Senior Program Associate - Software engineer

Note: This position is open across Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Remote

About Us

WRI India, an independent knowledge organization registered as India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. Know more: wri-india.org

Overview

WRI India Programs work with governments, businesses, civil society, and on-ground organisations to develop strategies and digital tools that build community resilience, and bridge capacity gaps. WRI India's technology work is part of a broader commitment to open-source, interoperable Products — building tools that are publicly accessible, standards-compliant, and scalable to national and subnational use.

Job Highlight

WRI India is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead the design, architecture, and delivery of open-source digital products across Programs such as Food, Land, Water, Energy, and Mobility. You will own critical architectural decisions for web-based geospatial tools and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), working across WRI India's programs and with government, civil society, and research partners. This role demands technical depth, systems thinking, and the ability to translate complex environmental data into scalable, interoperable, and publicly accessible platforms.

What You Will Do

I.  Architecture, design, and technical leadership  (35%)

• Own end-to-end technical architecture for WRI India's digital platforms, including web-based geospatial applications, data APIs, and open-source DPI components.
• Define and enforce engineering standards, coding conventions, CI/CD practices, and security protocols across the software stack.
• Lead architectural decision-making for new products — evaluating open-source frameworks (GeoServer, PostGIS, QGIS, OpenLayers, Maplibre GL, STAC), cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP), and interoperability standards.
• Design for scale, resilience, and openness — ensuring platforms adhere to open data standards, API-first principles, and DPI design tenets (interoperability, minimalism, reusability).
• Conduct design reviews, set up peer review processes, and ensure technical debt is proactively managed.
• Evaluate and integrate AI/ML tools — including LLM APIs, geospatial AI models (e.g., SAM, Earth Engine ML), and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines — into WRI India platforms.

II.  Platform development and engineering  (30%)

• Build and maintain full-stack web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (React, Next.js, or Vue.js) with Python or Node.js backends.
• Develop and manage geospatial data pipelines — ingesting, processing, and serving spatial data using tools such as PostGIS, GDAL, GeoPandas, GeoServer, and Tile servers (Martin, TiTiler).
• Build RESTful and GraphQL APIs that expose geospatial and environmental datasets to external stakeholders, government systems, and partner platforms.
• Integrate with open DPI ecosystems — including ABDM, ONDC, DIGIT, and state-level data platforms — to ensure WRI India's tools are interoperable with India's national digital infrastructure.
• Implement robust testing, monitoring, and observability practices to ensure reliability and performance of production systems.
• Manage infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes) for deploying and scaling platforms on cloud environments.

III.  Research technology and AI integration  (20%)

• Collaborate with researchers and program teams to translate data and analytical needs into functional digital products — dashboards, monitoring tools, and decision-support platforms.
• Build AI-assisted research tools — including LLM-powered document analysis, satellite imagery interpretation pipelines, and automated data extraction workflows.
• Implement and manage data workflows using Google Earth Engine, Sentinel Hub, or equivalent cloud geospatial platforms.
• Develop and maintain data catalogues and open data portals following DCAT, STAC, and OGC API standards.
• Contribute to WRI India's internal technical knowledge base, including documentation, runbooks, and reusable component libraries.

IV.  Stakeholder engagement and partnerships  (15%)

• Engage with government agencies, urban local bodies, and national institutions (e.g., NICSI, NIC, MoEFCC, NRSC) to align platform architectures with public sector digital requirements.
• Represent WRI India in technical working groups, open-source communities, and DPI forums.
• Mentor Grade 3 engineers and interns, conducting code reviews and supporting professional growth.
• Collaborate with WRI Global Data Lab and international teams to align tools with global WRI platforms such as Global Forest Watch and Resource Watch.
• Contribute to grant proposals, technical annexures, and partner presentations requiring software engineering expertise.

What You Will Need

Qualifications and experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Geoinformatics, or a related technical field.
• 4+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead role.
• Demonstrated experience making architectural decisions for production-grade, full-stack web applications.
• Strong proficiency in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript; experience with React or Next.js, Node.js, and FastAPI or Django.
• Deep expertise in geospatial technologies: PostGIS, GDAL, GeoServer, Maplibre GL, OpenLayers, QGIS, and OGC API standards.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with India's DPI ecosystem — ABDM, ONDC, DIGIT, DPDP Act — and open data standards (DCAT, STAC, OGC).
• Experience integrating AI/ML tools including LLM APIs, Earth Engine ML models, or geospatial AI pipelines.
• Proven track record of mentoring engineers and leading technical teams in cross-functional settings.
• Experience working on open-source projects; GitHub contributions are a plus.
• Experience with government or public sector digital systems is strongly preferred.
• Prior work in environmental, sustainability, or development-sector organisations is desirable.

Technology stack

Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Next.js, FastAPI/Django, Node.js, PostGIS, GeoServer, GDAL, Maplibre GL, OpenLayers, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP, Terraform, LangChain, LlamaIndex, STAC, OGC API, GitHub Actions

Potential Salary and Benefits: INR 14,00,000 to 17,50,000 per annum
Salary shall be commensurate with experience, skills and internal parity. WRI India offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package.
Location: Mumbai/New Delhi/Bangalore/ Remote
Duration: 1 year (Extendable based on performance and project requirements)
Start date: As soon as Possible
List of Documents to be attached:
• Cover Letter
• Resume

How to Apply

Qualified applicants should apply online at www.wri.org/careers. All applications must be submitted online through this career portal in order to be formally considered. Only select applicants will be contacted for interview. There will be a writing test conducted with final candidates. Please do not contact program staff directly for this position.

Kindly note that WRI India’s recruitment process does not involve any payment at any stage. Applicants will never be asked to share bank account or financial information as part of the application. All official communication and offer letters are issued only through authorised WRI India email IDs.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India

WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.

Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here

People-centric to the core:

We keep our people at the center of everything we do - from a welcoming work environment to benefits and a culture that encourages staff to stay healthy, happy, engaged, and growing.

Some of the non-monetary benefits that our staff get:

Health benefits: We cover health insurance for you and your loved ones for up to INR 8 lakhs

Term Insurance: Our term insurance policy covers life coverage of 50 lakhs per staff member

Employee Assistance program: Promoting mental well-being and supporting staff in achieving a satisfying work-life balance

Health & Nutrition: Personalized diet recommendation from a certified dietitian based on the physical health condition and lifestyle

Flexible work schedule: Alternative work arrangements for all who are eligible by nature of their job

Learning culture: Workshops and trainings to empower staff, encourage new learning opportunities

Rest and Recharge weeks: We encourage staff to take time off to rest, rejuvenate, upskill, and pursue their interests.

Our leave policy: Avail personal time off at 36 per year, along with public holidays, maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves.

Click here to know more about our benefits Careers | WRI INDIA (wri-india.org)

Equal employment @WRI India

We believe in equal employment, it is our policy to recruit and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to caste, religion, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability.