants to volunteer contributions to a large project over time on their own schedule, who is comfortable scoping their own work and goals, and enjoys collaborating with others.

About the Project

Observe is an urban planning application built in partnership with CultureHouse, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving livability in local communities by transforming underutilized spaces into vibrant social infrastructure.

Observe allows CultureHouse volunteers and staff to seamlessly record, edit, and view urban planning data tailored to their specific collection methods and visualizations. While we are currently building this for CultureHouse, our long-term vision is to scale and deploy Observe to multiple non-profits, multiplying its community impact.

About the Role

We are looking for a trusted, deeply experienced Frontend Architect / Tech Lead to take technical ownership of this platform. We are building Observe utilizing Next.js, TypeScript, and SCSS.

Because our leadership team is currently balancing multiple responsibilities, we need an engineering partner who can operate with near-total autonomy. You will be trusted to make sweeping architectural decisions, review pull requests, enforce engineering standards, and unblock junior developers without needing to wait for top-down approval.

What You'll Do

• Architect, scale, and optimize responsive user interfaces and data systems using Next.js and TypeScript.
• Lead code reviews, ensuring the codebase remains clean, performant, and accessible.
• Make rapid, independent technical decisions regarding state management, data fetching, and component architecture to keep the team moving.
• Act as a technical mentor for junior volunteer developers, providing guidance and answering complex infrastructure questions.
• Drive the implementation of inclusive design practices and high standards for web accessibility.

Who We're Looking For

• An expert with deep production-level experience in modern React, Next.js, TypeScript, and SCSS.
• A decisive engineer who is highly comfortable taking ownership of a codebase and making structural decisions independently.
• A collaborative leader who enjoys mentoring others and communicating technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Someone passionate about using technology for social good and community building.

Why Join?

• Make an Impact: Your technical architecture will directly help non-profits improve urban spaces and community livability.
• Showcase Your Leadership: Get your work out there. This is a chance to take absolute ownership of a live, scaling application that you can proudly showcase as a technical leadership achievement.
• Learn and Grow: Explore new frontend technologies, experiment with architecture, and mentor eager developers in a supportive environment.
• Join the Collective: Become a lasting part of the Making Biscuits Collective! Beyond this application, you can collaborate with us on future projects on a volunteer basis or step into paid contract roles as opportunities arise.

Time Commitment: Volunteer 4-6 hours per week for 6+ months remotely 💻

If you want to make change happen, apply to volunteer with Making Biscuits Collective now!