[CALL / JOB] Fellows, The GovLab

The GovLab works to redesign how institutions work to the end of improving real people’s lives. We focus on how to bring new technology and new insights from the social sciences to bear to open up and improve how institutions make decisions at the local, state, national and international level, and we are looking for the next batch of thinker/doers to join our competitive fellowship program to help change the world!

• ●  Are you a social scientist who wants to conduct experiments in the wild to help public institutions, like a very large urban police department, use social media to improve how they provide services to the public?
• ●  Are you a technologist, an activist or educator passionate about designing coaching and mentoring platforms to help train civil servants and the next generation of problem solvers with the skills they need to tackle the ‘wicked’ problems of tomorrow?
• ●  Do you want to research, design and build collaborative governance models to manage the Internet or tap into the expertise of “the crowd” to help open up problem solving to a wider community of stakeholders in a university, a city or a nation state?

  Our Fellows are fearless and anti­-disciplinary experimenters, willing to take on some of the most intractable problems we face today with a passion for the work we do at the GovLab, an excitement for collaboration and a willingness to teach themselves to be better researchers, technologists and problem solvers. We are looking for talented and diverse people from a variety of backgrounds, including technology, law, policy, social science and design.

  How we work:

  The mission of the Governance Lab @ NYU (GovLab) is to improve people’s lives by promoting innovation in how we make decisions and solve problems. At the GovLab we believe that when institutions work more openly and collaboratively, they can govern more legitimately and effectively. In developing open government projects with partners, we endeavor to be both “agile” and “empirical.” In other words, we collaborate with public institutions to design and iterate upon innovative projects that have the potential to help real people in measurable ways. In parallel, we combine research with practice to assess what works, measure impact and yield the basis for evolution and scaling. Housed at

New York University and the MIT Media Lab, GovLab is funded by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Google.org.

We practice what we preach and expect Fellows to work differently ­­ not behind closed doors but in collaboration with the team at GovLab and the wider world. You will be expected to tap the wisdom of the crowd and collaborate with those outside GovLab as part of your work, using crowdsourcing and expert networking. We document heavily what we do in real time using blogs, wikis and social media. We use mockups and prototypes and data visualization to advance our shared understanding. We develop presentations using audio, video and text to persuade and inform. We support what we do with deep literature reviews and the clear formulation of hypotheses. We design experiments that solve problems for partners and advance the world’s understanding of how to apply innovations in governance.

What you can expect:

In this renewable one­ year fellowship program highly talented, self­-motivated individuals work on research, design, development and consulting projects related to technology and governance. A project fellow will be responsible for managing a project through its full life cycle. Beginning with scoping of project fundamentals and an implementation plan, you will design and conduct experiments to advance our understanding of what works towards developing actionable recommendations for implementation. Along the way, you will develop deep knowledge of specific issues areas and institutions, and you will be responsible for communicating your work and learnings throughout the project lifecycle, through presentations, social media and other channels that invite collaboration and feedback from a broad audience of experts.

We are committed to help train our fellows in the skills needed to succeed in this role and we will also heavily invest in the professional development of our team.

Preferred Qualifications/Experience:

Our ideal candidates are highly motivated individuals who are passionate about the work of the GovLab and are excited to work in a startup environment. Successful fellows typically have:

• ●  Demonstrated ability to design and execute high ­quality work, both independently and in teams;
• ●  Well­-developed research and analytic capabilities, superior problem solving skills, and creative thinking;
• ●  Deep knowledge of a subject area;
• ●  Passion for the public interest as demonstrated through proven experience and commitment;
• ●  Superior communication skills, both verbal and written, along with the ability to influence, persuade, and ask the tough questions;

• ●  A passion for learning and an openness to listening to new ideas and feedback;
• ●  The flexibility to work in a startup environment and the self motivation to take an idea from inception through implementation.

  Specific Focus Areas/Skills Sought:

  GovLab is seeking Fellows to work on projects that necessitate specific expertise. In particular, we are looking for people with:

  Demonstrated passion, interest and experience relating to:

• ○  Internet governance and/or issues of multinational governance for a project relating to designing and developing next generation Internet governance models.
• ○  Education, online education, mentoring and coaching for a project involving training the next generation of leaders and problem solvers. Here, expertise and capacity to work on curriculum and/or platform design are both desirable.
• ○  Data science for a project relating to designing and implementing experiments in connection with testing the effectiveness of targeted, “graph based” searching.

  To apply:

• ●  All interested applicants should apply by submitting the following to careers@thegovlab.org:
  • ○  A video (10 minutes max.) that helps us get to know you better. The video can highlight your relevant skills, and/or discuss a project on which you worked that you are proud of;
  • ○  Link to your blog, twitter, tumblr, github and other relevant sites that speak to your skills and interests;
  • ○  Relevant writing samples (social media as well as academic or professional writing all welcome).
• ●  Application deadline: Rolling
• ●  Location: Brooklyn, New York and/or Cambridge, Massachusetts
• ●  For more information: Please visit thegovlab.org or emailcareers@thegovlab.org with any additional questions.