Jobs at The Last Mile
We are training incarcerated individuals to become professional web developers. We work inside prisons. Our students are denied access to the Internet. While working inside prison has its obstacles, the drive and determination with which our students tackle their own challenges inspires us to do our best.
The Last Mile, a non-profit based in San Francisco, is the first prison program in the US to provide in-prison software engineering training. The goal is to prepare students for employment as front-end developers and web designers post-release. Students learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and more all without internet access.
Audio Program Support Specialist
Platform Systems Engineer
Remote Instructor
Communications and Brand Manager
Job Title: Audio Program Support Specialist
Work Location: San Francisco or remote
Reports to: Audio Program Specialist
Annual Salary: Commensurate, based on experience
The Last Mile, a non-profit based in San Francisco, is the first prison program in the US to provide in-prison software engineering training. The goal is to prepare students for employment as front-end developers and web designers post-release. Students learn HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python and more. We believe that having a job is the key to successful reentry and breaking the cycle of incarceration. A projected shortage of nearly 1 million software engineering jobs by 2020 means that these jobs skills will be in demand. Through in-prison software engineering training and continued mentorship post-release, The Last Mile bridges the gap between incarceration and freedom.
Position Description:
The Audio Program Support Specialist will be a primary point of contact for our students in our new Digital Audio Production program. In this role, you will be supporting the launch of a new curriculum by participating in virtual calls with classrooms in correctional facilities twice a week, taking notes and providing feedback on lessons, and grading and providing feedback on student work. As the Audio Program Support Specialist, you will work closely with the Audio Program Specialist and the other members of the Education Department to align on best practices.
Required Duties and Responsibilities:
- Communicates with remote instructors, classroom facilitators and the classroom operations team about classroom logistics and/or session scheduling.
- Attends all assigned RI sessions and takes clear, detailed notes during each lesson and provides timely feedback to instructors.
- Gathers questions and feedback to inform upcoming virtual instruction sessions.
- Keeps class schedules up to date and works with the audio program specialist to adjust the calendar to reflect facility and staff availability.
- Joins all assigned virtual sessions in advance of lesson to confirm participation and troubleshoot technical issues when necessary.
- Responds to student questions and requests in a timely manner, ensuring that all student requests include honest and constructive feedback and appropriate encouragement to students.
- Makes an effort to understand project requirements and rubric criteria in-depth, assessing student work accurately, delivering feedback to students that is individualized, clearly aligned with rubric criteria, and action-oriented.
- Communicates clearly across audiences and platforms about current workflow and priorities, and includes all necessary context for the audience and circumstance.
- Always uses and encourages rehumanizing language and approaches across all audiences.
- Maintains a positive and supportive attitude.
Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:
- Has intermediate to advanced proficiency in audio production and digital audio workstations featured in the curriculum, including Avid Pro Tools and Ableton Live.
- 1-3 years of professional experience, which may include teaching people, reviewing curriculum, or working in audio engineering roles
- Experience or interest in working with incarcerated individuals, system-impacted youth, or similar populations
- Strong and creative communicator who can deliver engaging content for students of varying levels of proficiency
Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@thelastmile.org if you are interested.
TLM is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and second chances at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other protected class.
Job Title: Platform Systems Engineer
Work Location: San Francisco, CA
Reports to: Director of Engineering
Annual Salary: Commensurate, based on experience
The Last Mile, a non-profit based in San Francisco, is the first prison program in the US to provide in-prison software engineering training. The goal is to prepare students for employment as front-end developers and web designers post-release. Students learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more. We believe that having a job is the key to successful reentry and breaking the cycle of incarceration. A projected shortage of nearly 1 million software engineering jobs by 2020 means that these jobs skills will be in demand. Through in-prison software engineering training and continued mentorship post-release, The Last Mile bridges the gap between incarceration and freedom.
Overview:
The Engineering team manages and supports technical operations across The Last Mile organization, ranging from internal tooling, and our Platform as a Service (PaaS) which operates in prisons across the country. Daily engagements range from fielding ad-hoc requests supporting remote facilities, to proactive monitoring of our PaaS infrastructure, and deployments using our automation frameworks. This is a highly collaborative role, with the opportunity to engage with an extremely broad range of systems and technologies.
Responsibilities:
The Platform Systems Engineer is engaged with all aspects of technology for The Last Mile, including internal business systems, and the infrastructure and platforms supporting the services the program delivers. This includes involvement in the selection process for systems and platforms in support of organizational requirements and designing their implementation, all the way through deployment, monitoring, managing operational support, and updating. This role is also responsible for the management, and support of our zero-trust network infrastructure, and ensuring organization maintains suitable controls and audit mechanisms.
Work with other members of the Engineering team to:
- Provide first responder support to facilities via tickets, e-mail, Slack, and internal escalations
- Prioritize efforts, support escalations, and drive resolutions in a timely manner
- Monitor platform infrastructure, and responding to alerting
- Coordinate platform updates, and deployments across the organization
Required Skills and Experience:
- A passion for solving challenges, and empowering people through technology
- Strong verbal, and written communication skills
- Ability to support code written in bash, Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and some C derivatives
- Management of layered GCP projects and shared VPC’s through Terraform
- Use of Palo Alto Networks Panorama to manage remote devices and networks
- Performing deployments, and configuring instances using Ansible
- Remotely supporting MacOS, and ChromeOS environments
- Managing Open Source infrastructure, including Linux
- A strong understanding of IP networking, including switching, routing, 802.1x, and support of fundamental IP services and protocols (DNS, HTTP(S), SSH, IPsec)
- A strong understanding of computer hardware and peripherals
- Integration, extension and support of OAuth + SAML authentication + authorization
- Tiered G Suite administration of both devices, and users
- Support and maintenance of ticket, and git driven workflows
Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@thelastmile.org if you are interested.
Job Title: Remote Instructor
Work Location: Based in San Francisco office, or remotely in California or Indiana
Reports to: Remote Instruction Manager
Annual Salary: Commensurate, based on experience
The Last Mile, a non-profit based in San Francisco, is the first prison program in the US to provide in-prison software engineering training. The goal is to prepare students for employment as front-end developers and web designers post-release. Students learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. We believe that having a job is the key to successful reentry and breaking the cycle of incarceration. A projected shortage of nearly 1 million software engineering jobs by 2020 means that these jobs skills will be in demand. Through in-prison software engineering training and continued mentorship post-release, The Last Mile bridges the gap between incarceration and freedom.
Position Description:
The Remote Instruction Team at The Last Mile is searching for a passionate and empathic Remote Instructor to deliver engaging and responsive technical sessions to our classrooms in prison facilities. You will lead live remote lessons about web development and collaborate with members of the Remote Instruction Team to develop and iterate on current instructional material aligned with our coding curriculum.
As Remote Instructor, you will work closely with in-facility classroom facilitators, students, and the larger Education Team to support our students. As students independently learn about concepts through our learning management system, you will call into classrooms regularly to support their comprehension and prepare them for a career in technology.
Responsibilities
- Deliver technical virtual lessons to students in a incarcerated settings
- Develop replicable, scalable lesson plans and course materials that respond to the needs of incarcerated students with support from the Remote Instruction Manager
- Participate in the Remote Instruction team’s lesson development process by reviewing and providing feedback on colleagues’ lessons
- Develop exemplar projects that align with lesson content to share with students
- Develop documentation to communicate complex and technical information to students and within the Remote Instruction team
- Collaborate closely with other TLM staff including the Curriculum team, Classroom Operations team, and Programs department to sync on program offerings and provide feedback to other teams about student performance
- Align instruction with current trends in technology and TLM’s curricular offering
- Maintain a positive and supportive attitude
- Create a consistent and predictable structure for students across all classrooms
- Provide honest and constructive feedback and appropriate encouragement to students and colleagues
Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:
- Working knowledge of using JavaScript and/or MERN stack to build web applications
- Experience teaching or facilitating sessions in formal or informal educational settings
- Embrace challenges and adopt new responsibilities with creativity, initiative, and self-direction
- Demonstrate intellectual curiosity and self-motivation by staying up to date on modern web development standards and project management technologies and tools
- Be a responsive team contributor, delivering and receiving feedback regularly, and asking questions as necessary
- Demonstrate comfort with adjusting work to evolving priorities in a dynamic work environment
- Believe that anyone can learn to code
Preferred Qualifications:
- 1-3 years of professional experience, which may include teaching people, writing technical curriculum, or working in engineering roles
- Intermediate to advanced proficiency with a diverse set of programming languages, such as Python, Ruby, MySQL, and responsive design
- Successful completion of a developer bootcamp OR a degree in Computer Science
- Experience working with incarcerated individuals, system-impacted youth, or similar populations
- Proficiency in Git, especially developing lesson branches and optimizing dependencies
- Strong and creative communicator who can deliver engaging content for students of varying levels of proficiency
Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@thelastmile.org if you are interested.
TLM is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and second chances at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other protected class.
Job Title: Communications and Brand Manager
Work Location: San Francisco or remote
Reports to: Chief Program Officer
Annual Salary: Commensurate, based on experience
The Last Mile, a non-profit based in San Francisco, is the first prison program in the US to provide in-prison software engineering training. The goal is to prepare students for employment as front-end developers and web designers post-release. Students learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more. We believe that having a job is the key to successful reentry and breaking the cycle of incarceration. A projected shortage of nearly 1 million software engineering jobs by 2020 means that these jobs skills will be in demand. Through in-prison software engineering training and continued mentorship post-release, The Last Mile bridges the gap between incarceration and freedom.
Position Description:
The Last Mile (TLM) is seeking a Communications and Brand Manager to raise awareness of our mission and impact as we work to provide growth opportunities for those incarcerated and returning home, breaking the cycle of incarceration in America. This role will collaborate with the Chief Program Officer and Executive Director on internal and external communications that highlight TLM’s impact. This is an ideal opportunity for someone who is a proven and effective independent contributor with the potential to grow with the role, bringing fresh ideas and insights that consistently increase recognition of TLM and our work.
The right candidate is a natural storyteller who understands how to weave data, anecdotes, testimonials, and other information into compelling messaging and engaging content in different mediums. We’re looking for someone with experience across traditional PR, communications, and content who understands how to reach stakeholders from across the tech ecosystem, government and other partners, and our base of incarcerated people and returned citizens.
Responsibilities:
- Develop and execute communications and content plans that bring TLM’s stories to life for key audiences.
- Create and execute a content strategy that highlights TLM data, updates, and testimonials to showcase our mission and impact, using a variety of mediums (written, audio, video) across digital and social channels.
- Develop and manage relationships with key media targets for TLM; coordinate media, speaking, and corporate engagements for TLM returned citizens and staff; and liaise with media partner contacts including PIO, government media relations, and tech partners.
- Develop and manage TLM brand assets including key messaging, look and feel, and data and content libraries.
- Coordinate website updates, ensuring content is shared consistently and messaging is accurate and engaging.
- Conduct regular spokesperson training sessions to prepare staff and returned citizens to speak publicly on behalf of TLM; assist in the development of individual platforms for speakers.
- Track and measure the level of engagement with TLM’s key audiences across channels, producing a simple monthly dashboard or report for senior TLM leadership.
Qualifications:
Specific requirements include:
- Four to six (4 – 6) years of experience working with PR, communications, or corporate or brand marketing at an agency or in-house (corporate, startup, government, or nonprofit organization)
- Experience pitching and placing local and national news, building trusted relationships with reporters, and developing compelling storylines and narratives
- Strong writing skills, from pithy short-form social copy to compelling long-form articles and blog posts
- Highly collaborative style; experience developing and implementing communications strategies
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- A strong track record as an implementer who thrives on managing a variety of key initiatives concurrently
- Relationship builder with the flexibility and finesse to “manage by influence”
- High energy, maturity, and leadership with the ability to serve as a unifying force and to position communications discussions at both the strategic and tactical levels
- Sincere commitment to work collaboratively with all constituent groups, including staff, board members, volunteers, donors, program participants, and other supporters
- Self-starter, able to work independently, and entrepreneurial; enjoys creating and implementing new initiatives
- And (most important), a deep and sincere passion to highlight the experiences of incarcerated program participants and returned citizens working to build better futures for themselves and their families through TLM’s programs and partnerships.
Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@thelastmile.org if you are interested.