Help Us
Job Opportunities
Want to play a role in saving our democracy?
Want to have an extraordinary experience and opportunity to work at the Project's spectacular Montana mountain retreat?
The Project maintains a modest staff primarily composed of recent college graduates dedicated to our mission of voter education and candidate accountability. All staff commit to work through the next general election, at a minimal salary. The Project Vote Smart pledge, signed by all staff, commits individuals to absolute impartiality, respect and deference toward all citizens, and professional integrity.
It is essential that all applicants believe in Project Vote Smart's mission. The contributions you make to your country and the extensive experience you gain will make it worthwhile. Project Vote Smart provides medical benefits, as well as the most extraordinary experience of your life!
If you are interested in contributing to this effort, please send your cover letter, resume and three references to researchjobs@votesmart.org for Research positions or jobs@votesmart.org for other positions. Please indicate the position for which you are applying.
Unless otherwise noted, all positions are at our Philipsburg, MT office. Project Vote Smart is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Please see our Equal Opportunity Policy for more details.
Job Title: Communications Associate
Location: Philipsburg, MT
Description:
The Communications Associate will serve as part of Project Vote Smart's Development and Communications team. This person will primarily support all in-house fundraising and communications activities including media relations, monthly eNews, social media, and program or membership promotion.
Responsibilities:
Communications:
-Coordinate the production of regular, relevant content on all social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn), our blog, and e-newsletters to potential and current members. Coordinate the response to any comments on these platforms.
-Maintaining our outreach contact databases (including media, universities, elections office, corporations, etc).
-In collaboration with the Development and Communications Director, help develop copy for email communications to potential and current members outside of the e-newsletter.
-Help track PVS's media coverage by maintaining clipping files and interview/story database.
-In collaboration with Development and Communications Director, conduct interviews with non-national media as needed.
-Implement outreach campaign to get mentions and links on other websites and to police negative comments.
Development:
-Assisting the Development and Communications Director with fundraising and development initiatives as needed.
-Processing incoming donations and corresponding with members via letter, telephone and email as needed.
General:
-Train, evaluate, and provide regular feedback to any interns placed under your supervision in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Internship Coordinator.
-Regularly reevaluate and update policy and procedure manuals as approved by the Development and Communications Director.
-Assist in answering the phone, office cleaning, and other office-wide tasks as scheduled by the Office Manager
Requirements:
Ability to learn programs and processes quickly
Excellent interpersonal skills Knowledge of Microsoft Office programs
Basic understanding of organizational structure of print & radio media
Experience with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn
Those with photography, graphic design, HTML, and videography experience encouraged to apply
Applicants must be highly detail-oriented, have superior organizational and time management skills, have a strong work ethic, and be committed to the Project's mission of voter education and candidate accountability. Applicants must be willing to commit through the November 2012 election.
Job Title: Information Technology Staff
Location: Philipsburg, MT
Description:
Project Vote Smart is seeking a person to fill a third Information Technology position at its beautiful Montana Research Retreat. The position would play a crucial role in supplying political data to millions of citizens and media.
Responsibilities:
-Assisting with web development
-Maintaining website and internal applications
-Maintaining UNIX/Linux servers and Windows workstations
-Providing technical support
Requirements:
-Experience with web development, especially Django. Some experience with PHP, XML, JavaScript, jQuery
-Working knowledge of Linux/Unix
-Experience supporting users in a mixed OS environment (Windows XP/2K/Linux)
-Good Attitude, motivated to learn and can pick things up quickly on own.
-Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
-Familiarity with scripting/programming (bash, perl, python, java, C/C++)
-BS/MS or equivalent
-Familiarity with webservers, DNS, MTAs, Samba, and firewalls
-Experience with web technologies (PHP, XML, JSP, Perl)
-Proficiency in SQL and database design principles. Postgresql and Slony experience a plus
Job Title: Research Associate
Location: Philipsburg, MT
Description:
Research Associates are the backbone of Project Vote Smart's efforts. Research Associates will be matched to assignments based on their demonstrated abilities and in accordance with the shifting needs of a growing, election-oriented organization. Exceptional applicants may find themselves with opportunities to help manage and develop program areas within months of their start date.
Examples of programs that the researcher may be involved with are:
-Current Officials: The first step to connecting citizens to their government is making it easy for them to find out who their representatives actually are, what their roles are, and how to contact them. Researchers for this program are responsible for making sure that at any given time, our roster of tens of thousands of officials mirrors those currently in office. Other tasks may include inputting biographical information, contact information, committee assignments, and leadership positions.
-Political Courage Test: Project Vote Smart challenges candidates to tell voters where they stand on the issues, but when candidates don't have the courage, we answer the questions for them. Researchers may be involved with: administering Political Courage Tests to candidates through mailings, email, and phone contacts; inputting candidate responses in our database; and collecting evidence for and determining candidates' issue positions.
-Legislative Research: Project Vote Smart makes it easy to see how representatives act in office, summarizing in plain language the key votes made in all 50 states and Congress. Researchers for this program may be involved with tracking the progress of legislation in several states, reading and summarizing legislation, and entering in the votes made by representatives.
-Interest Group Ratings: Project Vote Smart collects performance evaluations of public officials from hundreds of interest groups on the state and national level. Researchers for this program retrieve and normalize these evaluations, as well as collect information about the interest groups to provide context.
-Public Statements: From climate change to how they feel about the business down the street, Project Vote Smart maintains a warehouse of every public utterance made by key politicians. Researchers are responsible for collecting, classifying, formatting, and inputting these statements.
-Public Engagement: Not everyone will gravitate to and make sense of Vote Smart's vast database on their own, so our researchers are often involved in answering our Voter's Research Hotline, researching special requests made by those who call or write, highlighting data relevant to the events of the day on various platforms, and visualizing our data.
Requirements:
Ideal applicants will have a good understanding of government and politics, a solid knowledge of current events, experience in researching political issues, exceptional web searching skills, good written and oral communication skills, and experience with normalizing data. Those that are highly self-motivated, willing to help out wherever needed, organized, detailed-oriented, committed to self-improvement, and in possession of a strong work ethic do not need to have related experience.
