Technical Project Co-lead - Multilingual Climate Chatbot

VOLUNTEER ROLE DESCRIPTION Climate Resilient Communities

Role Title Technical Project Co-lead

Function Multilingual Climate Chatbot

Reports To Strategic Lead

Role Level Senior/Leadership

Time Commitment 7–10 hours per week

Start Date March 2, 2026

Duration Ongoing

Check-in Frequency Biweekly meetings

About Climate Resilient Communities Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) is a volunteer-run not-for-profit operating under Transition Toronto. We work at the intersection of community, data & AI, and climate change to strengthen communities' capacity to bounce forward from climate challenges. Our mission is to help community groups effectively advocate for their needs and find solutions to environmental, social, and economic challenges exacerbated by changing climate. Learn more at https://crc.place.

Role Purpose The Technical Project Lead will lead the technical design and delivery of the Multilingual Climate Chatbot (MLCC) solution (https://crc.place/about-mlcc/, https://climatechat-to.ca)—a GenAI-powered platform that provides accessible, reliable climate change information across multiple languages. This hands-on technical leadership role is critical for ensuring we continue to ship a secure, reliable, open-source MLCC that can scale, making climate knowledge accessible to diverse communities regardless of language barriers. You will own the architecture and technical decisions, coordinate volunteer engineers, oversee integrations and data flows, set coding standards, and drive delivery from backlog to release while keeping scope tight and shipping fast.

Key Responsibilities Provide technical leadership for the Multilingual Climate Chatbot development:

• Architecture Ownership: Design and own the technical architecture including APIs, data flows, cloud infrastructure (Azure), and security fundamentals

• Technical Decision-Making: Make key technical decisions on tooling, frameworks, integrations, and architectural patterns

https://crc.place/about-mlcc/

• Team Coordination: Guide and mentor volunteer contributors, set coding standards, and unblock technical challenges to maintain project momentum

• Delivery Management: Drive project delivery by managing prioritized backlog, defining clear milestones, and ensuring on-time releases

• Integration Oversight: Manage data pipelines and ensure smooth integration of GenAI/LLM components, RAG architecture, and AI safety guardrails

• Quality Standards: Establish and enforce code quality guardrails including testing, code reviews, CI/CD pipelines, and technical documentation

Additional responsibilities include:

• Conduct code reviews and provide constructive feedback to volunteer developers
• Translate business goals and stakeholder requirements into clear technical plans and

actionable tasks
• Implement production readiness fundamentals: logging, monitoring, error handling,

and security checklists
• Work with analytics/ML concepts and data pipeline flows (model training experience

not required)
• Create handoff documentation including runbooks, onboarding notes, known risks,

and next steps
• Collaborate with product and stakeholder teams to shape MVP scope and user

workflows
• Make technical decisions independently while working effectively in an async,

distributed volunteer environment Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping software products (full-stack or backend-heavy)

• Strong architecture skills with proven ability to design APIs, data flows, cloud systems, and implement security basics

• Technical leadership experience including scoping projects, prioritizing work, and unblocking teams to drive delivery

• Solid engineering practices: testing, code reviews, CI/CD, and documentation standards

• Comfortable working with data pipelines and analytics/ML concepts (even if not training models daily)

• Clear communicator who can translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and collaborate effectively with product teams

• Self-motivated with strong organizational skills and ability to make decisions independently in a volunteer setting

• Education: Degree or equivalent hands-on experience (portfolio/work history valued) Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience with GenAI applications, LLM architectures, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), or AI safety/guardrails

• Azure cloud platform experience (or AWS, GCP)
• UX/product sense with ability to help shape MVP scope and user workflows

• Familiarity with MLOps tools such as MLflow, model monitoring, or feature pipelines
• Experience working with volunteer or distributed teams in nonprofit or social impact

contexts
• Passion for climate action, multilingual accessibility, and using technology to

democratize information access

Key Deliverables & Success Metrics
• Technical plan and enhanced architecture delivered as a simple diagram with written

approach document
• Prioritized backlog with clear milestones
• Working MLCC deployed with core flows, integrations, and basic admin/operations

functionality
• Code quality guardrails in place including reviews, tests, CI/CD pipelines, and

comprehensive documentation
• Production readiness achieved with logging, monitoring, error handling, and security

checklist completed
• Handoff package created including runbook, onboarding notes for new contributors,

documented risks, and roadmap for next steps
• Positive volunteer experience with effective mentorship, clear technical direction, and

collaborative problem-solving How to Apply Interested candidates should submit their application through the Google Form link: https://forms.gle/s6ULESPkGP9UiiEq7. Please include a brief statement of interest explaining why you're passionate about this role and any relevant experience within the form.

Climate Resilient Communities values diversity and inclusion, seeing volunteers as essential partners and co-creators. We value their diverse perspectives and community knowledge, encouraging them to

challenge and guide our initiatives.

https://forms.gle/s6ULESPkGP9UiiEq7