Product Engineer

ABOUT RETHINK FOOD

Rethink Food is a chef-led nonprofit building a better food system. We work with restaurants, community-based organizations, funders, government partners, healthcare organizations, and our own Sustainable Community Kitchen to provide high-quality meals while supporting local small businesses and creating jobs.

Our work is operationally complex. Meals are planned, funded, produced, delivered, verified, reported, reimbursed, and measured across many partners and systems. Today, too much of that work still happens through spreadsheets, email, manual follow-up, and disconnected tools.

We are looking for a product-minded engineer who can help turn that complexity into simple, useful software.

THE ROLE

Rethink Food is hiring a Product Engineer, Internal Tools & Automation to build practical tools that make our teams faster, clearer, and more effective.

This role is for someone who loves solving messy real-world problems. You will sit close to operators, program teams, finance, development, and leadership to understand where work is breaking down, then build tools that fix it.

You may build a dashboard in the morning, automate a reporting workflow in the afternoon, and spend time with the kitchen team the next day understanding why a process does not match what is in the spreadsheet.

This is not a traditional corporate software role. It is not an IT help desk role. It is not a research role. It is a hands-on product engineering role for someone who wants to ship useful tools quickly and see them used in the real world.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

Internal Tools That Replace Manual Work

Build lightweight products that reduce repetitive work across Rethink Food.

Examples include:
• Intake forms and workflows for community meal requests.
• Tools for tracking meal counts, deliveries, partner needs, and exceptions.
• Internal dashboards for operations, finance, programs, and development.
• Approval flows for new partners, vendors, restaurants, and programs.
• Simple admin panels that allow nontechnical staff to update records safely.
• Tools that turn messy spreadsheets into structured, reliable data.
• Automated reminders, alerts, and follow-ups for missing information.

The goal is to help teams stop chasing information and start acting on it.

Reporting and Dashboard Products

Help build practical reporting tools that answer questions like:
• How many meals did we produce and deliver this week?
• Which programs are on track or off track?
• Which partners need follow-up?
• Where are we missing meal counts, invoices, delivery confirmations, or feedback?
• Which contracts or programs are over budget?
• What changed since last week?
• What needs attention today?

These tools should be simple, fast, and trusted by the people using them.

AI-Assisted Workflows

Use AI to help staff move faster, especially when information is trapped in emails, documents, forms, PDFs, and spreadsheets.

Examples may include:
• Extracting key details from partner emails.
• Summarizing delivery issues or program updates.
• Drafting recurring internal reports.
• Turning meeting notes into tasks.
• Flagging missing information before it becomes a problem.
• Searching internal documents and program history.
• Creating human-reviewed automations for intake, reconciliation, and follow-up.

The focus is practical AI: tools that save time, reduce errors, and make work easier.

Data Cleanup and Integrations

Help connect and clean up information across systems such as:
• BigQuery.
• HubSpot.
• Google Sheets.
• Google Drive.
• Slack.
• Finance and accounting tools.
• Existing Rethink portals.
• Partner and program spreadsheets.

You will help make Rethink's data easier to understand, easier to trust, and easier to use.

WHAT YOU WILL DO
• Build full-stack internal products from idea to launch.
• Create clean, usable interfaces for nontechnical users.
• Build backend services, APIs, scripts, automations, and integrations.
• Work with messy operational data and turn it into reliable workflows.
• Spend time with the actual users of your tools before and after launch.
• Prototype quickly, test with users, and improve based on feedback.
• Automate manual reporting and reconciliation processes.
• Create alerts and exception reports that help teams act faster.
• Maintain and improve existing tools.
• Write clear documentation so others can understand and support what you build.
• Collaborate with outside developers, vendors, and consultants when needed.
• Communicate clearly with nontechnical colleagues about progress, tradeoffs, and blockers.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

In the First 90 Days

You have learned how core Rethink workflows actually operate. You have met with users across operations, programs, finance, and development. You have shipped at least one useful tool, dashboard, automation, or workflow improvement that saves staff time or improves data quality.

In Six Months

Multiple teams are using tools you built. At least two recurring manual processes have been automated or substantially simplified. Rethink has better visibility into meals, partners, exceptions, and reporting needs. Staff trust you because you listen, build quickly, and improve what you ship.

In Twelve Months

Rethink has a stronger internal product layer. Teams rely less on disconnected spreadsheets and manual follow-up. Leadership can see key operational information faster. Program and kitchen teams have tools that make daily work easier. You have helped create the foundation for a more scalable Rethink operating system.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
• Approximately 3-7 years of software engineering experience, or equivalent evidence of strong ability.
• Experience building full-stack web applications.
• Strong skills in modern frontend development, especially React, Next.js, or similar frameworks.
• Backend experience with Node.js, Python, or similar technologies.
• Strong working knowledge of SQL and relational databases.
• Experience working with APIs, webhooks, third-party tools, and data integrations.
• Comfort building dashboards, admin tools, forms, workflows, and internal products.
• Ability to work with messy spreadsheets, incomplete data, and unclear processes.
• Strong product instincts and empathy for busy nontechnical users.
• Ability to ship simple, useful products without overcomplicating them.
• Clear communication and strong follow-through.
• Curiosity, humility, and comfort working in a fast-moving environment.

HELPFUL EXPERIENCE

Any of the following would be valuable:
• Internal tools, operations software, or workflow automation.
• AI-enabled products or LLM APIs.
• Google Sheets, Apps Script, BigQuery, HubSpot, or Retool-style tools.
• Data dashboards and operational reporting.
• Restaurant, logistics, food, nonprofit, healthcare, or government-contracting environments.
• Mobile-friendly products for frontline workers.
• Early-stage startups or small teams where you had to build across the stack.

THIS ROLE IS A GOOD FIT IF YOU
• Like building useful things more than talking about building useful things.
• Are comfortable starting with a messy process and making it better step by step.
• Enjoy sitting with users and watching how they actually work.
• Can build a scrappy version quickly, then harden it once it proves useful.
• Care about clean user experience, not just clean code.
• Want to work on technology that connects directly to meals, communities, small businesses, and public impact.
• Are excited by the idea of helping a nonprofit become much more technically capable.

THIS ROLE IS PROBABLY NOT A FIT IF YOU
• You only want to work on large-scale consumer software.
• You need perfectly defined product specs before starting.
• You prefer architecture discussions over shipping.
• You do not enjoy working with nontechnical users.
• You are uncomfortable with messy data, legacy spreadsheets, and operational ambiguity.
• You want a purely remote role with no connection to the physical operation.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The salary range for this position is $125,000-$175,000 annually.

The final offer will depend on experience, technical strength, product judgment, and ability to independently ship useful tools.

We also offer a complete benefits package including medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, PTO, paid holidays, two weeks per year for an organization-wide office closure to recharge, a retirement plan with employer match, a progressive parental leave plan, and free nutritious lunch everyday!


HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your résumé or LinkedIn profile, and links to any relevant products, GitHub work, demos, dashboards, automations, or tools you have built.

Please also answer briefly:

Tell us about one internal tool, automation, dashboard, or workflow you built. What problem did it solve, who used it, and what changed after it launched?

EEO STATEMENT

Rethink Food is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender (including gender identity or expression), pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, marital status, domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking victim status, ancestry, national origin, alienage or citizenship, age, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, or other protected status. The organization is an Equal Opportunity Employer, drug-free workplace, and complies with ADA regulations as applicable.