Technical Program Manager, Partner Engineering

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 our 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 48 election offices and NGOs to work on engagements serving over 13 million people. Examples of our past projects include a poll locator tool built for Native American populations in Arizona with non-traditional addresses (webinar with more info here (https://www.mapbox.com/webinars/election-maps-indianlegalclinic)), and a poll worker management tool that is used by a dozen counties nationwide to acquire, train, communicate with, and pay their poll workers more efficiently (more information here (https://www.usdigitalresponse.org/our-projects/poll-worker-management/)).

In 2022, U.S. Digital Response received a multi-year grant award from the Center for Tech and Civic Life to establish a dedicated Elections Program and support the growth of our work.

About the role

USDR is hiring a Technical Program Manager to devise, maintain, and optimize the processes that drive onboarding of election officials to the Election Administration Platform. As the first role of its kind on the team, we are looking for someone who is excited to influence the shape and structure of the program, particularly by improving the scalability of systems we use to respond to member requests, oversee the health of our deployments, and manage member relationships. The Technical Program Manager will be responsible for working with new and existing members, while engaging the Elections team and volunteer network to deliver on our members' needs in a scalable way.

One of the exceptional aspects of this role is the opportunity to onboard and oversee USDR volunteers, helping them leverage their experience and interests to improve election administration in the U.S. People who work with our volunteers universally agree they are surprised and delighted by their skills, passion, and dedication.

You might be a good fit for this role if you are obsessed with improving the ways teams function; have experience as a technical project or Program Manager with software product delivery experience, and/or have experience as a customer success manager for a technical SaaS product.

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

Government Implementations and Experience (50%)

• Become proficient in standard implementation flows, and lead implementations that do not require custom engineering
• Ensure we are meeting our commitments and creating a positive experience for members by providing backup support to volunteers in onboarding members to the software, stepping in when needed to fill in gaps
• Manage an implementation calendar that sets us up to meet partner commitments successfully based on capacity
• Run our day-to-day partner support operations, including ensuring team members adhere to service level agreements (SLAs) and identifying/implementing opportunities to improve our support system infrastructure
• Collaborate with Partner Engineer to triage any non-traditional implementation requests
• Collaborate with Partner Engineer ensure sustainability of custom implementations, including by enforcing standardization and documentation of custom work
• Help coordinate roll-outs of new product improvements across our members
• Streamline partner onboarding processes and documentation, including by working with the Product and Engineering teams to automate as many currently manual steps as possible

Volunteer Experience & Operations (40%)

• Oversee onboarding and training processes for our volunteer team of engineers and PMs
• Foster an inclusive, supportive, and collaborative volunteer team culture to promote high levels of engagement and retention
• Track volunteer status, capacity, and performance metrics
• Forecast any volunteer-related roadblocks to team goals
• Identify opportunities to iteratively streamline and improve our processes for volunteer management. Collect feedback from governments and volunteers.
• Work with the Product and Engineering teams to automate as many currently manual steps as possible

Prospective Partner Experience & Operations (10%)

• Act as a sounding board to the Engagement Manager for implementation questions from prospective members
• Give demos of the software platform to potential members

Qualified candidates will have:

• At least 8 years of experience in project, program, or implementation management in a technical space, such as for a tech SaaS product
• Experience leading initiatives by collaborating with peers, teams across an organization and external stakeholders at scale and with urgency
• Comfort with a fast-paced environment and changing requirements
• A knack for hearing amorphous needs, rapidly empathizing, and translating those needs into concrete next steps
• Strong work ethic, keen analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage complex projects and multi-task with excellent organizational skills and a strict attention to detail
• Strong communication skills across a broad set of cross-functional stakeholders, including complex external partners (such as regulatory bodies, government entities, large enterprise customers)
• Ability to self-direct your time toward high-leverage activities.
• Experience as a leader and capable of providing oversight of projects, and onboarding of new team members
• 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
• Principled, thoughtful, experienced, and can effortlessly role 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:

• Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. USDR will conduct an application and resume review, followed by a series of interviews with various members of USDR.
  

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.