Implementation Engineer

About Recidiviz

Recidiviz is a non-profit technology company building common, open-source technical infrastructure to help the criminal justice system reduce incarceration and achieve better outcomes (both for the public and those within the system).

Criminal justice data today is fragmented and hard to use. Our platform not only links and standardizes data across silos, but exposes it in usable formats to help drive state criminal justice agencies toward real-time, data-informed decision making. Recidiviz helps corrections leaders test what’s working and what’s not—and then do more of what’s working. Our mission is to build healthier, safer communities by improving outcomes for justice-involved individuals.

Company History

Recidiviz was an all-volunteer effort until early 2019. Since February 2019, we’ve built an A-team of software engineers, designers, product managers and domain experts. To date, our team has partnered with six states, representing over 10% of the nation’s incarcerated population. And we’re just getting started. For more about us, check out:

• Website: www.recidiviz.org
• Medium: https://medium.com/recidiviz
• Github: www.github.com/Recidiviz
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/recidiviz

You can see Recidiviz in the news right here.

(You can also read a bit more about our founder on Fast Company or Forbes 30 Under 30)

About the Role

At the core of our work is a process we call ingest: consuming data from various siloed data sources, normalizing and cleaning it, linking it together, and ultimately preparing it for Recidiviz analytics and product development. For each new state we work with, there is an up-front process to define the data integration layer that powers ingest for that state, test the integration configuration, and validate the results of our ingest and calculation processes. When integration for a state is completed, we can begin our work to improve the outcomes of the state’s justice systems in earnest. With each new state onboarded, our potential impact grows. This ingest process is the chief responsibility of Implementation Engineers at Recidiviz, a critical and high impact role.

We are looking for people who can reason about complex datasets and data models, develop sophisticated data transformations, think clearly about systems, communicate effectively with a broad group of people, and stay organized on long-term projects. Just as importantly, they need to have a collaborative and kind nature to add to our culture.

There is a preference for people who would be willing to work from either our San Francisco or New York City offices, but remote is also okay. There is also a preference for people who have been exposed to the criminal justice domain and are familiar with its institutions, workings, and data.

Core responsibilities

• Define, test, and validate integrations with new states that sign up to work with Recidiviz
• Collaborate effectively with points of contact in state governments to develop accurate data integrations
• Update existing data integrations when called for by new analytics or product development, or changes in underlying data systems
• Improve the processes and organization of the ingest lifecycle to accelerate our expansion across the country
• Work closely with our State Engagement team to help set the onboarding priority for new states based on knowledge of their data systems and the roadmap of our Implementation Engineering team
• Work closely with our Data Analytics and Data Science team to ensure they have the data they need to power new analysis and research behind criminal justice reform

Minimum qualifications

• High empathy and kindness
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent experience
• 2+ years of practical experience working with data in a professional environment
• A desire to explore, troubleshoot, and solve challenging data issues
• Clear written and verbal communication skills
• Significant experience using SQL to transform or analyze data

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in a cross-functional setting, capable of working closely with our State Engagement, Product Management, Data Analytics and Data Science, and Engineering teams
• Comfort working with external partners from diverse backgrounds and worldviews, including government staff, researchers, journalists, and other practitioners in criminal justice reform
• Experience with or exposure to the criminal justice domain, including familiarity with its institutions, workings, and data
• Experience with the tools in our tech stack, including Python, Postgresql, BigQuery, and Apache Beam
• Some experience working with programming languages to accomplish basic tasks

Important Note

Lasting change is always built on diversity. Recidiviz is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace, committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or veteran status. We consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a special need that requires accommodation, please let us know in your application.

Even if you don't think you meet all the criteria above, drop your resume, and we'll take a look. You might even be right for another role and/or another time.