[liberationtech] JOBS: Harvard Privacy Tools Project seeking a program director and software architect

[Yosem Companys]

From: Aleksandra Korolova <korolova at cs.stanford.edu>

The Harvard Privacy Tools Project and Institute for Quantitative Social
Science, with the support of the Sloan Foundation, are excited to announce
a forthcoming open-source software project, OpenDP, to build a trusted
suite of tools that will enable the sharing and analysis of sensitive
datasets with the strong protections of “differential privacy”:
https://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/opendp

The project is looking to hire two top-notch people to be the Program
Director and Senior Application Architect who will help launch and lead
this community effort.  Brief descriptions of the positions are below and
application links are at:
https://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/participate/positions


Best wishes,

Aleksandra Korolova (on behalf of Salil Vadhan)

https://www.korolova.com




*Senior Application Architect for OpenDP*



*Salary grade 60*



The Institute for Quantitative Social Science in collaboration with the
Privacy Tools research group (http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__privacytools.seas.harvard.edu_&d=DwMFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=sux0veykrzkUI9YIP1IA2Q&m=1VfqdUmjmqdOlnp7uRaLyd_IctJ2L_gfFaLqOwc6H18&s=Ml66om8AHa7Brkps9edTyvWSA-RKcj49QK6136QQ2OQ&e=>)
at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) seeks a
Senior Software Architect for Secure Systems to provide technical
leadership to the new OpenDP software project. OpenDP will be a community
effort to build an open-source system of tools for enabling
privacy-protective analysis of sensitive personal data, centered around a
library of algorithms for generating statistical releases with the strong
protections of “differential privacy”.  We aim for this platform, OpenDP,
to become the standard body of trusted and open-source implementations of
differentially private algorithms for statistical analysis and machine
learning on sensitive data, and a pathway that rapidly brings the newest
algorithmic developments to a wide array of practitioners.



Duties & Responsibilities



Design (in collaboration with the scientific leadership) and lead the
implementation of the system architecture

   - Collaborate daily with Harvard PIs and OpenDP constituencies.
   - Architect the OpenDP platform, including secure data storage, data
   transfer, data model, programming frameworks, and APIs for OpenDP platform.
   - Develop short- and long-term strategies for the OpenDP roadmap.
   - Research relevant emerging technologies.
   - Recommend and approve technology changes, and actively search for
   vulnerabilities.

Direct application development

   - Direct advanced applications development for a highly complex software
   project.
   - Participate fully in the software development life cycle.

Security

   - Direct the development and delivery of information security standards,
   best practices, architecture, processes, and systems to ensure security
   across the OpenDP platform
   - Collaborate to create a secure cloud architecture.



Establish and maintain internal/external stakeholder relationships

   - Collect input and review requirements from contributors, oversight
   committees, data owners and users.



Manage team of developers

   - Build and manage internal software development team; assign and review
   their work.
   - Build an external software development team in the context of
   developing an open-source community.
   - Mentor developers on the project both internal and external to Harvard.



Basic Qualifications:



   - Minimum of seven years' post-secondary education and/or relevant work
   experience
   - Supervisory experience



Additional Qualifications:



   - Minimum three years’ extensive expertise building multi-tier system
   architectures, preferably in a data science context.
   - Minimum three years’ experience with security requirements for storing
   and transferring sensitive data.
   - Minimum three years’ experience working in a research environment
   preferred.
   - Holds a Master's degree or Ph.D. in computer science or similar
   experience preferred.
   - Prior exposure to differential privacy is preferred but not required
   - Knowledge of information technology applications, processes, software
   and equipment
   - Demonstrated team performance skills, service mindset approach, and
   the ability to act as a trusted advisor



*This a one year term appointment from the date of hire, which  may be
renewed based on funding and performance.*







.

*Program Director for the Privacy Tools Project and Open DP*



*Salary grade 58*



Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) and Harvard’s
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) seeks a Program Director
to manage the Privacy Tools Project, with a particular emphasis on
facilitating the launch of the new OpenDP software project. The Privacy
Tools Project (http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__privacytools.seas.harvard.edu_&d=DwMFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=sux0veykrzkUI9YIP1IA2Q&m=1VfqdUmjmqdOlnp7uRaLyd_IctJ2L_gfFaLqOwc6H18&s=Ml66om8AHa7Brkps9edTyvWSA-RKcj49QK6136QQ2OQ&e=>)
is an umbrella for several efforts to advance a multidisciplinary
understanding of data privacy issues and build computational, statistical,
legal, and policy tools to help address these issues in a variety of
contexts. The newest of these is OpenDP, which will be a community effort
to build a system of tools for enabling privacy protective analysis of
sensitive personal data, focused on an open-source library of algorithms
for generating statistical releases with the strong protections of
“differential privacy.” The goal is for OpenDP to become the standard body
of trusted and open-source implementations of differentially private
algorithms for statistical analysis and machine learning on sensitive data,
and a pathway that rapidly brings the newest algorithmic developments to a
wide array of practitioners.



Working with the research team and across partners, the Privacy Tools
Program Director will:



Facilitate collaborations to support the goals of the Privacy Tools Project
and OpenDP.

   - Work with faculty and other senior project personnel to organize
   meetings, workshops, and other collaboration mechanisms to maximize the
   collective effectiveness of the project participants, who range across
   different career stages (e.g., faculty, postdocs, students, staff, software
   developers), come from different disciplines (e.g., computer science,
   social science, statistics, and law), and are spread across different
   universities and companies.
   - Build a sense of community and shared mission among the project
   participants.
   - Perform outreach to foster new collaborations with academia, industry,
   and government.
   - Draft key project documents, presentations, and website content in
   close collaboration with researchers.



Oversee administrative and financial activities, including grant
application and management.

   - Oversee administrative start up activity for OpenDP. Operationalize
   processes.
   - Leverage IQSS systems and administrative services.
   - Grow and manage the staff and software development team to meet the
   needs of the program.
   - Work with OSP and OGC to identify and implement legal and financial
   structure where necessary.
   - Manage the Year 1 budget ($1 M) of OpenDP.
   - In partnership with faculty, identify and secure funding for future
   years of OpenDP and the Privacy Tools Project, and prepare reports for
   funders as needed.
   - Manage and track progress of key milestones and adjust plans as
   necessary.

Lead the application and selection process for Privacy Tools affiliated
staff, students, postdocs, and visiting scholars.

   - Develop criteria and process for application and selection
   - Onboard visitors and affiliates



Develop and evolve the open-source community for OpenDP

   - Start up and grow an open-source community that includes privacy
   researchers, data holders and users, industry partners, and code
   contributors.
   - Help design and implement a governance structure for OpenDP.
   - Engage regularly with stakeholders (contributors, oversight
   committees, data owners and users) to gather feedback as OpenDP develops
   and evolves.
   - Cultivate industry relationships and secure commitments for
   contributions to the project.

Basic Requirements

   - Management experience in technical projects
   - The candidate must be self-motivated, and have extremely high
   standards in terms of quality of work and attention to detail, and be able
   to work efficiently and independently with minimal supervision.
   - S/He must be able to balance multiple tasks and shifting priorities
   under tight deadlines and budgets at an accelerated pace when necessary and
   be prepared to contribute to the project in a variety of ways.



Additional/Preferred Qualifications

   - Advanced degree preferred with successful consulting or program
   management experience, with excellent analytical and communication skills
   (both written and oral).
   - Experience managing research, software development projects, data
   science,  and/or open source efforts preferred.
   - The ideal candidate will possess a strong interest and experience
   working with entrepreneurial efforts, as well as diplomatic skills and
   grace under pressure.



*This a one year term appointment from the date of hire, which  may be
renewed based on funding and performance.*
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