Full Stack Web Developer

About the Role

Candlelight Foundation for Children with Special Needs, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering children diagnosed with Autism, Dyslexia, and ADHD, is seeking a talented Full Stack Web Developer to join its engineering team. This is a hands-on role for a self-driven developer who takes ownership of their work and has a proven track record of shipping real products to production, contributing to a live, consumer-facing social community platform built primarily with Next.js.

• Build and maintain performant, responsive UI components using Next.js and React.
• Implement and manage rendering strategies (SSR, SSG, ISR) appropriate to each feature.
• Ensure consistent, accessible, and high-quality user experiences across devices.
• Optimise for Core Web Vitals and real-world performance metrics.
• Develop and maintain RESTful or GraphQL APIs to support frontend features.
• Integrate with databases such as MongoDB or PostgreSQL and third-party services.
• Handle authentication, session management, and secure user data practices.
• Manage environment variables, secrets, and configuration across environments.
• Deploy and maintain applications on VPS environments (Hostinger, DigitalOcean, AWS) or modern cloud platforms.
• Configure and manage Nginx, PM2, and Docker as part of deployment workflows.
• Support staging and production environment management.
• Participate in code reviews and maintain deployment best practices.
• Collaborate closely with design and product teams to translate requirements into working features.
• Identify and communicate technical risks early and proactively.
• Produce clean, maintainable code and contribute to technical documentation.

• 2+ years of professional experience in web development with live, production-facing applications.
• Strong, demonstrable experience with Next.js (non-negotiable).
• Proficiency in React.js and modern JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Solid understanding of CSS, responsive design, and component architecture.
• Backend development experience, Node.js preferred.
• Database experience with MongoDB or a relational alternative.
• Experience deploying to and managing VPS or cloud hosting environments.
• Familiarity with Nginx, PM2, and Docker in a production context.
• Proficient in Git-based workflows and collaborative development practices.
• Ability to work independently and deliver features end-to-end with minimal supervision.
• Nice to have: experience building social, community, or marketplace platforms.
• Nice to have: familiarity with real-time features (WebSockets, SSE, push notifications).
• Nice to have: experience with Firebase (Auth, Storage, or Firestore).
• Nice to have: knowledge of Next.js-specific performance optimisation techniques.
• Nice to have: experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment workflows.
• Nice to have: exposure to monitoring and error tracking tools such as Sentry or UptimeRobot.

• Opportunity to contribute to a meaningful cause supporting children with special needs.
• Autonomous, ownership-driven work environment.
• Exposure to full stack development on a live, growing platform.
• Collaborative team culture with direct impact on product direction.

Skills