The Director of Data, Analytics, Technology, and Engineering
Working Families Party
ABOUT THIS ROLE
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Lead a multi-stakeholder process to establish and maintain the department's annual roadmap, translating organization and party wide priorities into a coherent, prioritized set of projects for the analytics and engineering teams.
Serve as the primary translation layer between the technical needs of daily users and the Data Department. Ensure that competing demands are resolved into clear directions the department can act on.
Exercise ruthless prioritization: set and enforce clear expectations about what the department can and cannot take on, help stakeholders understand trade-offs, and say no when necessary.
Build and maintain a strong working relationship with party and organization Division Directors and relevant Directors and voter contact program leads.
Build and maintain a strong working relationship with the Organizing & Tech Innovation Department, which develops and manages the programmatic implementation of much of our organizing tech infrastructure.
Build and maintain a strong working relationship with additional Department Directors at EpicWorks, the party and organization’s employment and financial services partner.
Lead cross-party and organization projects involving data and technology such as major tool transitions and integrations where data is a core dependency.
Manage the day-to-day operations of the Data, Analytics, Engineering & Technology department, ensuring there are clear department level and individual goals, accountability and collaboration structures, and progress tracking across all active work.
Supervise the Analytics Director and Senior Engineer, providing regular feedback, managing performance, and management coaching.
Recruit, develop, and retain technical talent. Build a team culture with clear expectations, strong ownership, ongoing learning, and sustainable workloads.
Develop and manage the department's budget, including vendor contracts, software subscriptions, and contractor relationships. Review, negotiate, and sign key contracts including data tool agreements and data cooperative memberships.
Set and protect the team’s scope based on available capacity. Be clear about what the team can and cannot take on, communicate tradeoffs, and raise when additional resources are needed.
Supervise the department’s use of project management systems that give daily users and the team visibility into where work stands.
Maintain oversight of the engineering team's infrastructure across data pipelines, data warehousing, cloud infrastructure, web applications, and data modeling. While the Director need not be a hands-on engineer, sufficient technical fluency is required to evaluate feasibility, understand trade-offs, and engage substantively with the engineering team.
Ensure the data pipeline infrastructure that serves the entire organization is stable, well-documented, and covered by appropriate incident response protocols.
Evaluate build vs. buy decisions; rationalize the technology stack with an eye toward licensing costs, vendor capabilities, and organizational sustainability.
Develop and manage Votivate as WFP's longitudinal voter file platform, ensuring it supports electoral data strategy across cycles.
Ensure the analytics team has the direction, support, and resources to develop data products, electoral analysis, and evidence that advance the organization’s organizing, campaign, and long-term strategic goals.
Support the Analytics Director and Analytics Team in strengthening an analytics approach centered on data science, evidence-based decisionmaking, and the development of actionable insights, while building the capacity of teams across the organization to use data effectively.
Oversee data management practices across the organization’s tooling ecosystem, ensuring data flows, analytic systems, and reporting infrastructure are properly configured, maintained, documented, and designed to support scalable, cross-state analysis and learning.
Partner with the Director of Safety and Security to ensure our digital security policies are robust and current. Digital security is a shared responsibility: the Director owns it from a technical systems and infrastructure standpoint; the Director of Safety and Security holds primary organizational adoption ownership.
Collaborate with the Director of Safety and Security on tool compliance reviews, digital risk assessment, and staff guidance on secure technology practices. Ensure that vendor contracts, AI tool evaluations, and new system deployments address data security and privacy requirements.
Drive adoption and capability building, helping staff understand what tools are available, how to use them effectively and compliantly, and how to translate AI into real productivity gains in their day-to-day work.
Evolve and govern our AI policy in partnership with the Director of Safety and Security, ensuring it keeps pace with a rapidly changing landscape and is clearly communicated and consistently enforced across the organization.
Maintain a structured process for evaluating, vetting, and approving AI tools—assessing data security, documentation retention, and organizational risk, while enabling safe adoption of high-impact tools.
Manage AI tools and infrastructure, ensuring all platforms are compliant, centrally managed, and aligned with organizational needs. Lead evaluation and transition to tools that maximize impact while minimizing risk.
Hold and build relationships with key external partners in the progressive data and technology ecosystem, including The Movement Cooperative, America Votes, and key vendors such as EveryAction.
Represent our interests with partner organizations and cooperatives. Participate in the progressive data community in a way that advances the party and organization's needs.
Stakeholder Partnership and Roadmap Management
ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Performs other related duties as assigned.
SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
7+ years of experience in progressive political organizations, campaigns, or mission-driven institutions.
Demonstrated ability to lead projects in complex, multi-stakeholder environments, including working with senior leaders and translating organizational priorities into clear direction and execution.
Strong judgment and presence as a leader. Able to make decisions, communicate tradeoffs, and represent the team’s work with clarity and credibility.
Experience managing and developing staff. Strong people leadership skills, with a track record of building trust, supporting growth, and holding high standards.
Experience in data, analytics, engineering, or technology roles. Sufficient fluency to understand tradeoffs, assess feasibility, and make informed decisions about data and technology, able to understand and converse about deeply specific technical matters with nuance with technical staff.
Experience with electoral data, including voter file, volunteer management data, and voter contact data (at least 2 cycles).
Familiarity with tools commonly used in progressive organizing and campaigns (EveryAction or equivalent CRM, Mobilize, Scale to Win).
A progressive, pragmatic orientation toward AI. Must approach AI adoption as an opportunity for the organization, not a source of anxiety.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences.
Energy and technical ability to offer "flex" capability to the team, especially around general elections.
Familiarity with the progressive data ecosystem (The Movement Cooperative, America Votes, Analyst Institute.
Experience managing budgets, vendors, and contracts preferred.
Requirements:
LOCATION
Candidates must be based in the United States.
SCHEDULE
The position is full time.
UNION AFFILIATION
SALARY AND BENEFITS
The final salary offer will fall into one of the following ranges depending on where you live:
Base Market A: (e.g., Cleveland, Detroit, Phoenix) $107,400 - $151,900
Base Market B: (e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas) $114,900 - $151,900
High Market (e.g., Baltimore, Los Angeles, Portland): $125,700 - $166,100
Very High Market: (e.g., Alexandria, New York City, San Francisco) $136,400 - $180,300
The locations listed above are just examples and not an exhaustive list.
The final salary for this role will be determined based on our Pay Scale, which takes into consideration years of experience, geographic location, and final job description. The upper end of the salary range is reserved for individuals who significantly exceed the minimum qualifications and years of experience.
We also offer a robust benefit package for full time employees including paid time off; health, dental, vision, and life insurance; flexible spending accounts; retirement plan options; professional development funding; and remote work support.
107400 - 180300 USD a year