Technical Product Manager In Residence - Elections

About U.S. Digital Response

U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that quickly deploys skilled technologists to address and uncover solutions for common, systemic challenges that public servants are facing, leaving them better equipped to deliver services and support the critical needs of the public.

Since March 2020, USDR's projects have supported 42M+ people in 37 U.S. states and territories. We've partnered with over 230 governments and nonprofits, completed more than 300 projects, and created solutions addressing pressing challenges in order to help the government meet the critical needs of people today, while building digital resilience to stand up to the crises of tomorrow.

Learn more about our last year in our 2023 annual impact report (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BR9ikApKusikyEzOIoMoY4v8SSiQM0qs/view?usp=sharing).

About the Elections Program

America's election infrastructure is crumbling - and it is critically under supported. Our vision is an America where every election office has access to the tools and technology required to run modern, fair, and trustworthy elections.

USDR deploys experienced technologists to help election officials quickly respond to new challenges, and builds simple, effective digital tools that enable governments to better meet voters' needs. Since 2020, USDR has partnered with over 50 election offices to improve voting workflows. You can learn more about our work at our website (https://www.usdigitalresponse.org/elections).

About the role

USDR is hiring a Technical Product Manager in Residence to drive product strategy and execution for the Election Administration Platform (EAP): a cloud-based software suite that streamlines back-office operations for election officials.

The right candidate will be excited by the opportunity to innovate what a SaaS application can be. The Election Administration Platform leverages a low-code technical infrastructure (Airtable). This unlocks lower costs and higher configurability for our government partners - and introduces compelling challenges for platform scalability. An important part of this role will be interfacing directly with government partners to onboard them to the platform, and leveraging these experiences to improve the scalability of the platform.

One of the exceptional aspects of this role is the opportunity to onboard and oversee USDR volunteers. People who work with our volunteers universally agree they are surprised and delighted by their skills, passion, and dedication. Their skills and expertise are critical to help us serve election offices at scale.

You may be a good fit for this role if you have previous product experience with technical SaaS products; enjoy working on nimble teams to achieve ambitious goals; and/or are excited to apply your skills and expertise to improve the conduct of U.S. elections.

This is a termed role for 18 months, salaried, with competitive pay and benefits.

You are excited about this opportunity because you will work on…

Government Experience & Operations (30%)

• Become proficient in product workflows and feature gaps by working directly with government partners to solve their problems
• Provide backup support as needed to the Partner Engineering team during peak periods to oversee volunteers and onboard new election offices onto the EAP - especially in the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential elections

Product Strategy and Roadmap (30%)

• Establish a compelling product strategy for the Elections Administration Platform
• Communicate our shared vision effectively both internally and externally
• Define and maintain a feature roadmap, including creating mechanisms for collecting input and a decision-making process
• Act as product liaison for, and in some cases, negotiate contract terms with third-party SaaS applications we integrate with to enable core functionality
• Articulate impact and operational metrics, key milestones, and progress towards goals
• Collaborate with Product Marketing Manager to announce feature launches and build awareness of our products with election offices

Roadmap Execution & Software Development Operations (40%)

• Oversee existing processes and create new ones as needed for end-to-end feature delivery, from user research, to backlog grooming, all the way to QA and feature rollouts, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Onboard and oversee volunteers as needed to accomplish stated goals, for example a cohort to contribute on UX/UI
• Track the status of work against development and release timelines
• Anticipate issues and blockers to stated timelines proactively and work with the engineering team to resolve them.
• Facilitate day-to-day communication and collaboration among engineering team stakeholders

Qualified candidates will have:

• At least 6 years of experience in product management in a technical space, such as for a tech SaaS product, or analogous field
• Interest in working closely with our end users (election officials).
• Comfort with a fast-paced environment, meaning the substance of what you work on will change over time
• Experience with providing oversight of projects, and onboarding of new team members
• Experience leading complex initiatives at scale and with urgency
• A knack for hearing amorphous needs, rapidly empathizing, and translating those needs into concrete next steps
• Strong work ethic, and the ability to multi-task with excellent organizational skills and a strict attention to detail
• Strong communication skills across a broad set of stakeholders
• Familiarity with modern remote collaboration tools and quick to acclimate to new tools and workflows
• Strong interest in supporting equitable access to public services
• Sensitivity towards equity concerns and a desire to work toward creating an organizational culture and project offerings that reflect anti-oppression values
• Can effortlessly model the values in our Volunteer Oath (https://policies.usdigitalresponse.org/volunteer-oath)
• Or any combination of education, experience, and measurable performance that demonstrates the capability to perform the duties of the position

Application Process:

• While applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis, we encourage interested candidates to apply before April 1. USDR will conduct an application and resume review, followed by a series of three interviews with staff members.

What you'll get:

• A competitive salary, consistent with similar roles in other tech non-profits in the Bay Area where USDR is headquartered. The annual salary range for this role is $160,000-$185,000.
• Full health, dental and vision benefits (USDR pays 100% of the cost for our employees and 80% of the cost for their dependents).
• 401K with a matching contribution of up to 3 percent of your pay with $1 for each dollar you contribute and for more than 3 percent and up to 5 percent of your pay with $0.50 for each dollar you contribute.
• An equipment reimbursement for the purchase of a computer and peripheral devices of up to $2,000 along with a Work from Home allowance of $100 each month to support employees as they navigate working from home.
• A discretionary budget of $500 per year per employee for learning and development along with an organization-wide L&D budget to support individuals and teams with work-related learning and development expenses
• A supportive community where everyone can thrive and find a balance between working hard to make a difference and taking care of themselves. This means that we are committed to a fully remote work environment (for US-based employees) along with flexible schedules and time off policies that work with your life.

Equal Employment Opportunity

U.S. Digital Response is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer fully dedicated to achieving a diverse staff. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation), disability status, protected veteran status, political party affiliation, or any other characteristic protected by law..

We encourage and welcome all interested potential applicants, regardless of background or prior experience volunteering with U.S. Digital Response, to apply.

All USDR staff members work remotely in support of flexibility, wellness, and work-life balance. At this time, USDR is only hiring candidates who reside in the United States, and who have and maintain active U.S. Work Authorization.