Short-Term Consultancy: Anti-Censorship Technologist

ABOUT INTERNEWS

Internews is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with 40 years of experience in media development across the world. Internews supports independent journalism in 100+ countries, helping media outlets reach millions of people with quality information. We train individuals to report on topics such as health and the environment and help media organizations become financially sustainable. We do all of this in partnership with local communities — the people best placed to know what works. You can learn more about our work here: https://internews.org/areas-of-expertise/global-tech/what-we-do/

OVERVIEW

Internews seeks a consultant Anti-Censorship Technologist. The consultant will sit within the Multi-Regional PMU team’s Internet Freedom & Resilience (IFR) portfolio. Under the guidance of the Program Officer for Global Technology, the Technologist will coordinate with Internews staff and partners to support tracking and analysis of measures taken to counter Internet censorship. They will work with partners and teams to integrate anti-censorship tools and protocols into software; work with teams to plan and implement project activities, and contribute to the design and development of new programs within their area. Our ideal candidate brings an ethical, transparent, and community-focused approach to this work, a demonstrated track record of successfully collaborating with diverse teams, technical aptitude, and a passion for learning.

LOGISTICS

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates are encouraged to apply soon.

This is a limited-term consultancy, with an expected end date in July 2023.

OUR COMMITMENT TO FOSTERING A CULTURE OF BELONGING

We are an organization of dynamic, mission-driven individuals who are passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are an EEO employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences.

SCOPE OF WORK

• Coordinate internally and with partners to support tracking, data gathering, analysis of, and any available countermeasures to censorship events.
• Build threat models with anti-censorship tool development grantees.
• Assist development teams with the integration of anti-censorship tools or protocols into their software, such as the use of Tor, Psiphon, and/or Lantern.
• Deploy, monitor, and maintain servers running tools for network measurement.
• Contribute to the quarterly reports in accordance with donor requirements summarizing project activities, providing an update on the local context, and highlighting gaps or challenges.
• Work with the project team to ensure project activity planning, implementation, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation activities are rolled out in a timely manner, to a high standard of quality.
• Support business development efforts by contributing to the design and development of opportunities for new programs.
• In all duties, demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to upholding Internews’ Core Values.

Partner Engagement

• Work with Program Officer on Anti-Censorship project to advance projects that support anti-censorship tool development grantees and censorship circumvention providers.
• Mentor and train individuals, groups, or organization teams on the use of censorship analysis tools and methods.
• Support, mentor, and train individuals, groups, or organization teams on analyzing and reporting on censorship/network interference data.
• Work with other technologists within the organization on knowledge sharing.
• Be the first point of contact for urgent or emergency support for tool developers (partners).

QUALIFIED CONSULTANTS MAY HAVE THE FOLLOWING BACKGROUND:

General

• An ethical, transparent, and community-focused approach to work.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize a shifting workload, sometimes with tight deadlines.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team, to plan for flexibility at the program design and implementation levels, and to handle change.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a multicultural environment.
• Professional-level fluency in English.
• Optimism, a sense of humor, and excitement at joining a supportive, skilled, multi-cultural team that is distributed across the globe.
• Ability to explain complex technical subjects in lay language with those who have a less technical background.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong troubleshooting and analysis skills.

Anti-Censorship and Relevant Technical Requirements:

• A track record of using strong methodologies in network monitoring, reporting, and analysis in line with approaches adopted by the internet freedom community.
• Experience administrating Linux-based infrastructure in public and private cloud and virtualized environments.
• Solid understanding of the Internet’s building blocks (IP, DNS, SSL/TLS, etc.), as well as how these are leveraged in censorship tactics and anti-censorship methods.
• Installation, configuration, and management of network monitoring tools such as OONI probes.
• Use of at least one hosted, FOSS VPN solution (Outline, Streisand, Algo, etc.).
• Ability to use two or more scripting and/or programming languages such as Go, Rust, Swift to gather and analyze data.
• Ability to automate, correlate, and analyze data collection from diverse sources.
• Comfort with a wide variety of tools and ability to adapt and learn where needed.

Preferred

• Familiarity with at least one additional scripting language aside from those listed above.
• Any certifications in relevant domains, including but not limited to systems or network administration or areas of digital security.
• Familiarity with deployment tools (Ansible or others).
• Understanding of and experience using git workflows.
• Any security auditing or QA experience with regard to censorship circumvention tools.
• Ability to provide training on censorship circumvention tools and network measurement to a wide variety of stakeholders and skill levels.
• Experience as a hands-on technical trainer.
• Familiarity with statistical modeling tools.
• Experience working with non-technical audiences.
• Understanding of cross-cultural concerns in working with people around the world.
• Demonstrated understanding of gender-sensitive programming and approaches to civil society engagement.