Help Us Save the Internet: EFF Seeks a Tech Projects Director

There’s a very rare opportunity available right now for an engineering director to join EFF’s leadership team, and we’re asking our community to help us find the perfect candidate.

We’re doing an open hire for our Technology Projects Director role. The role will lead a 16-person team that uses its creativity and skill to create a more secure, private, and censorship-resistant Internet. In addition, this director position joins our senior leadership team, helping EFF figure out what positions to take, what projects to invest resources in, and the strategic direction of the organization. That’s because EFF believes that technical expertise should be embedded at every level of our organizational decision-making.

This role has two huge benefits: the ability to use your work to change the world and a chance to work at a place that cares deeply about the people doing the work.

What do we mean by change the world? This role is uniquely positioned to leave a big legacy on the planet. EFF’s Technology Projects team is a high-performing team whose day-to-day management decisions are handled by two directors that will support this position. The team is responsible for projects such as: 

• Privacy Badger, EFF’s wildly popular tracker blocker
• HTTPS Everywhere, used by millions to make their web browsing more secure
• Certbot, a Let’s Encrypt client helping website owners globally receive and install SSL certificates to secure their sites
• Panopticlick, a research and education project that sheds light on the seedy underbelly of browser fingerprinting
• STARTTLS Everywhere, a project to foster STARTTLS adoption and make email delivery more secure
• EFF’s Threat Lab, which has published blockbuster investigations into abusive practices by technology companies, leading to major policy changes

Perhaps even  more importantly, this role will help us dream up the next chapter. Given the pressing threats of government and corporate power on everyday users, how can EFF best use its resources to defend users? What new software projects should we launch? Where can we best influence technology policy? We’re looking for people with creativity, vision, and the right amount of optimism and humility to help us answer those questions. And we promise – it’ll be fun.  

EFF is more than just a place to work. It’s a community. Our workplace culture is steeped in an ethos that prioritizes kindness to our colleagues, and we deliberately seek applicants with different perspectives, identities, and experiences to build an inclusive workplace. We believe people should be able to work here while also having family commitments and outside interests, and our benefits and our culture reflect that. Some people join EFF having been burned by unfeeling tech companies or corporate law jobs, and coming to EFF can feel a lot like coming home – a place where everyone genuinely wants you to be successful, where we do our best to leave drama at the door even as passion is welcomed, and where we offer flexibility and opportunities for personal and professional development.  

We want to encourage lots of different people to apply for this role, but we won’t achieve that without the help of our community. Please help EFF by sending a note about this role to folks that you believe might be a good fit, and sharing this announcement on social media.

And if you’re thinking of potentially applying but have a few questions, then please drop me a note at rainey@eff.org, and either I or one of my colleagues will get back to you. 

Read details of the role and apply by visiting our hiring portal.