*This is a 2-year rotating position*

The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) was formed in 2010 as the Mayor's civic research and design team – one of the first in the nation. MONUM explores the full range of research and development to create prototypes that cover a range of ideas to deliver concrete outcomes. MONUM is the City of Boston's engine for learning, risk-taking, and discovery with agency partners and external organizations to operationalize ideas that positively impact the lives of Boston residents. See the team's portfolio of work from last year here.

MONUM is seeking a Program Manager Fellow who will join our nimble team of the civically curious. We are excited to welcome a new Fellow who will be exploring entrepreneurship in government while leading a diverse set of projects spread across different city departments and external partners. You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with City leadership, build your experiments in a deeply collaborative environment across research methods and with multiple stakeholders, and address the needs of residents. The intent of the 2-year fellowship is to provide a front door to those who wish to bring their voices, ideas, and perspectives into local government with the hopes of inspiring a career in public service. 

The ideal candidate for this role will be comfortable assessing the problem through multiple research methods, identifying and designing potential solutions, developing iterative deployments to meet the needs of residents and city departments, and leveraging creative storytelling to build momentum for this work.

Manage a portfolio of projects that flexibly use MONUM’s “model” of explore, experiment, evaluate to deliver exceptional services to Boston’s residents, workers, visitors, and more.

• Explore—across disciplines and from multiple sources—research connections between strategies and tactics that push forward the Mayor’s Vision.
• Experiment—in partnership—thoughtfully and critically to highlight hidden value, anticipate potential futures and invite more people to participate.
• Evaluate—qualitatively and quantitatively—whether a prototype meets desired purposes and brings value, joy, wonder, efficacy, delight, or any range of outcomes that are beneficial toward building an equitable and just Boston.
• Effectively communicate the impact and value of our work through compelling and creative storytelling. This includes developing engaging narratives, utilizing visual design, illustration, video or other methods, and creating both print and digital design artifacts to build momentum for this work.
• Connect with partners and stakeholders in civic innovation work, including internal partners across agencies and external partners such as community groups, startups, artists, university partners, small businesses, foundations, and more.
• Project manage a portfolio of 3-5 projects that move forward the experimental arm of the Mayor’s agenda. 
• Manage and mentor summer fellows, youth fellows, interns, and other potential colleagues as appropriate for the project portfolio. 
• Explore and develop a portfolio of work not currently under the MONUM project umbrella. This includes exploring new experiments and forging relationships with potential partners. 

Participate in internally facing work in order to enhance team coordination and operations.

• Participate in internally facing work, such as hiring for our summer fellowship programs, quarterly review and goal setting, helping other departments with tactical requests, and other things that invariably will come up when working in a dynamic, responsive environment. 
• Learn from others who have walked here before us: understand the context of MONUM within City Hall; care for the knowledge and institutional impact of previous work; value perspectives from other cities and other staff.
• Support the evolution of one of the oldest innovation teams in the nation by engaging in team discussions about the state of the field and areas to explore.
• Document and share what you learn through your work: writing, visually representing, speaking at classes and at conferences, participating in MONUM’s “front door” approach to taking meetings, and talking about the work.
• Host and participate in weekly office hours with interested parties.
• Other duties as determined or specifically requested by the team’s Director.

Some nights or weekend events may be required as determined by the specifics of your portfolio of projects.

• At least three (3) years of work experience.
• Experience managing projects in a complex stakeholder environment with tight deadlines. 
• A diverse set of work experience in this field is preferred, and appropriate educational substitutions may be made, such as a master’s degree in urban planning, public policy, design, or a related field. 
• Candidates should be strong relationship builders, comfortable with risk, and passionate about solving hard civic challenges with creative, original solutions.
• We look for people with a track record of execution of complex multi-stakeholder projects. We want team members who are comfortable both working alone and in a highly collaborative office. 
• We look for people who have an innate ability to construct strong relationships with community partners and represent the City of Boston. 
• We seek individuals with subject matter expertise in areas such as research methods, design, public policy, visual communication, storytelling, social justice, urban planning, or community engagement, as well as specific content knowledge and broad curiosity about cities. Ideal candidates will have experience being able to blend those subject matters. 
• Ideal candidates should be “self-starters” and comfortable with charting their own course in complex and seemingly hierarchical organizations. Experience working within local government is appreciated but not essential. 
• Must be proficient with the Google Suite and spreadsheets and have strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated experience utilizing design, illustration, or video editing for effective storytelling to a range of stakeholders. Proficient in related software tools (Adobe Suite, Figma, Final Cut, Motion, etc.) for the purpose of visually depicting the work we do.
• Additional language proficiency in one of the City of Boston’s top ten commonly requested language accommodations is preferred.

BOSTON RESIDENCY REQUIRED

Terms:

Union/Salary Plan/Grade: Non-Union/MM2-7

Hours per week: 35