Hi,
Tails, a portable operating system that protects against surveillance
and censorship, is looking for a project manager to make our
organization function better.
Summary
=======
Tails, a portable operating system that protects against surveillance
and censorship, is looking for a project manager to make our
organization function better.
In the last 12 years, from a tiny volunteer-run Free Software project,
Tails has grown to a setup in which almost all the work is done by
paid workers, with a 350k€ yearly budget. This allowed us to increase
by several orders of magnitude the quality and pace of development of
our product.
However, this growth happened faster than the corresponding, necessary
increase of our organization & social skills and capacity.
As a result, lots of the organization and social work still relies on
the founders of the project.
For our project to thrive sustainably, we want to establish a new role
for someone who will work with us to develop our organization and
manage our day-to-day operations, building upon our core values of
transparency, autonomy, and horizontal decision-making.
About Tails
===========
Tails is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower people
worldwide by giving out an operating system that protects from
surveillance and censorship.
We make digital security tools accessible to everyone, whenever they
need it: activists, journalists, freedom fighters, and ultimately,
you, whenever you need extra privacy in this digital world.
The Tails project was started in 2009 and has now more than
30 000 daily users.
Read more about our mission and values:
https://tails.boum.org/contribute/mission/
Tails is:
* Non-profit
We put our users first, not profits.
* Free Software
All our work is published as Free Software and we work closely
with related projects (Debian, GNOME, Tor, etc.).
* Small team
We are a small team that values transparency, autonomy, and
horizontal decision-making.
* Remote and international
We are a fully remote team and our team members can work from
anywhere they want around the world. We have workers in 10
different countries.
* Flexible commitment
People work for Tails full-time, part-time, or as consultants.
If you like flexibility, Tails is a place for you.
* Equal opportunity, equal pay
We are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable environment
for all. We have a transparent compensation scheme where everybody
enjoys comparable pay and benefits.
About this job application
==========================
Role description
----------------
We are looking for someone who will work with us to make Tails
a healthier organization & work place, and provide project-wide
management, supporting both organizational and team-level objectives:
- Facilitation, community management: facilitate decision-making
about collective processes, implement them.
For example, deciding who is invited to our yearly gathering,
setting up a process for responding to Code of Conduct violations.
- Project-wide management:
- Help our teams function well and remain aligned with the
priorities of the organization. Manage grant projects
with deadlines.
- Negotiate and document expectations. Set up self-evaluation,
feedback, and accountability mechanisms.
- Encourage workers to grow within the organization. Ensure their
needs, desires, and problems they're facing are heard and
followed-up with.
- Identify knowledge gaps and recruitment needs: which roles we
should hire for and when.
- Facilitate the flow of useful information through the project,
connecting it to the bigger picture as needed.
For example, our Fundraising team needs to know about the capacity
and priorities of our teams, so they can design grant proposals.
Transforming our organization is a substantial project. It will take
time and multiple iterations. It's OK: we are in it for the long run.
You will have agency in shaping the role and setting priorities, in
collaboration with the rest of team, based on which you will organize
your work and time autonomously.
You will work remotely. Our team is global and with various degrees of
involvement, so you will use mostly asynchronous communication
channels (email and bug tracker), although we also use text-based chat
and do plenty of video calls.
During non-pandemic times, some travel is expected, generally 2-4
times per year, including the annual gathering of regular
Tails contributors.
Qualifications
--------------
- If you are part of a group that is under-represented in tech, we
particularly encourage you to apply. We acknowledge that our
community is not as diverse and equitable as we would like it to be.
We understand that we are part of the problem. We want the Tails
project to become more equitable.
- You can commit 25-35 hours per week on a long-term basis. The exact
scope of your responsibilities will depend on how much you work
within this range.
- You can work comfortably at least 3 hours during the peak of Tails
activities: between 10:00 and 17:00 CEST/CET.
- Professional experience organizing team collaboration.
- Experience participating in groups that value transparency,
autonomy, and horizontal decision-making.
- Group and inter-individual communication skills demonstrated, for
example, by experience facilitating collective processes.
- Conceptual understanding of software development work.
- Enthusiastic about our mission and values
(
https://tails.boum.org/contribute/mission/), motivated by
social impact.
- Some experience working fully remote, primarily with
asynchronous communication.
- Good written and spoken English communication skills.
Additionally, although that's optional, we would love it if you had
experience participating in Free and Open Source Software communities.
Compensation and benefits
-------------------------
Pay scale is 40-100 k€ per year, including medical coverage.
The exact number depends solely on:
- How much time you work
- Your tax situation
- Cost of medical coverage
On top of this, Tails pays for:
- Exceptional health expenses not covered by your policy
- Computer equipment
- Travel expenses to work events
How to apply
============
See
https://tails.boum.org/jobs/project_manager/#apply
Cheers!
