Data Analyst

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VoteShield, a project of Protect Democracy, seeks highly motivated Data Analysts to join our team. VoteShield’s platform supports election officials to maintain complete and accurate voter data in order to ensure free and fair elections for all qualified voters. In this role, you will analyze voter registration data, partner with election administrators, and grow your technical skills as a member of a world-class analysis and engineering team.

Ideal candidates will be critical thinkers with an understanding of data analysis techniques and the ability to distill findings into clear, accessible reports and presentations. You bring an interest in civic data, commitment to non-partisan analysis, and passion for defending and strengthening our democracy through free and fair elections.

We expect to hire multiple candidates in this role. Our current data analysis team comes from a variety of professional backgrounds including academia and the public and private sectors. As a result, we do not expect that any one candidate will have all of the experiences and requirements listed. We highly encourage you to apply if the job description gets you excited about the role.

You can work from any location in the United States, and candidates from diverse backgrounds and from across the political and ideological spectrum are strongly encouraged to apply.

Data Analysts will:

• Review and analyze changes in voter registration data in order to provide election officials with timely insights and answers to data questions.
• Write and present data reports that are accessible to the team, partners, and election administrators. 
• Conduct legal research as needed to provide context for your reports.
• Expand and enrich our current data with external datasets. 
• Create, refine, and document your standards for reporting, and compare and collaborate to develop best practices for the team.
• Build and maintain relationships with partners in the election community.
• Contribute to research that utilizes VoteShield’s unique dataset to assess election administration policies. 

Requirements:

• Interest in public or civic data and commitment to data-driven and non-partisan analysis. 
• Ability to communicate a clear story with data, both in writing and presenting, that describes the context, insights, conclusions and open questions.
• Working knowledge of at least one analytics programming language (python, r, spss, stata, sql, excel or others); we are flexible with the technical tools we use.
• Growth mindset and comfort with ambiguity.
• Excellent critical thinking skills and ability to reason through novel problems and exercise good judgments about how to get to optimal solutions.
• Rigorous attention to detail and the highest standards for excellence in execution.
• Ability to track, prioritize, and, where necessary, triage work in order to use time in the most efficient and productive way.
• Comfort with an open and transparent culture that values feedback up, down and sideways.
• Collaborative orientation, including ability to work well with people with diverse backgrounds and to manage up, down, and sideways.
• Comfort working in a startup environment, proactively working to build the organization and figure out what’s needed to move your work forward.

Pluses, but not required:

• Has some experience in social science research 
• Has some public policy knowledge 
• Has some experience with election administration or voting data
• Has expertise in python 

About Protect Democracy

• Open to applicants from all over the country. Location requirements are flexible. The only requirement is that your location be one that allows you to complete the demands of the position and mission. We currently have staff in Washington, DC, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, California, and elsewhere around the country. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we offered shared workspaces in those locations for staff members who enjoy working in an office environment, and we are reopening our workspaces in line with current guidance. 
• Commitment to a diverse workplace. Protect Democracy is an equal opportunity employer. Our culture principles emphasize that there is strength in diversity as we believe diverse teams are more innovative, creative, and productive. Protect Democracy encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.
• Competitive pay and phenomenal benefits. This position is full-time and offers a salary and benefits commensurate with experience and designed to be at the leading edge of competitiveness for the social justice and non-profit sector. While we cannot match for-profit sector salaries, our staff generally make more than typical nonprofit salaries. And our benefits package is equivalent to the most competitive for-profit firms. Our intent is that finance not be a bar to people who want to do this work on the theory that paying for top talent will result in greater impact towards our mission. In addition to a competitive salary, our benefits package includes three months of paid parental leave, a 401(k) plan in which we match employee contributions dollar for dollar up to 6% of salary, and full coverage for an excellent health care plan.
• Ample opportunities for personal & professional development. Candidates who do not meet all listed criteria should still apply, as our organizational structure focuses on providing mentorship and opportunities for professional growth.

To apply for this position, please fill out the application here and upload your resume and cover letter as a single PDF. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and our hope is that new team members will join us by September.

Please contact hiring@protectdemocracy.org if you require accommodations at any point in the application process.