Position: Technologist, full time with benefits
Reports to: Legal Director and Chief Operating Officer
Application due: May 28, 2021
Please apply using this form

The Invisible Institute is seeking a technologist to work with our open data team. The technologist will play a central role in the development and strategy of our open data program, which includes the Citizens Police Data Project (CPDP.co), data research, and journalism investigating state violence.

The Invisible Institute believes that we as citizens have co-responsibility with the government for maintaining respect for human rights and, when abuses occur, for demanding redress. We are a group of journalists, lawyers, data scientists, and historians who use our talents to enhance the capacity of citizens to hold public institutions accountable.

As a member of the open data team, the technologist is responsible for managing the technical infrastructure behind our open data work, working with our team and outside contributors. The manager will need to provide guidance for outside programmers, and we welcome candidates who have coding experience themselves. The technologist will also need to understand and communicate with our users and audience. We hold our work accountable to people directly affected by police violence, and we expect our technologist to embody that principle. We hope to work with someone who is passionate about our mission, and personally understands the way our collaborative work can strengthen civil society and create new pathways for understanding critical human rights issues.

The technologist must have outstanding organization skills to coordinate with staff to set technical priorities, structure internal data workflows, and manage external vendors. They will be managing multiple simultaneous projects, and need to work effectively with diverse partners as we expand our Chicago public data tool into new jurisdictions and maintain CPDP.co. Our open data team merges technology with legal strategy and investigative journalism and the technologist must be able to work collaboratively.

More information about the Invisible Institute is below, but fundamentally we want to produce high quality work through an organic process that allows for detours and encourages creative thinking every step of the way. Our ideal technologist will be a confident strategist, but will also have the emotional intelligence to be flexible and resilient as circumstances change. Our work environment is dynamic and experimental, and a strong technologist must be able to work both autonomously and in step with our team.

Key Requirements and Responsibilities

Our technologist must have experience managing technology projects, and be able to:

• Provide direction and feedback to our partners and collaborators, including web developers, designers, and data analysts

• Fully understand web apps and cloud infrastructures, and explain the technological strategies supporting their programmatic decisions

• Work collaboratively with the rest of the open data team to inform our legal strategies and investigative journalism

• Understand and engage the audiences that use CPDP.co and related tools, and guide regular improvements to CPDP.co in response to those users

• Communicate about technology with a wide range of people, and be willing to contribute to organization-wide decision-making

• Work fluently with the tools of web development, including Django, GitHub, Python, Javascript, and cloud-based platforms

The following skills and experience would be useful for the role, but we do not expect a candidate to have all of them. We welcome hearing about other experiences and skill sets that you believe could help you perform this role.

• Personal experience with policing and the justice system

• Willingness to provide IT support for journalism investigations

• Knowledge about information security practices

• Understanding data analysis and producing data visualizations

• Previous collaboration with journalism, legal advocacy, or organizing work

Benefits and Compensation

• Pay starts at $66,630 with annual cost of living increases

• Four weeks paid time off, plus sicks days & family leave

• Fully-covered healthcare, dental, and vision

• Our team is currently fully remote and will provide work-from-home flexibility even when our office in

  Chicago reopens.

Application details

Please apply using this form, which includes a series of short questions and a space to upload your resume or CV. A cover letter is not required for this position. People who have experienced policing firsthand are strongly encouraged to apply, and we welcome candidates with a diverse range of identities and experiences.

About the Invisible Institute

The Invisible Institute is an innovative, non-profit journalism production company based on the South Side of Chicago. We work to enhance the capacity of citizens to hold public institutions accountable. Among the tactics we employ are investigative reporting, multimedia storytelling, human rights documentation, the curation of public information, and the orchestration of difficult public conversations. Our work coheres around a central principle: we as citizens have co-responsibility with the government for maintaining respect for human rights and, when abuses occur, for demanding redress.

Founded by award-winning writer and journalist, Jamie Kalven, the team at the Invisible Institute has produced groundbreaking, internationally recognized work. This includes the investigative reporting that first brought to light the circumstances surrounding the murder of Laquan McDonald, recounted in the Emmy- winning documentary 16 Shots, as well as stories uncovering a web of corruption inside the Chicago Police Department that have thus far led to the exonerations of some 80 individuals.

The Invisible Institute created the Citizens Police Data Project, Chicago's first open source, free and publicly accessible database of computerized police disciplinary records, and is curating the Chicago Police Torture Archives. We lead an on-going immersive program working directly with Chicago area high school youth, and produced the groundbreaking, investigative podcast, Somebody which recently won top honors from the Third Coast International Audio Festival and received the International Documentary Association 2020 award for best audio documentary.

We bring an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach to our work. Our network of collaborators and partners includes First Look Media, Forensic Architecture, The Intercept, USA Today, and the Mandel Legal Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School, among many others. Located at the Experimental Station in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood, the Invisible Institute is part of a dynamic ecosystem of community- based organizations operating in the space, including the South Side Weekly, the Blackstone Bicycle Works, Build Coffee, and 61st Street Farmers Market.