who we are

Title: Solutions Specialist

Reports to: Database Manager & Knowledge Curator

Position type: Part-Time Staff (20 hours/week at $20/hour)

Exempt or Non-Exempt (Salaried or Hourly): Non-Exempt (Salaried)

Additional Benefits: 2 weeks vacation and $500 Technology Stipend

Applications due: February 6, 2020 at 5pm EST

Final notifications by April 20, 2020

Start Date: May 1, 2020

The Solutions Specialist is a key role that takes care of the growth, quality, and curation of the Solutions Story Tracker: a digital database of solutions stories and a distinctive knowledge asset that can provide high value to journalists, citizens, and actors across society. Through analysis, indexing, and curation of solutions journalism stories, our Solutions Specialist will be equipping society with the information that it needs to tackle today’s most pressing social problems, while acquiring valuable experience in the growing field of the digital humanities.

About SJN and the Solutions Story Tracker:

The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN)’s mission is to spread the practice of solutions journalism: rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. We seek to rebalance the news, so that every day people are exposed to stories that help them understand problems and challenges, and stories that show potential ways to respond. SJN trains journalists how to report on responses to problems in the world and continues to serve the journalism community.

The success of SJN’s outreach has yielded a growing critical mass of solutions stories that needs archiving.  In 2016, we launched a curated database of solutions journalism called the Solutions Story Tracker. These stories produce immediate value for the people who come across them. They can help journalists, policymakers, academics, philanthropic institutions, and citizen-sector actors bridge the gaps between what is broadly understood about problems and what is usually not understood about emerging responses to those problems.

It is important to note that SJN is a nonpartisan organization committed to transparency and editorial independence. We do not support or advocate for any particular idea, model, organization, or agenda.

We are hiring for six positions.

Each position will become an expert in one beat: Health, Environment & Agriculture, Democracy, Economic Equity, Education, or Criminal Justice. In addition, we are looking for candidates who have expertise in specific skill-sets for ongoing and timebound projects. These skill sets are listed in the application.

• Time Commitment: Part-time Staff Position at 20 hours per week
• 10 hours: Story reviewing (i.e. vetting and tagging of stories)
• 10 hours: Story and collection curation for the SJN website, staff, or partners. In addition, each Solutions Specialist will lead, or co-lead with a colleague, ongoing and timebound projects. These projects include but are not limited to sourcing stories, piloting a new newsletter, design a system for archiving collections, or create audio or visual creations to enhance story collections.

Responsibilities:

• Vet stories based on solutions journalism criteria
• Tag stories using the issue area, success factor, and other taxonomies
• Be resident expert of solutions journalism stories on a particular issue
• Source examples of solutions journalism for an assigned beat topic
• Curate collections of relevant and interesting solutions journalism for various audiences
• Manage featured page(s) or other relevant story content for the SJN website
• Review and oversee the quality of the story database
• Reflect on your learnings through presentations and projects
• Keep updated with the latest news and developments happening at SJN
• Engage with other Solutions Specialists on Slack and help answer questions
• Train and manage contractors who will be hired as needed to help vet and tag stories to keep story queues at a healthy level. This includes managing invoices and contractors’ work performance.
• Attend in-person and remote meetings, including weekly SJN and Knowledge Dissemination team meetings
• Opportunities to attend SJN events during the year to represent the database

Skills We Are Looking For:

• Avid & Critical Reader: You love to critically engage with what you read, take it apart, and think about it analytically.
• Self-Starter: You work well alone and with others.
• Driven & Dependable: You always get the job done and strive to get the best result possible with what you were given. You have excellent self-organization and time-management.
• Adaptable: You are able to hit the ground running. We’re a fast paced organization experiencing a lot of growth, so you should be able to handle changes and learn new systems quickly.
• Detail Oriented: You pay close attention to details, make important observations, and ask critical questions.
• Thoughtful Communicator: You care about relationships and want to bring out the best in people in written correspondence and in person conversation.
• People and Project Management: You have some previous management experience or experience being a leader.
• Excellent Writer: You can succinctly summarize others’ writing and can write well without the need of an editor
• Passion for solutions journalism to build a better world through the dissemination of solutions journalism.

Do you have skills that we haven’t thought of that you can bring to this job? Tell us how you can see this role benefit from your own individual genius.

Does this sound like your calling? We hope so!

We’re an energetic, ambitious, and fun bunch. We want someone great to join us. We need focused entrepreneurs for this job, who sees opportunities at every turn—and can execute upon them. We need people who know how to solve problems, with appetites for experimentation and appreciations for ambiguity.

Diversity of perspective, identity, and experience is also incredibly important to us.

We want to reflect and serve the whole of society. As a result, we encourage diverse applicants to seek employment, and we make all employment decisions without regard to race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or any other factors protected by federal, state or local law. SJN is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Won’t you join us?

Click here to apply.

Timeline:

Applications due: February 6, 2020

Interviews: February 11-March 20, 2020

Final Notifications: April 20, 2020

Start date: May 1, 2020

Click the "Apply for this Job" button above and fill out a quick form if you would like to receive notifications about job, internship, or volunteer opportunities with the Solutions Journalism Network. You will also be able to specify what volunteer opportunities interest you.