Operations Manager wanted for world leading open data publication software team

If you’re an operations manager with IT experience who’d like to help build exciting open data projects then we’d love to hear from you. The Open Knowledge Foundation is recruiting a full-time, UK-based, Operations Manager to join our main Services infrastructure team (http://okfn.org/services) to support delivery of projects and activities within the unit, management of individual team members, and oversight and coordination of projects and operations. Some project management will also be required to implement contracts.Our team provides high quality professional and technical services to clients around the world to help achieve our vision of a world empowered by open knowledge. We implement this through support of infrastructure development and capacity-building for open knowledge data sites for governments, institutions and organisations. CKAN, our open data publication platform, is an open source web-based software project written in Python. It allows users to submit, search for and find open data. As well as powering the US government’s data.gov website, CKAN is also behind over 50 other data catalogues around the world (http:///instances).

Responsibilities

The Operations Manager collaborates closely with the Commercial Lead / Head of Unit to ensure that Services delivers high quality work and meets its revenue targets; the Operations Manager has a focus on internal delivery. The role also works closely with Project Managers and the Technical Lead within the Services team. Your responsibilities will include:

• Line-management of individual technical and non-technical team team members, including goal-setting, mentoring, and feedback;
• Internal operations process oversight, ensuring that project planning is consistent, that delivery is effective, and that implementation is coordinated across the team;
• Oversight of administrative support through tracking contracts and projects, collaboration with OKF Operations team in getting invoices out on time and payments in, and managing team and personnel costs;
• Operational support, reporting and communications within the team, to the broader OKF and to the OKF Leadership, as well as supporting cross-team collaboration;

In addition, the Operations Manager will undertake Project Management of client projects as needed; such projects may include training, research, consultancy, software customisation and development. The Open Knowledge Foundation is a virtual, distributed organisation with team members working remotely on four continents. The team meets occasionally through the year face-to-face, especially for strategic planning and review. This role is a remote / home-based working position, full-time and UK-based.

Experience requirements

• Management of business operations in a technical, software development environment in an agile, non-hierarchical workplace;
• Working in, and managing, remote working and distributed teams;
• Project managing customer / client requirements to deadlines and demonstrating exceptional time management;
• Delivering research or consultancy projects for public or private sector clients;
• Administration of institutional and government procurement-based projects;
• Excellent communication, negotiation and presentation skills;
• Enthusiasm about open data and open knowledge.

How to apply

Email us your CV and a cover letter describing your interest in this role to jobs@okfn.org, with the subject line “Operations Manager - CKAN/Services”, by 22nd September 2013.

About the Open Knowledge Foundation

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is an internationally recognized non-profit working to open knowledge and see it used to empower and improve the lives of citizens around the world. We build tools, provide advice and develop communities in the area of open knowledge: data, content and information which can be freely shared and used. We believe that by creating an open knowledge commons we can make a significant contribution to improving governance, research and the economy. The last two years have seen rapid growth in our activities, increasing our annual revenue to £2m and our team to over 35 across four continents. We are a virtual organisation with the whole team working remotely, although we have informal clusters in London, Cambridge and Berlin. The OKF is an international leader in its field and has extensive experience in building open source tools and communities around open material. The Foundation’s software development work includes some of the most innovative and widely acclaimed projects in the area. For example, its CKAN project is the world’s leading open source data portal platform – used by data.gov, data.gov.uk, the European Commission’s open data portal, and numerous national, regional and local portals from Austria to Brazil. The award winning OpenSpending project enables users to explore over 13 million government spending transactions from around the world. It has an active global network which includes Working Groups and Local Groups in dozens of countries – including groups, ambassadors and partners in 21 of Europe’s 27 Member States. We’re changing the world by promoting a global shift towards more open ways of working in government, arts, sciences and much more.