Civic Technology Fellow



Civic Technology Fellow

Salary

Depends on Qualifications

Location

Boston, MA

Job Type

Full Time

Job Number

DS-11-15

Department

Data Services

Opening Date

11/19/2015

Description

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s Data Services Department seeks a Civic Technology Fellow.  As the Civic Technology Fellow you will take a leading role in the development of public sector web applications, primarily a new suite of tools to support the City of Boston’s summer youth jobs program application process, job matching, and applicant communications.  You will work closely with our product team in a collaborative, respectful environment, iterating on inclusive, human-centered product design and development processes.  While writing code will comprise the majority of your responsibilities, you will be involved in all aspects of the product delivery cycle, including product scoping and design. 

There will be many opportunities to connect and develop valuable relationships with our many partners in the local civic technology community.  It is conceivable there will be time to learn and develop your skills in software development, human-centered product design, delivery, and deployment.  Depending on your experience, it may be possible to assume a mentorship role, supporting the growth of other developers on the team.

We have grant funding to support the position for one year and will be actively seeking funding to make this a regular full-time position.

 About MAPC:

MAPC is a public agency and the regional planning agency for 101 cities and towns of Metro Boston.

MAPC’s mission is to promote smart growth and regional collaboration, consistent with our regional plan MetroFuture, a long-term vision for a prosperous, equitable, sustainable region.  The Data Services Department supports this mission through open data, mapping, and decision support tools.

MAPC works toward sound municipal management, sustainable land use, protection of natural resources, efficient and affordable transportation, a diverse housing stock, public safety, economic development, an informed public, and equity and opportunity among people of all backgrounds.  MAPC’s staff consists of approximately 70 full-time employees located in downtown Boston in a transit-accessible and bike-friendly office.

We aim for a sustainable approach, because civic technology needs to provide long-lasting, stable public services. We think the best path to our long-term success is by taking care of ourselves, our families, the citizens we serve, and our fellow team members and colleagues

 The Data Services Team:

The Data Services team is small, diverse, and multidisciplinary. If you join us, you will see the department change, and you may take on different roles as we grow.

Our team highly values co-creation and facilitation. Instead of imposing vision from the top down, we work together to establish and maintain the vision for a product.  We trust each other to do high-quality work. We offer a sensible work-life balance. 

Responsibilities (including but not limited to)

  • Lead the development of production-ready, data-driven, server-side web applications and APIs.
  • Deploy applications to Paas or IaaS and establish monitors to ensure consistent uptime.
  • Integrate web services with each other and with in-house applications.
  • Work with a product team to ensure digital services meet the business needs of internal and external stakeholders.
  • Work with a multidisciplinary team to design and implement clear, accessible (A11Y) user interfaces for web applications using HTML, CSS, and occasionally JavaScript.
  • Understand current and emerging web technologies and trends, and assess them for relevance to MAPC’s digital services.
  • Build relationships with relevant technology networks, consultants, and civic technology partners.
  • Represent MAPC projects weekly at Code for Boston and related events in the civic technology community.
  • Assist staff and partners in improving their software development skills through pair programming and other capacity-building activities.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, technology, design, engineering, or related field strongly preferred.
  • Demonstrated experience in writing clear, maintainable, sustainable, and production-ready code.
  • A minimum, two (2) years’ experience in web or software development.
  • Proficiency in at least one mature, modern, open source computing language and associated web framework(s), in a Unix-based environment (Linux, Mac OS). Ruby, Python, and JavaScript-based stacks are strongly preferred.
  • Proficient in open-source version control, preferably using Git and GitHub.
  • Demonstrated experience in Test-Driven Development or Behavior-Driven Development.
  • Experience solving problems related to:

a.     Translating business requirements into features

b.     API design and resource representation

c.     Communications or social integrations, such as email, text messaging, or social media

  • Comfortable writing semantic markup (HTML), and enough CSS to lay out a page.
  • Demonstrated strategic and analytical capabilities, capacity for innovation, self-motivation, self-learning and goal-orientation.
  • Excellent written and oral communications skills and technical documentation.
  • Experience performing, configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting deployments on Platforms as a Service or Infrastructure as a Service.

a.     Examples: Heroku, OpenShift, DigitalOcean, AWS.  

Apply on line at www.mapc.org.  The position is open until filled.  Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.  Candidates must have legal authorization to work in the USA and a valid driver’s license and /or the ability to arrange transportation to meetings in different parts of the region.

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, and three references. In your resume, please include links to active (deployed) online projects, noting your role in producing them.

If available, please provide a link to your GitHub (or similar) account, or attach samples of your code. Code Climate links to your open-source repositories (if any) are also accepted.

We do not equate an abundance of open-source software contributions with development proficiency.  We are much more interested in the quality of your code than in the quantity or frequency of your participation in open-source projects.

MAPC is an EOE/AA employer

 MAPC takes pride in the diversity of its workforce and encourages all qualified persons to apply.

Excellent state employee benefits package.

Agency
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Address
60 Temple Place

Boston, Massachusetts, 02111
Phone
(617) 451-2770