Description
Full job description
Location: Fully remote, USA
Reports to: Senior Campaigns Director
Position Type: Full-Time
About Common Defense
Millions of people - a diverse cross-section of working class Americans - have served their country in the military. But for too long, the extremist MAGA movement has tried to exploit us as props for their campaign to destroy the Constitutional rights we swore to uphold, prolong a state of forever war overseas, and drive our country towards the fascism our ancestors fought against.
At Common Defense, we have created a movement of veterans that is standing up against this threat, and shown that if we can come together we can drive transformational change. Guided by our commitment to equity, justice, progress and building grassroots power we’re fighting to make America a place where liberty truly exists for all people.
We are not your average “veterans organization.” We are a grassroots movement that spans every generation and background, doing real organizing to win the change our communities need. From expanding voting access to ending forever wars, to building a pathway to the middle class through a strong clean energy workforce, we’re fighting for bold solutions that protect working families and preserve our rights. Together, we’re proving that the same commitment we brought to our military service can transform the future of our nation.
Our family of organizations operates across multiple distinct entities, each with a unique role in fulfilling our mission:
- Common Defense Education Fund (501(c)(3)): Focused on education and empowerment, this nonprofit provides veterans and their communities with leadership training, tools for civic engagement, and resources to promote public understanding of key issues.
- Common Defense Civic Engagement (501(c)(4)): Through advocacy and policy initiatives, this arm drives impactful campaigns and mobilizes veterans to participate in the democratic process, advancing the solutions our communities need.
- Common Defense Action Fund (527 PAC): This political action committee identifies and supports candidates who align with our core values. By endorsing and investing in leaders who champion equity, justice, progress, and power, we ensure veterans' voices influence the political landscape.
Our Team & Culture
We are a results-driven organization where strategy, collaboration, and impact go hand in hand with equity, inclusion, and a deep sense of collective responsibility. We believe that when we invest in our people, we strengthen our ability to win big fights. We take care of each other, celebrate victories big and small, and make space for everyone to grow.
If you’re ready to bring your skills to an ambitious, growing movement, we’d love to have you on our team.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
Common Defense is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that reflects the values we fight for every day. We are an equal-opportunity employer and strongly encourage women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and people with disabilities to apply.
As a majority-veteran organization, we strongly encourage veterans and military family members to apply. We recognize the unique perspectives and experiences that come from military service and believe they are critical to our work. However, we also welcome applicants from all backgrounds who are passionate about our mission, regardless of prior military experience.
Position Overview
As Data & Analytics Director, you’ll play a core leadership role in one of the fastest-growing, highest-impact grassroots organizations in politics. You will design and lead the implementation of a new data and analytics infrastructure to identify and engage millions of veteran voters in key battlegrounds for civil rights, the transition to clean energy, and national electoral outcomes. You’ll work alongside a dedicated, innovative, and talented team of organizers who have built an engaged and activated membership base.
This position will act as the inaugural statistician and analytical researcher for Common Defense, solving the highest-priority questions facing the organization, while also overseeing the continued refinement of our data infrastructure. Our ideal candidate is a fast-mover and knows how to turn data into action. They love digging into tough questions and coming up with answers that drive real change. Meticulous and committed to rigor, our person is relentless about getting the information needed to achieve the mission.
The Data & Analytics Director is responsible for implementation and management of advanced database systems, developing, testing, and refining predictive models, and creating an integrated data infrastructure that supports the organizing, digital and political campaigns of Common Defense. This role will also ensure that Common Defense adheres to best practices for data management, maintaining integrity and security as we scale our analytics capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
Data Strategy & Infrastructure Development
- Establish a robust strategic vision to guide the organization’s investment in and use of data; evaluate and revise strategy as needed over time.
- Build and oversee an integrated data ecosystem, ensuring all platforms and sources are connected and aligned with organizational goals.
- Oversee our organizing CRM (which we are currently migrating from EveryAction to ActionNetwork)
- Identify, acquire, and integrate new data sources to strengthen Common Defense’s outreach, analysis, and strategic initiatives.
Data Management & Governance
- Develop and enforce data governance standards to ensure best practices in data security, integrity, and compliance.
- Oversee the management, cleaning, and structuring of databases to maintain high data quality.
- Ensure accurate tracking and reporting of Common Defense’s member data, voter data, and program impact metrics.
- Support internal teams with standardized reporting frameworks and dashboards.
Advanced Analytics & Modeling
- Develop and lead in-depth analyses of Common Defense member data, voter file data, survey responses, and other relevant datasets to extract actionable insights and inform strategic decisions.
- Build and validate predictive models to enhance membership growth and voter contact programs.
- Conduct regression analyses, A/B testing, and other statistical methods to measure program effectiveness.
- Develop geospatial analyses and mapping (GIS) to support outreach and campaign targeting.
- Build dashboards and visualizations to make data insights accessible and actionable for various teams.
Cross-Team Collaboration & Stakeholder Support
- Work closely with the organizing, digital, and national campaigns teams to create an integrated pipeline of confirmed veteran, military family, and non
- veteran IDs into Common Defense’s membership database.
- Consult with stakeholders across the organization to understand and address their unique data, analytics, and reporting dashboard needs.
- Assist other senior Common Defense staff in commissioning and analyzing polling data.
- Represent Common Defense at external meetings, professional conferences, and coalitions to advocate for best practices in data-driven organizing.
Technology & Vendor Management
- Work with senior leadership to develop the budget for data and analytics, identifying and planning for new technology investments.
- Manage relationships with external data vendors and consultants, assessing data quality and ensuring seamless integration into Common Defense’s ecosystem.
- Oversee the technical infrastructure for automating data flows (ETL pipelines) and API connections between platforms.
- Evaluate and recommend new tools for data warehousing, engineering, and analytics to improve organizational efficiency.
Common Defense’s (current) Tech Stack:
Asana (project management)
Slack (team communications)
EveryAction (current), ActionNetwork (future)* (CRM)
Voter Activation Network (VAN)
*NOTE: Common Defense is anticipating transitioning away from EveryAction very soon, and the Data & Analytics Director will collaborate and receive onboarding from the consultant overseeing the data migration.
Furthermore, this role is a new one, overseeing the development of entirely new data analytics programs, and thus will have a great deal of space to determine the tech stack they wish to use for data warehousing, engineering, and analytics as they inhabit and define the role.
Compensation & Benefits
The salary range for this role is $100,000-115,000 per year. The final salary will be determined based on an internal equitable scale that takes into consideration years and type of experience, and geographic location.
We also offer a robust package for full-time employees including paid time off; health insurance; a health reimbursement plan; and a retirement plan. As a primarily-remote organization, we span different time zones, but employees are generally expected to work during ordinary business hours in their U.S. time zone.
How to Apply
If you're ready to make a difference and help build a movement, we want to hear from you! Apply by submitting your resume and a 1-page cover letter as a single PDF to the link provided. Address cover letters to Perry O’Brien, Senior Campaigns Director. In your cover letter, we encourage you to share why working for a veterans organization engaged in political organizing is meaningful to you.
If you have any questions you can email alex@commondefense.us
Be part of something bigger. Join us at Common Defense and help us continue the fight!
Our Hiring Process
In order to provide transparency for job-seekers, here is an outline of the steps of our hiring process:
- Review resume & application materials
- 30 minute screening interview for selected candidates
- Written technical exercise
- Final panel interview
- Reference check/background check
The priority deadline for applications is February 20th, however additional applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Our target date for making an offer for this role is April 1st.
Requirements
Qualifications
If you do not meet all these qualifications but are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply! Research shows that people from underrepresented backgrounds often self-select out of opportunities, and we are committed to finding the best person for the job. We recognize that the person who is the best fit may seek continuing professional development to acquire all of these skills over time. We also recognize that many ways of gaining the experience we seek could be volunteer or unpaid activities, rather than formal job positions.
Core Requirements:
- Foundational technical skills in data & analytics, including:
- Extracting, cleaning, organizing, and querying large datasets (e.g. using SQL)
- Automating data flows (e.g. ETL pipelines)
- Connecting various platforms and tools using APIs
- Cloud computing and warehousing (e.g. using AWS)
- Manipulating data (e.g. using Excel/Google Sheets)
- Conducting statistical analysis (e.g. using Python or R)
- Creating, testing, and refining predictive models
- Conducting regression analyses
- Constructing data visualizations (either using tools or building a custom dashboard)
- GIS & spatial analysis (such as building or using geographic shapefiles, using and manipulating census and public population data)
- Exceptional project management skills, with a proven ability to manage complex analytical projects from inception to completion, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality results
- 4+ years of experience working in a data or analytics role in a political, issue advocacy, or constituency-based organization, or analogous experience with the challenges faced in these roles
- At least 2+ cycles of hands-on experience working with electoral data, including voter file, volunteer, and voter contact data
- Familiarity with online electoral tools and datasets such as Catalist, VAN, and digital CRM tools such as EveryAction and Action Network
- Understanding of political targeting & segmentation (e.g. how to identify likely voters or persuadable voters)
- Experience aligning analyses with strategic objectives, using data-driven insights to inform and influence programmatic decisions and long-term planning
- Commitment to Common Defense’s mission of empowering veterans through civic engagement
- Commitment to Common Defense’s core values
Desirable but not required:
- Background knowledge of the US military and veterans, such as major bases and institutions, organizations, basic structure, operations, and sub-populations of the branches of service and veteran community, and other baseline information which may be relevant for the purposes of analysis of this population.
- Advanced formal education or degrees in data science, applied statistics, and/or computer science
- Experience designing, executing, and analyzing randomized controlled trials and A/B tests to empirically determine the effectiveness of campaign tactics
- Established working relationships with peer professionals in political analytics and data at analogous organizations