Technologist (Medicaid and other public benefit systems)

This permanent, full-time, exempt Technologist position is fully remote with occasional travel anticipated (~6 trips per year). Candidates who live in or have extensive working experience in the U.S. South are particularly encouraged to apply. 

This position will become TTJ’s seventh team member. The Technologist will provide the technical expertise to support state-based advocates’ efforts to minimize the harm caused by impending changes to the Medicaid program required by the recent reconciliation bill passed by Congress and signed by the President. In addition, the Technologist will support TTJ’s ongoing advocacy to fight the harmful use of AI decision-making systems in public benefits, housing, employment, K-12 education, domestic violence, and child welfare. 

Our ideal candidate will have extensive experience developing, designing, overseeing (from technical side rather than project management side), or maintaining major public sector technology projects for state-administered public benefit programs like Medicaid (preferred), SNAP, or Unemployment Insurance. 

General responsibilities include: 

(1)  Writing accessible materials about relevant technical issues and best practices involving Medicaid work requirements, increased eligibility checks, and other related changes for state advocates and, to the extent feasible, state officials.

(2)  Holding interactive support sessions focused on technical issues for state advocates. 

(3)  Providing individualized strategic assistance to state advocates and, to the extent feasible, state officials for identified state-level challenges. 

(4)  Contributing to various convenings (e.g., workshops, lunch-and-learn sessions, policymaker briefings, etc.) about implementation of the Medicaid changes.

(5)  Supporting other allied organizations on issues involving Medicaid changes that require technical expertise.  

(6)  Devising a data-collection strategy to empower advocates to track and highlight people erroneously terminated from Medicaid due to the changes. 

(7)  To the extent additional technical capacity is needed, coordinating with other technologists who may be willing to support TTJ’s advocacy efforts on a pro bono basis. 

(8)  On issues other than Medicaid changes, contributing to TTJ’s ongoing education, organizing, strategic assistance, public education, and other advocacy by (a) providing accessible technical information about issues implicating AI and related technologies, (b) providing actionable research on emerging uses of AI and related technologies in our core issue areas, and (c) helping devise technology-enabled advocacy responses on our core issue areas. 

Qualifications:

• Extensive experience developing, designing, maintaining, or overseeing (from technical side rather than project management side) major public sector technology projects for state-administered public benefit programs like Medicaid (preferred), SNAP, or Unemployment Insurance. 

• Deep knowledge of and experience with program rules for Medicaid (preferred), SNAP, or Unemployment Insurance and the ways that such rules are operationalized through technology.

• Deep understanding of how “Artificial Intelligence” (and associated innovations such as large language models, unsupervised or supervised machine learning inference methods, rules engines, and other forms of process automation) are or could be implemented in public benefits programs, including all attendant risks and benefits. 

• Familiarity with government decision-making processes relating to public benefits technology, including procurement, development, testing, deployment, post-deployment operations, and the leverage points throughout that advocates outside of government can use to inform and shape agency action. 

• Familiarity with data sources available to states and possible uses of and threats implicated by such data in Medicaid, including, for example, state wage and unemployment data, IRS data, SNAP data, TANF data, PARIS, private data sources (e.g., The Work Number), NDNH, BENDEX, SDX, MMIS, and others. You do not need to be familiar with all of these data sources. 

• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills to convey technical information to various audiences with non-technical backgrounds (including teammates, partners, coalition members, and low-income communities) through written materials, one-on-one or small-group consultations, and workshop or conference presentations. 

• Networks of state officials, state vendors, and subcontractors you can leverage to communicate ways to minimize harm to Medicaid recipients.

• The independent initiative, time management skills, follow-through, and flexibility needed to thrive in a fluid startup nonprofit environment.

• Comfort articulating the intersections between poverty, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, age, disability, and related characteristics.

• Emotional intelligence, empathy, and righteous fury.

Other Valued Attributes: 

• Experience in advocacy. This can include, but is not limited to, a paid advocacy role, volunteer efforts, or workplace organizing. 

• Experience devising creative, tech-enabled approaches to advance advocacy aims.

• Candidates who live in or have extensive working experience in the U.S. South are particularly encouraged to apply.

If you meet the core experience requirement and some, but not all, of the others, please still consider applying or email us to ask about where you fall short. 

We encourage applications from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, women, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and people most impacted by systemic injustice. 

Employment decisions are made based on qualifications and organizational needs, without regard to race, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, citizenship status, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any protected characteristic under applicable law. 

Salary: $120K-$150K, depending on experience. 

Schedule Flexibility: TechTonic Justice will allow flexibility in scheduling regular work hours to fit the successful candidate’s personal situation, including health needs or caregiving responsibilities. This flexibility will be limited by reasonable organizational needs, including sufficient availability for internal meetings, external meetings, and community relationships. Candidates should anticipate occasional deviation from scheduled work hours to complete deadline-driven projects. 

*** Presently, we do not anticipate offering regular four-day workweeks. ***

Benefits: The benefits package presently includes (1) 100% of quality medical (platinum level), dental, vision, life, and disability insurance for the employee, (2) 50% of dependents’ medical, dental, and vision insurance, (3) an automatic contribution by TechTonic Justice of 4% of annual salary to a Vanguard 403(b) retirement account (additionally, employees may choose to contribute a portion of their salaries), and (4) unlimited paid time off, subject to approval by the President in accordance with relevant operational considerations.

To apply: Submit the following by 11:59 p.m. pacific time on October 20. Late applications will not be considered. Please include the following: 

• Cover letter of up to 2 pages explaining your specific interest in and qualifications for the job. Please do not use AI to draft it. Do not submit a generic cover letter.

• Resume of up to 4 pages

• Linked or attached to your cover letter: Example work product demonstrating your ability to communicate technical information to non-technical audiences. The example can include written or verbal material. If written, the example should be in PDF format and include no more than 5 pages of substance with one additional page to give relevant context. If verbal, include relevant context, provide a link, and identify a segment for us to listen to or view that does not exceed 3 minutes. 

Process: Applications will be reviewed promptly after the application deadline. The most promising applicants will be selected for a first interview likely to happen in late October or early November. The most promising interviewees will advance to a second interview likely to happen in the middle of November. We may ask candidates to complete a short exercise. We will check references of finalists. We reserve the option to conduct a third round of interviews if necessary. We would strongly prefer the successful candidate to start by December 8.

***Due to the anticipated volume of applications, we may not be able to inform unsuccessful applicants or provide individualized feedback. 

Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities during the application process and after hiring. Please write people@techtonicjustice.org to request any needed accommodations. 

Questions:  Please submit any questions to people@techtonicjustice.org.