Posted at: 20 April
Director of Engineering
Company
The Working Families Party (WFP) is a New York-based progressive political organization advocating for working families through grassroots organizing and candidate endorsements across the U.S.
Remote Hiring Policy:
The Working Families Party supports remote work and hires primarily within various U.S. states where it has active chapters, including New York, Connecticut, and California, among others. Team members collaborate across time zones, primarily within the U.S. (UTC-5 to UTC-8).
Job Type
Full-time
Full-timeAllowed Applicant Locations
United States
United StatesSalary
$107,400 to $180,300 per year
$107,400 to $180,300 per yearJob Description
ABOUT THIS ROLE
The Director of Engineering is the technical backbone of the Working Families Power and Working Families Party data and engineering operation. This role is responsible for the full spectrum of integrated data systems — from cloud infrastructure and data pipelines to internal web applications and workflow automations — and for the small team of engineers who work within that ecosystem. This includes playing a senior role in the architecture, engineering, and strategy of a proprietary internal voter file tool, Votivate.
The Director is part of a six person Data, Analytics, Technology, and Ængineering team which improves how we use data and technology to support organizing, campaigns, and daily operations. This includes strengthening core systems, fixing bottlenecks, and making it easier for staff to do their work. They oversee the systems that move and store data, ensure tools are connected and working smoothly, and maintain reliable processes for building and updating our technology. They also help the organizations make better decisions by ensuring teams have clear, useful data and analysis. They support staff in using key tools, improve documentation, and make sure systems are well maintained over time.
This is not a purely strategic or purely hands-on role. The Director of Engineering will spend significant time writing and shipping code alongside their team, while also serving as the primary technical point of contact for engineering requests from non-engineering staff across the organization. A major part of the job is translating organizer and campaign needs into scoped, prioritized engineering work — then leading implementation, whether by delegating to direct reports or doing it themselves.
Our data infrastructure is mature and robust. The team is not in a phase of ambitious system-building; it's in a phase of disciplined stewardship. The right candidate is someone who finds satisfaction in keeping complex systems running well, building features on top of solid foundations, and supporting staff in getting the most out of tools that already exist.
This role reports to the Director of Data, Analytics, Technology, & Engineering and manages the Senior Software Engineer and Analytics Engineer.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Team & Project Management
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Manage and support two direct reports — the Senior Software Engineer and Analytics Engineer — through regular 1:1s, goal-setting, and ongoing feedback
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Serve as the primary engineering liaison on engineering requests from non-technical staff across the organization: meet with stakeholders, assess needs, translate requests into scoped projects with clear deliverables and timelines
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Plan and prioritize engineering work across the team, balancing incoming requests against maintenance needs and longer-term reliability work
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Oversee the Senior Software Engineer's work on Votivate, a proprietary internal voter file tool, providing technical direction and ensuring alignment with organizational priorities
Workflow Automation & Application Development
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Maintain and extend our suite of data pipelines, automations, and internal web applications, including ingestion (APIs / BigQuery mirrors), transformation (dbt / Python), orchestration (Prefect), and serving (Flask-based UIs)
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Build new features and tools in response to organizer and campaign needs — such as configurable list pulls, voter contact syncs, or staff-facing dashboards — scoping and implementing these either directly or in collaboration with direct reports
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Ensure all tooling is well-documented, intuitive for staff, and maintainable over time
Cloud Infrastructure & Reliability
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Own day-to-day oversight of our engineering tech stack, including Prefect, GitHub, AWS, Google Cloud, and related tools and platforms
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Ensure data systems are monitored, reliable, and resilient to failure; lead incident response and long-term reliability practices
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Maintain CI/CD pipelines and containerized deployments; manage cloud infrastructure provisioning and configuration
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Work with The Movement Cooperative to ensure data from our tool ecosystem syncs reliably into BigQuery; build and maintain standalone syncs as needed
ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- Performs other related duties as assigned.
SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Requirements:
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Demonstrated experience working across the full data engineering stack in a complex environment, ideally in electoral or advocacy settings
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1+ years of people management experience, or demonstrated experience leading and coordinating technical work across a small team
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Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to work directly with non-technical stakeholders to understand needs, scope projects, and communicate technical decisions clearly
Technical Requirements:
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Experience in a scripting language such as Python to manipulate data from multiple sources and push to different destinations using APIs
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Experience with web application backends (Python/Flask/Django or Node.js)
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Experience with columnar database systems (BigQuery, Redshift, DuckDB, or similar)
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Experience with orchestration tools (Prefect, Airflow, or similar) and transformation layers (dbt)
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Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS and/or GCP), including provisioning and configuration
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Experience with CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, or similar) and containerized deployments
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Experience doing data for electoral, issue, or movement campaigns
Preferred:
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Familiarity with The Movement Cooperative and its offerings
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Experience in political, electoral, movement, or campaign contexts
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Experience with the Parsons library or similar Python API connector ecosystems
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Basic familiarity with frontend development (React or HTML/CSS/JS) for internal-facing tools
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Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible, or similar)
LOCATION
- This is a full-time, fully remote position. Candidates must be based in the United States.
SCHEDULE
- The position is full time.
UNION AFFILIATION
- Working Families Party / Working Families Power is a unionized workplace. This is a managerial position, not included in WFP’s staff bargaining unit WFP's union employees are represented by the New York Metropolitan Area Joint Board, Workers United union.
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 - $142,000
Base Market B: (e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas) $114,000 - $151,900
High Market (e.g., Baltimore, Los Angeles, Portland): $125,700 - $166,100
Very High Market: (e.g., Boston, New York City, San Francisco) $136,400 - $180,300
The locations listed above are just examples and not an exhaustive list.
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.