Software Engineer & Technologist Blue Ridge Labs

Overview

About Robin Hood

Founded in 1988, Robin Hood finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions on economic mobility in New York City. The largest poverty fighting organization in New York City, Robin Hood partners with top nonprofits in New York City and invests in legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, education programs, and other vital services that give New Yorkers in need the tools they need to build better lives. The programs it funds are often the first of their kind and serve as demonstration models to identify what works before being replicated in other cities. Because its Board of Directors covers 100% of all administrative, fundraising, and evaluation costs, every dollar donated goes directly to organizations helping New Yorkers in need.

While Robin Hood’s primary focus is on New York, its impact extends far beyond the borders of the city. Its pioneering, metrics-based approach has become the gold standard for charities around the nation as Robin Hood works to understand and evaluate the impact of its partners to ensure that its philanthropic dollars are utilized to maximum impact. Robin Hood also supports its community partners and their leaders with financial and strategic support and management assistance that allows those organizations to maximize their impact.

Building on our 30 years of experience, Robin Hood is expanding our impact with an explicit focus on lifting families sustainably and measurably out of poverty through supporting the most effective community partners; influencing public policy; raising our thought leadership profile; importing and exporting effective ideas and strategies nationally; and building new collaborations with strategic partners. As New York City emerges from the worst of the global pandemic, we are focused on getting families back on their feet; getting kids back on track; and getting New Yorkers back to work.

Robin Hood also understands that if we are to support families living in poverty and find permanent pathways out of poverty and towards financial independence, we must become an effective partner with government, especially at the City and State levels. We do this by leveraging the expertise of those who are closest to the challenges of poverty, including community members, community-based organizations, and others with specialized skills and knowledge. We also aim to collaborate with New York City government to fund program and policy innovations that hold the promise of expanding economic opportunity in New York City – providing nimble “risk capital” for high-potential strategies. In this way, we seek to leverage our philanthropic investments by finding ways to advance the highest-impact strategies at scale.

Given its long-standing reputation among influencers and support of over 200 New York City non-profit organizations, Robin Hood has the unique ability to be a catalyzing force for households experiencing poverty, bringing distinct constituencies together to develop and spread the most effective strategies to advance economic mobility in New York City and beyond.

About Blue Ridge Labs

Blue Ridge Labs, a program of Robin Hood, connects low-income community members with technologists to tackle economic inequality. We provide the space, funding, and resources to develop life-changing products and services. Our ventures impact millions of people creating solutions to access benefits, increase their income, seek legal services, support their education, and hold landlords accountable. We value humans first, redefining the room, engaging the messiness, leaning into discomfort, and have a strong bias towards action over words.

Position Overview

The Software Engineer & Technologist is a core member of Blue Ridge Labs. This person would be part of the team responsible for building and managing innovative technical solutions that scale and amplify the impact of the Blue Ridge Labs and our ventures. This includes being our resident technology expert with an emphasis on “low-code/no-code” software, designing and launching new creative and sustainable solutions to scale our work, developing tools to support our programs, managing existing software systems and tools, and providing hands-on coaching and mentorship to ventures and program participants. As a member of the Labs team, they also may contribute in broader program design and delivery activities, including recruiting technologists, helping to plan and deliver training, and informing our strategy of how and where to utilize technology in improving the lives of those living in low-income communities.

This position reports to the Managing Director for Blue Ridge Labs and works closely with the program leads.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Serve as the resident technology expert. This includes:
• Informing and coaching the team members on the latest technology advances to accelerate and scale our work with an emphasis on, but not limited to, “low-code/no-code” software as well as leading software platforms (e.g. Airtable, Zapier, Make, Webflow, AWS, Google Cloud, etc.)
• Working with the Managing Director to design and implement effective systems to capture learnings, track progress, facilitate program activities and regularly evaluate program components 
• Designing and launching technology solutions scaling our work and impact. This includes:
• Leading in the creation of tools that enable us to support our programs and to more effectively engage with impact entrepreneurs, low-income communities, and stakeholders including, but not limited to, alumni, donors, investors, mentors, and community partners
• Leading the implementation and maintenance of software tools and systems needed to support Blue Ridge Labs programming and initiatives
• Oversee the development and maintenance of Blue Ridge Labs’ systems. This includes:
• Working closely with the managing director and program leads to design and implement upgrades to Patterns, our in-house platform that is used to manage the Design Insight Group, a community of New Yorkers providing user research and insight in the development of new technologies fighting poverty
• Maintaining and overseeing all existing software solutions and tools
• Creating and updating support documentation and reference materials for related tools and programming
• Engage and manage outside contractors providing technical support for Blue Ridge Labs
• Working with relevant Robin Hood staff to support reporting for existing organizational systems (e.g. Salesforce)
• Advise on the technical strategy. This includes:
• Working closely with the Managing Director of Blue Ridge Labs to develop and implement the Labs’ program strategy, including setting initiative-wide goals, piloting new initiatives, and measuring program outcomes
• Supporting the development of a culture of collaborative innovation and experimentation
• Supporting and advising product development and technical programming. Currently, Blue Ridge Labs offers two venture programs — Fellowship and Catalyst– that serve as early stage incubator and accelerator for tech solutions to social problems. This includes:
• Informing the design and delivery of program content that helps participants to develop and execute on product roadmaps 
• Recruiting technologists to participate and support program activities
• Working with technical teams to set strategy and architecture 
• Providing hands-on coaching and mentorship to ventures and program participants
• Help teams to access low and pro bono resources as well as manage volunteers to build quickly and cheaply
• Advising founders as they recruit, select, and on-board technical talent

 

 Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software development experience
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field preferred
• Strong CS fundamentals with proficiency in one or more languages such as HTML, Java, JavaScript, CSS, Python, or similar languages
• Comfort working across the stack in a variety of languages with a good understanding of the latest web standards
• Deep knowledge and experience with “low-code/no-code” software solutions including Airtable, leading integrations, and third-party APIs
• A “builder” and “problem solver” that can use a combination of “low-code/no-code” software solutions and customized software, as necessary, to create solutions to support efficient workflows
• Utilizes a creative and flexible approach to problem-solving with an emphasis on finding ways to quickly test new ideas and a willingness to change course in the face of new feedback or data
• Experience managing technical projects and technical teams (in-person vs. remote, full-time, vs. contractor, etc.) 
• Startup experience highly preferred. Example, experience launching a software product or service at a for-profit company or non-profit organization
• Enjoys working in small, highly collaborative teams and is willing to go above and beyond the specifics of a job description to help the team succeed
• Strong empathy and communication skills, particularly the ability to comfortably connect and interact with people from diverse range of backgrounds 
• Knowledge of the challenges faced by underserved populations in New York City whether through prior formal or informal work and / or direct personal experience preferred, but not required
• High level of familiarity with agile / lean software development and testing approaches; experience with the practices and tools of user experience (UX) research a plus, but not required

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Robin Hood is committed to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation in all aspects of its work. As New York City’s largest poverty-fighting organization, Robin Hood believes that building a diverse team is fundamental to its ability to effectively serve and strengthen organizations serving the most vulnerable communities in the city, and to influence the policies that affect them.

Robin Hood believes in the potential that diversity creates – deep and responsive relationships with its community partners; the ability to solve complex problems efficiently and effectively; and, most importantly, the ability of its diverse staff to work to its full capacity.

Robin Hood builds diversity, inclusion, and equity practices into all aspects of its work. Its practices, values, traditions, and beliefs are embedded in the inclusive culture that it creates. Operationally, its formal and informal structures support a work environment that advances the professional development of staff at all levels, allows for innovation, and grounds its work as poverty fighters.

In its workplace, diversity equals representation. Robin Hood seeks to attract and retain a staff that reflects the communities that it serves. Racial and ethnic diversity matter to it, as does diversity among other cultural identifiers (ability, educational background, generation, gender, gender expression religion, immigration status, military status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status).

Diversity within Robin Hood’s staff is enhanced by its efforts at meaningful inclusion. It ensures that team members are empowered to make decisions, offer actionable feedback, and share credit for team success. Further, Robin Hood seeks to develop its talent professionally and has created an intentional focus on mentorship and sponsorship, particularly of junior staff. its goal is to encourage long term talent retention and engagement, while fostering a culture of innovation.

Robin Hood Guiding Principles

As an organization committed to economic mobility, our work is grounded in the following Guiding Principles:

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion 
• Proximity and humanity
• Risk-taking and innovation      

Our professional community reflects myriad demographic characteristics, perspectives, and backgrounds, which includes various identities that reflect diversity in gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and socioeconomic status. Our colleagues have access to opportunity and advancement, as we promote fair and equitable treatment and have encouraged participation by underrepresented groups. As a team, we promote a sense of belonging, high levels of engagement, and shared respect.

• Robin Hood puts people first. Always.
• Robin Hood is unafraid to take action and create solutions.
• Robin Hood is data driven and heart led.
• Robin Hood works the coat check.