Associate Director, Innovation Lab

JOB TITLE: Associate Director, Innovation Lab
LOCATION: Bay Area Preferred, or Remote
REPORTS TO: Senior Director, Innovation Lab
JOB CLASSIFICATION: Full-time; Exempt; Non-Union

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

Founded in 2019, the Innovation Lab is a pioneering effort to meet the technology needs of the human rights community, and the hub for Human Rights First’s growing technology and innovation programming. The Innovation Lab houses a growing digital technology incubator dedicated to the advancement of human rights: it supports exceptional individuals using artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and other new technologies to create tools that protect human rights and democracy. Projects in the Lab are updated to meet the needs of human rights defenders and are selected to address a wide range of its most pressing issues. The Lab’s current projects are applying cutting edge tech to: combat white nativist extremism, mis-, and disinformation in the US; monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan; track unlawful use of force by US police; detect state-based violence in video; and protect democracy activists in the Philippines, among other issues.
The Innovation Lab now seeks an Associate Director to manage and support its growing portfolio of technical projects, to ensure its projects and tools translate into impact across civil society, and to advance its growing work to counter misuses of technology that infringe on human rights.

The Associate Director will be responsible for improving and managing all internal Lab operations, with a focus on enhancing and delivering support to its Technology Fellows and project leads, and ensuring technical, operational, resourcing, and financial management needs are met. They will also develop and maintain key Lab partnerships, with a special focus on technology and software development partners. Finally, they will support the Senior Director in assessment of new projects, as well as determining and implementing the pathways by which Lab projects can best make impact in the field.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as day-to-day resource to the Lab’s projects and their technical leaders.
• For example: serve as support contact to product- and technical project leads, leading weekly stand-ups, leading delivery of operational resourcing, reporting, coordination of technical, resource, operational, and user-learning needs across the portfolio
• Manage and apply a repeatable, lean product development process from discovery and prototyping; development, beta testing, and as needed, business model development and deployment.
• Manage and ensure progress against project plans, product roadmaps, deliverables and timelines across all Lab projects.
• Coordinate and manage the Lab’s technical + software development partnerships and vendors
• Support human rights defenders and allied organizations in their use of the Lab’s tools
• Support outreach for and support the selection of the Lab’s 2022 Cohort
• Support the use of Lab technologies and data to support litigation, public narrative, policy and advocacy outcomes
• Coordinate and deliver support to Lab Tech Fellows and Project Leads by connecting them with each other, prospective users, as well as expertise in design, tech, product, legal services, and business model development
• Support Lab’s rapid response efforts in the face of misuses of technology to infringe on human rights as needed
• Support internal and external communications on the Lab, its projects and its impacts
• Support development of and manage strategic partnerships to drive scaling and deployment of Lab technologies
• Support communication of HRF’s technology and innovation work through project/product demos, creative content, videos, and presentations
• Oversee the creation and management of project plans, product roadmaps, development tasks, timelines and communications.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILL AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree required, graduate degree in data science, business, technology, public policy or computer science preferred but not required
• Minimum 7 years experience overall, with 5 years experience building and/or managing a growing startup, social enterprise, business unit, or innovation function
• Minimum 2 years of digital product management experience, preferably at Director level, including experience managing or working closely with software developers and data scientists.
• Applied project/product experience with big data, AI, and Machine Learning preferred
• Minimum 3 years experience managing personnel, preferably across various functions
• Experience ushering technical project/s through full product development pathway - from concept and prototyping through coding and launch, strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated excellence in operational and project management
• Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal and presentation skills, comfortable working with technical, NGO, and civil society stakeholders. Adept translator of technical and layperson language.
• Comfortable creating and leading presentations on early stage products, projects, and ventures.
• Experience and fluency in design and strategy methods design thinking, agile development, Lean start-up, etc.
• Deep, demonstrated interest in the intersection of emerging technology, human rights, and democracy, including in how this intersection relates to public policy
• Experience with financial and vendor management
• Strong strategic acumen and business instincts
• Ability to make decisions in a changing environment and anticipate future needs
• Energetic, flexible, collaborative and proactive; a team leader who can positively and productively impact both strategic and tactical initiatives
• Self-motivated, must be able to work collaboratively in fast paced team environment with competing priorities
• Startup and/or venture experience preferred
• Coding or data science background preferred

Interested candidates should apply at https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/careers.

Human Rights First is committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing staff from a diversity of backgrounds, including members of racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, people of all nationalities, and veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. We believe that a diverse staff and an inclusive work environment that welcomes a range of perspectives make us stronger and more effective.