Location: Full Time - Rochester, NY
Measures for Justice is a non-partisan, fast-paced, entrepreneurial non-profit on a mission to develop tools and services that help communities reshape the criminal justice system. . Since 2011, we have pioneered a methodology to compare how different justice systems perform on the county level and led the charge to improve county-level criminal justice data. While we do not advocate for any specific reforms, we do work to make change possible by increasing system transparency, accessibility, and accountability. We’ve got world-class criminal justice data and technology chops. And a culture that demands excellence, rigor and people who like to make good ideas come to life.
Our Premise
Local communities and the institutions that serve them are in the best position to reshape how their criminal justice system works.
What Problem Is MFJ Trying to Solve?
Communities lack the data they need to make informed decisions about system performance and change. The same goes for accountability and transparency. As a result, communities and the institutions that serve them are not equipped to work together on lasting change.
How Does MFJ Solve This Problem?
We’ve developed a new model for the public and their prosecutor/police/courts to work together to track how criminal justice is being carried out and to advance common goals. This work happens via a new public dashboard called Commons that creates a space for making criminal justice data transparent and shared policy goals public. Commons provides important local data that communities need to hold officials responsible. The data we have now gives no power. Commons changes that.
The Job
As a Software Engineering Intern, your role will be to work within a project team focused on the optimization of how data is processed and displayed, and how our methods are automated and tested. We are currently either developing or planning tools and systems for third party integration, data transformation pipelines, in-house data analysis tools, test frameworks, and open source software initiatives. Our overall tech stack includes HTML5/CSS, TypeScript, React, Node, Next.js, D3, Kotlin, Java, R, PostgreSQL, Docker, AWS services, S3, DynamoDB, Redis, GraphQL, Kubernetes.
Current areas of focus include:
Building a data pipeline to transform client specific criminal justice data into information that can be leveraged by our Commons site. The pipeline is written in Kotlin.
Exploring the use of R in portions of our data pipeline. Working closely with our Research team, investigate how to streamline mapping client data into our standard schemas.
Developing internal tools to provide real time insight into our data pipeline processes and the accompanying data. This work is being done primarily in Kotlin using Postgres, React and the Spring framework.
What You Will Do
We seek candidates who have a strong desire to use their technical skills to help real people and make measurable and lasting changes to the U.S. criminal justice system, and are eager to learn and apply new technologies (especially Kotlin) (and some old ones that have stood the test of time).
About You
Actively enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Human Computer Interactions or related discipline
Strong writing and communication skills
and
Experience designing and developing in Java (school and/or professional)
Familiar with other parts of the JVM ecosystem: source control, build tools, etc.
Familiar with software engineering practices including agile
Willing to learn Kotlin or R
or
Experience designing and developing in Javascript (school and/or professional)
Familiar with other parts of the frontend ecosystem: source control, build tools, frameworks like React, etc.
Familiar with software engineering practices including agile
Willing to learn technologies like React and Node
Next Steps
Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
Measures for Justice (MFJ) is committed to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our workplace. We are committed to eradicating barriers to access and opportunity and strive to create a welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. We offer competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and a casual work environment. Our office is wheelchair accessible. In addition, Measures for Justice will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you require an accommodation during the hiring process, please contact Rachel Snyder at rachel.snyder@measuresforjustice.org.
We know that only by bringing together our diverse perspectives can we begin to understand and innovatively tackle the complex issues we engage with. We acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done to ensure we are embodying these principles in our workplace and our work, and we are deeply committed to this ongoing practice. Our work is the data; our heart is the people.
It is the policy of Measures for Justice to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.