Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, defending and empowering public-interest journalism, is looking for a Newsroom Support Engineer to join the SecureDrop team.
SecureDrop is an open-source whistleblower submission system used by journalists to communicate with sources. SecureDrop is currently in use at approximately seventy news organizations worldwide, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Intercept, and ProPublica.
As Newsroom Support Engineer, you will be on the front line of interacting with news organizations using SecureDrop.
You will provide technical assistance via our support portal and forums, assist with system outages, join client calls, participate in occasional on-site technical work (COVID-19 health conditions permitting), and work in close partnership with FPF’s engineering and digital security teams to escalate issues and test upcoming releases.
During times of low support activity, you will have opportunities to contribute to documentation and to get involved in day-to-day development.
We warmly welcome applicants from underrepresented communities, cultures and backgrounds, such as people of color, TLGBQIA+ folks, single parents, people from working-class backgrounds, and people with non-traditional educations.
Skills and Experience
Are you unsure you have the expertise or experience we're looking for? If you are excited about the work we do, we would love to talk to you! Please don't hesitate to reach out for a quick, informal call to help you decide whether you'd like to apply for this role.
You have…
- A BA/BSc degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work or educational experience
- Experience working with Git-based version control, issue trackers, and ticketing systems
- Solid tech fundamentals: comfort working on the Linux/Unix command line, working knowledge of computer networking
- Patience, empathy, and excellent written and in-person communications skills
- Willingness to travel, especially to/within the United States, for occasional on-sites with news organizations
- 5 business hours’ time-zone overlap with US Eastern Time (candidates based in North America preferred due to travel requirements)
One or more of the following is great to have:
- Network security and troubleshooting experience, including firewall configuration
- Working knowledge of public-key cryptography (e.g., PGP, GPG)
- Familiarity with privacy and security technologies (e.g., password managers, Tor, Tails, Qubes OS)
- Experience working with journalism/media organizations
- Experience in a customer or client services role, or related experience (e.g. relationship management, managing expectations of stakeholders, etc.)
- Experience contributing to free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) projects in any capacity
Career Paths
Career paths to this role: If you have a passion for privacy-preserving technologies and the Internet freedom community, while still being early in your career in technology, this role may be perfect for you. If your background is in fields like IT and customer support, but you would like to broaden out beyond this, it could be an excellent fit as well.
Career paths from this role: The role provides a great starting point for deepening your expertise in software engineering, hardware testing, QA automation, security review, and technical documentation. It could make a great jumping-off point for a further career as a Software Engineer, Product Manager, or QA Engineer, including at Freedom of the Press Foundation itself. Because it works so closely with newsrooms, it may also help you to build professional connections in the journalism/media space.
Working with Us
The SecureDrop team is fully distributed. With the stated time zone overlap and geographic preference in mind, all candidates will be considered for remote work with occasional travel.
This is a full-time role at a competitive non-profit salary. If it is your preference, we are open to discussing part-time arrangements. For US full-time employees: The salary range for this position is $80,000 to $100,000 per year, commensurate with experience. FPF provides health, dental and vision insurance (via Aetna);20 days of personal time off and 13 holidays;and a 401(k) program. FPF matches your 401(k) contributions dollar for dollar, up to 4 percent of your gross salary.
If you’d like to be a part of our team, please apply by May 9, 2022. We aim to make a hiring decision later in May.
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