Minnesota Data Director

Position Summary

Organization Overview

America Votes (AV) works with over 400 state and national partner organizations to advance progressive policies, win elections, and protect every American’s right to vote.

Since 2003, America Votes has been the common link between many of the largest and most influential issue and membership organizations in the country, serving as the coordination hub of the progressive community. America Votes’ work has brought together a wide range of causes and built a unified coalition that has transformed how the progressive community works. Together, we have engaged communities across the country to act on critical issues – from fighting for working families, to defending reproductive freedom, to protecting the environment, and more – and mobilized millions of voters to turn out on Election Day.

America Votes works year-round nationally and in more than 20 states, acting as permanent campaign infrastructure to continually advance progressive causes and win elections. America Votes provides a range of services to partners, including strategic planning, advocacy and electoral campaign coordination, data tools and targeting services, and on-the-ground leadership in states.

America Votes also works to improve election systems and fight back against efforts to suppress voters, taking the lead throughout their state network to coordinate and execute advocacy campaigns with allies to reform elections and modernize the voting process.

Racial Equity Statement

As a leader of collaborative efforts to mobilize voters, protect voting rights, and win elections, America Votes is committed to advancing racial equity within our organization and across our coalition. We acknowledge the systematic racism that permeates all facets of our society, beginning with the foundational right to vote. America Votes is also engaging with an understanding of the ways gender, sexuality and other forms of oppression intersect with race and how those relationships impact inequities faced by our staff, our partners, and the communities that we engage in our work. America Votes strives to model our commitment to racial equity through our internal and external operations, programs, and partnerships. We acknowledge the inequitable structures that continue to exist and are moving forward with a sustained commitment in time, resources and people to challenge structural racism and work towards creating a reflective organization and democracy.

Position Description

America Votes is seeking a well-organized self-starter for a full-time position as Data Director. The Data Director plays a key role in the supporting campaign strategy and direct voter contact programs for the progressive movement. America Votes offers its diverse set of progressive partners a range of voter file, data, and targeting services. We seek a service-oriented individual with a combination of technical and political skills for this work. This position is ideal for someone who is ready for a mid-level role in a campaign environment, has a passion for helping others do their best work, and is excited about the details and tools that power direct voter contact programs. This position reports directly to the Minnesota State Director.

Location

This position is based in St. Paul and may require travel around the state. Other Minnesota locations may be considered.

Responsibilities

• Project Management: Support the state director in implementing America Votes’ organizational goals, including REI goals. Participate in team creation of work plans and team benchmarks for success. Manage special projects to deliver on team goals.

• Voter File Management and Maintenance: Manage voter file access for AV partner organizations and their consultants. This includes administration and security, training end-users, and providing technical assistance as needed. Work with staff, partners, vendors, consultants, and others for the acquisition, enhancement, manipulation, and management of voter and member data.

• Management of Data Tools: Lead partner and organizational VAN and campaign data trainings. This includes identifying the various training needs, creating the necessary training materials, and leading the presentations. Provide support, including training and troubleshooting, for the implementation of various campaign tools.

• Partner Support and Service: Work with partner organizations using the voter file and other technologies to support, enhance, and execute programs. This includes assisting partners in employing program implementation best practices as well as converting technical data to actionable issue advocacy and electoral campaign recommendations.

• Coalition Support and Service: Responsible for coalition alignment on data and targeting which may include participating and leading various work groups or other meetings. Responsible for sharing data and tactic best practices during coalition meetings. Work with staff and partner groups to ensure that political and voter contact programs are maximizing shared voter file, targeting, and other data resources. This includes supporting staff and partner groups to develop campaign plans. support coalition partners through the development of campaign plans (electoral, redistricting, voting rights, campus organizing, and issue campaigns), providing technical assistance, responding to programmatic requests and participating actively in long-range strategic planning for the Minnesota progressive movement. Support, and sometimes lead, the creation and development of written reports and products. Deliver presentations to various stakeholders, sometimes on short notice.

• Direct Voter Contact Strategy: Lead AV Minnesota’s data analysis and coordination efforts, and provide strategic data-driven recommendations to partners on campaign field and targeting. Lead data presentation development. Must be comfortable developing district profiles, landscape memos, slide show presentations, and other documents to communicate data analysis with key stakeholders.

• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

Required

• At least one cycle of experience (at least 2 years) with statewide data responsibilities. This includes experience with planning, program implementation, and analysis.
• Cultural competency, including the ability to communicate respectfully across lines of difference and a demonstrated understanding of how bias impacts the ability of different communities to vote and how racial disparity presents in data

• Strong sense of ownership and resilience with respect to planning ahead, finding alternative paths when needed, and bouncing back from setbacks and rejections.

• Candidates should have an understanding of common direct voter contact programs and experience using data to inform advocacy and electoral plans. Strong Voter Action Network ( VAN) or other database skills are required with at least one cycle of experience administering voter contact tools. Standout candidates will have experience with large scale canvass operations.
• Must have a minimum of introductory training on SQL; standout candidates will have experience using SQL including a comfort level with SELECT, WHERE, GROUPBY. Advanced Google Sheets or Excel skills required including familiarity with common functions (VLOOKUP, SUMIF, INDEX(MATCH)), pivot tables, and charts.
• Demonstrated ability to manage work in a high stress, fast paced environment. This includes demonstrating calm & clarity, balancing and re-balancing priorities, advancing program with required urgency, working collaboratively on a team, and building and maintaining trust with a diverse set of stakeholders
• Must be comfortable and able to present data in understandable ways, including visualizations, historical context, and more. Candidates must have a willingness and aptitude to seek out and learn new technical skills.
• The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated history of persistence and resourcefulness in solving technical and data problems. Candidates should have a spirit of service and curiosity, along with a diplomatic approach to problem-solving.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a high-volume of information with impeccable attention to detail in a fast-paced environment. Ability to manage several tasks/projects concurrently and prioritize work effectively by making and meeting team goals.
• Comfortable working with a diverse set of stakeholders in one-on-one meetings and group settings. Ideal candidates will have previous work experience in a coalition setting with a demonstrated ability to move people to action and hold them accountable with and without formal authority.
• Must be a self-starter willing to work long irregular campaign-style hours and to travel as needed, especially during campaign season. Meeting in person one-on-one, in small groups, and in large coalition meeting settings is required.

Preferred

• Standout candidates will have knowledge of and experience with Minnesota’s political landscape and/or independent expenditure campaigns.
• Experience preferred with at least one of the following: Mapping tools (QGIS, Maptitute, etc), visualization tools (Tableau, Periscope, Google Data Studio, etc), or analysis tools (R, Python).
• Experience conducting small group trainings or developing training materials for end users.
• Experience with direct voter contact tools like Scale to Win.
• Experience with ballot initiatives.

Compensation

The minimum starting salary for this position is $65,000 with a potential signing and election year bonus, based on performance and the state’s election landscape.

America Votes offers a competitive benefits package covering 100% of employee medical, dental, & vision insurance premiums, life insurance, long term disability coverage, a monthly cell phone stipend, personal professional development funds, parental leave, and 401 (K) after four months of continuous service with the organization.

America Votes provides a generous paid time off policy including paid vacation; paid sick leave and personal days; at least 10 Federal paid holidays including Juneteenth; and paid organizational time off from at least December 25 to January 1. The position is represented by the America Votes Workers Union.