RealEstateU is a U.S. online real estate education provider looking for a senior MERN/LMS Fullstack Engineer. They aim to modernize their platform, improve CI/CD, break down a monolith, enhance APIs, and rebuild the frontend, specifically encouraging an AI-native workflow. This is a full-time contract role for a scaled product with significant ownership.
What they want, where you stand, and the exact résumé edits to qualify.
Biggest lever: Gain direct experience with MongoDB and Express.js, ideally by building a small MERN microservice.
A starter prompt for Claude Code, what you'll need, and how to reach them.
You are a senior fullstack engineer specializing in MERN stack development with a strong focus on modernizing legacy systems and implementing AI-native workflows. RealEstateU, a leading online U.S. real estate education provider, is looking for a contract engineer to establish oversight and technical standards for their large MERN/LMS platform (~100k users), currently maintained by an external contractor. The platform uses Node/Express, MongoDB Atlas, React, and Azure. Their key goals are: 1. Improve CI/CD: Drastically cut ticket-to-production time (from months to days) by modernizing the build, tests, linting, and GitHub Actions. 2. Architecture: Break down the existing monolithic environment into dedicated microservices to enable an asynchronous release schedule. 3. APIs: Bolster existing integrations (Stripe, BioSig, Honorlock, SendGrid, Zapier) and expose data to new services. 4. Frontend: Rebuild student-facing surfaces with a modernized stack, ideally using a portable design system. Your task is to outline a detailed, phased plan to achieve these goals, focusing on the first 1-2 months of a contract engagement. Specifically, detail steps for: a) Initial assessment of the current CI/CD and proposal for GitHub Actions implementation. b) Identifying the first logical microservice to extract from the monolith and outlining the steps for its creation. c) Recommending a portable design system and an MVP for rebuilding a critical student-facing component. Ensure the plan highlights the use of an AI-native workflow and emphasizes establishing best practices. Prioritize actions that deliver immediate, visible impact while setting the stage for long-term modernization. Focus on practical implementation details, naming specific tools and technologies where appropriate (e.g., Jest/React Testing Library, ESLint, Prettier, Storybook for design system).
RealEstateU is seeking to modernize their LMS platform and bring engineering in-house; the operator can offer their white-label LMS platform, cert-pack-factory, or custom content packs (Adept) to demonstrate expertise and provide a superior, AI-native alternative for their educational content delivery.
RealEstateU | Fullstack Engineer, MERN / LMS | REMOTE (UTC-01:00 to UTC+03:00) | Contract, full-time We're a leading online U.S. real estate education provider. Our custom LMS is a large MERN platform (Node/Express, MongoDB Atlas, React, Azure) currently maintained by an external contractor. We need one senior fullstack engineer to help establish oversight and technical standards for the platform, as well as form our own engineering culture. The work: - CI/CD: Cut ticket-to-production from months to days. Modernize the build, tests, linting, and GitHub Actions. - Architecture: Break a monolithic environment into dedicated microservices to enable async release schedule. - APIs: Bolster integrations (Stripe, BioSig, Honorlock, SendGrid, Zapier) and open data up to new services. - Frontend: Rebuild student-facing surfaces with modernized stack, ideally using a portable design system. You: >5 years of solid React + Node on complex MERN products, fluent English, and have already embraced a constructive AI-native workflow (i.e. Claude Code / Codex / Cursor). This is an IC role where you will have significant ownership and ability to define engineering standards as we grow our in-house ca
Build a small MERN-stack application (e.g., a simple task tracker or blog) that includes Node.js/Express.js backend, MongoDB Atlas integration, and a React frontend, deployed via GitHub Actions. Aim for 2-3 weeks to ship a functional demo.
Standard for dev work
Familiarity with payment gateways
Familiarity with transactional email services
New: Experience with MongoDB and Atlas management is crucial
Learn it: Postgres tutorial ↗
Get set up: Provision a managed DB (Neon / Vercel Postgres) → set `DATABASE_URL` → connect with the driver.
New: Azure services for hosting/monitoring – ~2-3 days to get familiar
Learn it: Search getting-started ↗
Get set up: Create the account/instance, generate the API key or credentials, and add them to your project's environment variables.
Core development expertise
Standard dev tooling
Architectural design patterns
Complete the Google Form questionnaire provided in the job description (https://forms.gle/vjdnjrnDVxcsCWM76).
“I'm a senior MERN Fullstack Engineer with extensive experience modernizing complex platforms like yours using an AI-native workflow. I've completed your questionnaire and am eager to discuss how I can help establish technical standards, improve CI/CD, and transition your monolith to microservices for your 100k-user RealEstateU platform.”
Open the original ↗