Civic Innovation Associate (Civic Service Designer)

Pay rate: $21.50 / per hour
Hours per week: 20 (Part-time position)

Job Description:
BetaNYC is a public interest technology organization based in NYC. We want New York’s government to work for the people, by the people, in the digital era.

Our Civic Innovation Lab (CIL) supports the use of data and technology across NYC through a public interest help desk called Research and Data Assistance Requests (RADARs). Through it, we address the data and technology needs of community board members, Borough President and City Council staff, students, and the general public.

Civic Innovation Associates work part-time in our Civic Innovation lab, leveraging their expertise and experience in data and service design related fields. As one of three associates, you will be responsible for responding to RADARs with us. This means: understanding and meeting the needs of civic stakeholder clients and identifying opportunities for improving public services and increasing community engagement. You will use your academic and/or professional experience in civic data, service or UX design, urban planning and policy, communication and storytelling to create tools, dashboards, and data visualizations that inform policy and planning decisions and involve participation from residents. You will be expected to work effectively individually and on teams,to interface with stakeholders, and to present to various audiences.

At the end of the term, you will have gained experience in New York City's government and civic community, using and analyzing open data, community organizing, programming, and communicating on a small team. You will have the opportunity to work on projects focused on housing, education, transportation, or the environment, and to pursue a co-defined personal project to help you learn new skills, build a network, and focus on issues and community organizations you care about.

We strongly encourage people from BIPOC communities, women, or people with working class / non-traditional education backgrounds to apply. We seek to center diverse lived experiences as we attempt to build a more inclusive public interest technology community and government technology industry.

Location of work: In-person for at least two months, with the possibility of hybrid afterward. Our office is located downtown in New York City’s Civic Center.

Preferred Minimum Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree (by the time of appointment) or equivalent work experience.
• Experience with design tools such as Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, or Figma.
• Experience conducting user research and communicating actionable insights in a collaborative work environment
• At least a beginner's knowledge of programming languages such as SQL, R, Python, or Javascript.
• Work experience in an office environment.

Pluses:

• Enthusiasm to create change in New York City and your community.
• Exposure to civic sector or social work, urban policy or planning, data analysis, GIS, NYC Open Data, or BetaNYC’s Civic Innovation Fellowship program.
• Strong organizational skills. Ability to work in a small team, articulate personal needs, work to address collectively defined goals, and collaborate on the defined mission.
• Be comfortable accessing, reading, manipulating, cleaning, summarizing, and explaining NYC open data.
• Exhibit patience when teaching technology concepts or open data analysis to others.
• Strong written and verbal communicator. Must be able to present needs and ideas in memos. Ability to break down projects into digestible concepts.
• Willingness to work with government stakeholders and/or experience working within government.

More important than any particular qualification is a portfolio of work that demonstrates an ability to creatively work with data, build tools or interfaces, or create graphics and reports focused on urban policy and planning.


Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research to understand the needs and preferences of the community and other stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities for improving public services and designing improved experiences for existing platforms and datasets.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including developers, and subject matter experts to develop tools, dashboards, and data stories.
• Assist in data collection and creating insights from data analysis and research.
• Communicate and present effectively to community members, stakeholders, and decision-makers to advocate policy and technology change.