The School of Data is [no-longer] hiring!

Please note: the recruitment process for a Project Coordinator has now closed. If you are interested in working for the Open Knowledge Foundation, please see our jobs page for more details.

[Project Coordinator – Job Description] – Position now closed

The School of Data is a project to teach data wrangling skills to an international audience. We aim to enable and inspire e.g. NGOs, civil society organisations, journalists and citizens to use, analyse and interpret data more effectively.

The School of Data collaboration is led by the Open Knowledge Foundation and P2PU. The new Project Coordinator will be part of the Open Knowledge Foundation team, and will be responsible for liaising between stakeholders and coordinating the overall activities of the School.

The successful candidate will be bright, articulate and confident, with excellent written and verbal communication skills. Strong organisational and administrative skills are essential, as is the ability to build relationships, develop new opportunities, and provide positive leadership for this distributed team.

Prior experience of working with data – particularly for journalism / an NGO – would be a bonus, but more important is dedication and the ability to learn. This role could suit an exceptional young graduate, as well as someone with previous experience.

Areas of Responsibility

Team Coordinator/Lead

• Liaising with stakeholders – including funding bodies, partners, volunteers and the School of Data team.
• Reaching out to new audiences, engaging the community and providing support.
• Acting as a public face for the School of Data, responding to incoming inquiries.
• Coordinating events, leading workshops, networking.
• Taking responsibility for budget oversight and planning.

Project Development

• Spotting opportunities for collaboration.
• Developing & maintaining relationships with relevant organisations and initiatives.
• Overseeing (and writing) funding proposals, press releases, MoUs etc.

Project management

• Managing budget and resources.
• Internal & external reporting.
• Leading meetings, coordinating workflows, taking responsibility for progress towards deliverables.

Essential Skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Fluency in English, plus the ability to communicate with people for whom English is not their first language, particularly via email and Skype.
• Organisational and administrative skills, including e.g. time management & event coordination.
• Some experience of budget & project management.
• Competency in maths; basic familiarity with statistics and data analysis.
• The flexibility and pragmatism to turn a vision into a living product.

Other Qualities

• Willingness to travel.
• A willingness to occasionally work outside ‘office hours’ – usually in order to attend an event or to coordinate across time zones.
• Experience of working with a distributed global team.
• Optimally, experience of working in journalism, research and/or with an NGO.
• Familiarity with organisations such as the Open Knowledge Foundation, P2PU, Tactical Tech, Creative Commons, MySociety, Wikimedia etc. would be a bonus.
• ‘Data Wrangling’ skills would be a distinct advantage.

Location: We are flexible about where you are located, and there is the possibility to work remotely from anywhere in the world. If you are close to one of the OKFN’s existing hubs in London, Cambridge (UK) or Berlin, that would be an advantage. The School of Data team are currently also based in Vienna and San Francisco. No-one should feel discouraged from applying based on location – but be aware that office hours may need to be adapted depending on your timezone.

Salary: Negotiable, dependent on experience.

To Apply

Please send a CV and covering letter to jobs@okfn.org. Please include a short (1 minute) video explaining why you are interested in this role.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis; please apply as early as possible.