Director, Technology Policy and Projects

The Director, Technology Policy & Projects leads part of the Public Interest Technology team’s work in privacy, competition, government surveillance, and cybersecurity, along with the development of our Privacy Badger software. The Director, Technology Policy & Projects and their team help other EFF teams understand the technology at the heart of our activism and legal work; engage and write on technology policy and digital rights issues; and program some of EFF’s software and tools. The Director, Technology Policy & Projects works in partnership with the Director of Engineering, Certbot and the PIT Director to ensure the entire PIT team is working effectively and efficiently as a team and within EFF as a whole.

Essential Functions:

Programmatic

• Lead from a technical-policy perspective issues such as privacy, competition, telecommunications, government surveillance, cybersecurity, and international matters.
• Ensure that the team does work that supports EFF in an accurate, efficient, and timely fashion
• Works with the Director of Public Interest Technology to prioritize team resources, and match tactics and strategies to goals
  • Assign projects, priorities, and work to direct reports and ensure work meets quality and quantity expectation and hits deadlines, working with other team managers as necessary
  • Ensures the team helps meet the technology policy needs of other teams across EFF
• Facilitates communication and problem-solving within the team and with the team’s collaboration with other teams
• Outreach and interface with external partners, companies, policymakers, and regulators to promote our policies and work, steer them to EFF goals, and improve the state of digital civil liberties
• Help lead or participate in a number of internal EFF Working Groups.
• Help with media interviews/press calls (1-4 per month), write blog posts (1 per month), and do speaking engagements (4x per year).

Management

• Weekly check-ins with direct reports, assisting with time and resource management, and offering candid feedback
• Briefs the PIT Director about the team’s work, new developments, challenges, and personnel issues during weekly 1:1 meetings.
• Assist direct reports in time and workload management, helping them complete day-to-day tasks while building skills to take on additional work and monitor workload to ensure that direct reports are not overwhelmed
• Offer candid feedback to direct reports about where they need to grow as well as where they are excelling, including through weekly one-on-ones and annual feedback reviews
• Assign projects, priorities, and work to direct reports and ensure they hit any deadlines, working with other team managers as necessary. Ensure the quality and quantity of the work of direct reports
• Document performance issues and address them promptly up to and including termination, in partnership with Human Resources
• Serve as the hiring manager for any vacancies or departures on your team

Qualities We’re Seeking (i.e. Competencies)

• Strong management skills on large and complex technical projects.
• Strong knowledge on EFF issues related to this position.
• Strong time and project management skills.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Strong collaboration skills with cross-functional and diverse teams.
• Must demonstrate care and respect toward coworkers, outside partners, members of the public, donors, and others with whom this role interacts.
• Must work to positively and collaboratively resolve conflicts and overcome challenges.
• Must have effective skills at oral and written communication.
• Must be able to understand and articulate with accuracy EFF’s mission, positions, and work.
• Must be available and responsive to colleagues, outside partners and others over email, phone, and online chat, with the ability to respond and reliably to time-sensitive opportunities during agreed upon work hours.
• Contributes to the creation of a diverse, equitable and inclusive work culture that encourages and celebrates differences including race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability and socio-economic circumstance.

Required Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a technical field.
• Significant experience managing technical teams that interact with cross-functional teams in an organization.
• Experience in meeting facilitation

Preferred Education & Experience

• Management training or education.
• Technical and/or policy experience in privacy and/or surveillance issues and technologies.
• Work experience in diverse settings that include not only different backgrounds but countries and cultures.

Classification: Exempt, Full-time (40 hours per week)

Compensation:  $140,000 to $150,000

Expected hours of work: Typically Monday - Friday

Reports to:  Director of Public Interest Technology

Supervisory responsibilities: Approximately five people

Physical Demands:  This position requires the ability to lift up to 10 lbs on occasion.

Location:  You may work from San Francisco or you may work from another U.S. location. This position will need to keep Pacific time zone hours.

Commitment to Diversity

As an advocacy organization, EFF is committed to being part of a diverse community. Diversity of life experiences makes a big difference in how we identify and litigate legal issues, design privacy-enhancing software, and organize our activism. To that end, we deliberately seek applicants with different perspectives, identities, and experiences to build an inclusive workplace to better inform our advocacy and defense of freedom in our digital world. EFF is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of all races, genders, ages, abilities, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.