Senior Node.js Fullstack Software Engineer

Our client is UK-based Catholic charity focused on international development and fundraising - primarily raising money to support vulnerable communities 
(e.g. feeding children in Africa).

Main website is a Next.js Jamstack site (with some additional small apps, e.g. Shopify e- cards/donations). 
The customer is migrating its primary web presence from Contentful (SaaS) to a self-hosted Payload CMS on the Digital Ocean platform. 

Why We Are Moving to Payload CMS

• Cost Efficiency: We are eliminating annual licensing fees redirecting those funds into low-cost cloud infrastructure.
• Superior Editorial Experience: With Contentful retiring the 'Compose' app in January 2026, we are proactively moving to Payload to provide our editors with an improved editing experience.
• Ownership & Control: By moving to an open-source, self-hosted model, we eliminate vendor lock-in, own 100% of our data, and gain the flexibility to deeply integrate other internal tools.

Small in-house team:

• Project Manager - ex-front-end engineer
• 1 full-time front-end developer
•  CTO

• Interview process that respects people and their time
• Professional and open IT community
• Internal meet-ups and resources for knowledge sharing
• Time for recovery and relaxation
• Bright online and offline events
• Opportunity to become part of our internal volunteer community

We are seeking a seasoned Full-stack Developer to lead the technical execution of this migration, ensuring data integrity and a seamless transition for our content teams.

Main responsibilities:
• Lead migration from Contentful (GraphQL) to Payload CMS, focusing on Information Architecture (IA), component mapping, and automated data migration.
• Maintain & extend Next.js application (App Router, React Server Components, Tailwind)
• Implement/optimise Redis caching for App Platform deployment
• Technical Leadership: Act as the senior point of escalation for the front-end team, providing
architectural guidance and unblocking technical hurdles.
• Manage and optimize cloud infrastructure on Digital Ocean (transitioning from Kubernetes
cluster → App Platform + Redis for shared caching to simplify maintenance and enable
redundancy) and oversee CI/CD pipelines.
• Lead Code QA processes, ensuring high standards for performance, accessibility, and security.
• Handle occasional minor Ruby fixes when needed

Essential

• Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

• React and Next.js (modern versions, including App Router and React Server Components).

• Relational Databases: PostgreSQL.

• CI/CD: Experience configuring and maintaining CircleCI pipelines.

• Jest: Automated testing experience.

• Strong English - able to explain technical concepts clearly and work collaboratively with the client team

  Highly Valued

• GraphQL: Specifically for querying headless CMS schemas (experience migrating from GraphQL → local Payload API for faster builds).

• DevOps: Experience with Digital Ocean App Platform or Kubernetes.

• Contentful and/or Payload CMS migration.

  Desirable

• Storybook: Proficiency in UI development and documentation.

• Ruby on Rails: To support/integrate auxiliary applications.

• Search and E-commerce: Experience with Algolia and Shopify integrations.

• Proactive problem-solving mindset: comfortable researching and experimenting with unfamiliar challenges.