Project Lead for Public Data - Military veterans preferred

Project Lead for Public Data

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The Harvard Library Innovation Lab (LIL) seeks a senior-level Project Lead for Public Data to design, launch, and steward a new, flagship initiative focused on collecting, preserving, and activating public data. Public data—legislative archives, climate records, court filings, administrative datasets, and more—is disappearing faster than our cultural and legal institutions can safeguard it. LIL aims to galvanize a cross-sector community, pilot new technical platforms, and advance best practices that will ensure this data remains available for scholarship, journalism, and civic life.

The Project Lead will pair deep subject-matter expertise in digital preservation and humanities-oriented data work with strong program-management, community-organizing, and fundraising skills. In close collaboration with LIL engineers, external civic-tech partners, librarians, scholars, and public-interest groups, the Project Lead will set strategy, supervise day-to-day execution, and serve as a public face of the initiative. This position carries substantial autonomy to shape direction, build partnerships, and secure ongoing resources.

About the Library Innovation Lab

Located at the Harvard Law Library, LIL is an experimental and collaborative lab with a broad mission focused on re-envisioning how knowledge is created, preserved, and accessed. Visit our website at https://lil.law.harvard.edu/ to get a sense of our current projects and activities.

LIL’s projects can range from large to small and can bring immediate benefit or prototype the future. Our work requires creative problem solving, enthusiasm for libraries, open knowledge, and civic technology, and the ability to work collaboratively on long-term and short-term projects.

As Project Lead for Public Data, you will:

• Establish and drive the strategic roadmap for LIL’s Public Data Initiative, from vision through implementation, evaluation, and sustainability.
• Lead a multi-disciplinary project team that may include internal staff, external contractors, fellows, and collaborators; set goals, delegate work, and ensure accountability.
• Identify funding opportunities, draft proposals, manage budgets, and oversee compliance/reporting for awards.
• Represent LIL and the Public Data Initiative in convenings with data rescue groups, libraries and archives, technologists, and government stakeholders.
• Design and implement a community organizing plan to support public data efforts across the emerging community of stakeholders and volunteers.
• Collaborate with LIL engineers and outside civic-tech contractors to scope, prioritize, and deliver open-source tools and workflows that model next-generation approaches to public-data capture, storage, description, and access.
• Develop and communicate compelling narratives (white papers, blog posts, presentations, policy briefs) that articulate the urgency of public-data preservation, document discoveries, and influence broader practice.
• Mentor junior staff, fellows, and students; foster an inclusive, experimental, and impact-oriented lab culture.
• Contribute substantively to LIL-wide strategic planning and cross-project collaboration, bringing a public-data lens to the Lab’s broader portfolio.

Basic Qualifications

Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.

Additional Qualifications and Skills

We welcome people who have:

• Demonstrated track record leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects from concept through launch and sustained operation.
• Proven experience securing and administering external funding (e.g., federal grants, foundation support), including budget oversight and reporting.
• Deep knowledge of data preservation challenges facing government and public-interest sectors, including legal, technical, and sociopolitical dimensions.
• Familiarity with digital-collection lifecycle workflows: appraisal, ingest, metadata creation, storage, and long-term access.
• Comfort translating between technical and non-technical audiences; ability to support and partner with software engineers without necessarily writing production code.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking and the ability to craft persuasive grant narratives and policy arguments.
• Experience building and facilitating communities of practice or grassroots networks.
• Commitment to open-source principles, open knowledge, and equitable access to information.
• Ability to thrive in a highly collaborative, experimental environment that values curiosity, inclusivity, and public impact.

Appointment End Date: This is a one-year term appointment with potential for renewal subject to funding and departmental need.

Standard Hours/Schedule: Full-Time

Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position

Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Education

Other Information:

This position works a combination of on-campus and remote work based on business needs and manager approval. The opportunity for 100% remote work is available for applicants who live more than 50 miles from the Harvard Law School campus. Please review the Work Format Details below for more information pertaining to remote work.

Given the multidisciplinary nature of our work, we encourage a short cover letter to explain how your career trajectory and interests align with our work and mission.

Travel is required for this position as needed, including for quarterly on-site meetings, conferences, and events.

All offers are made by HLS Human Resources

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Work Format Details

This is a position that is based at a Harvard campus location with some remote work options available. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. All remote work must be performed within one of the Harvard Registered Payroll States, which currently includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Washington, and California (CA for exempt positions only). Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.

Salary Grade and Ranges

This position is salary grade level 059. Please visit? Harvard's Salary Ranges? to view the corresponding salary range and related information.

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks

Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page.

EEO/Non-Discrimination Commitment Statement

Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and we strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard’s academic purposes.

Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university’s non-discrimination policy. Harvard’s equal employment opportunity policy and non-discrimination policy help all community members participate fully in work and campus life free from harassment and discrimination.

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