Coding it Forward’s paid, ten-week Fellowship empowers early-career technologists to innovate in local, state, and federal government offices across the United States.
Fellows work on high-impact projects in cybersecurity, data, design, product management, and software engineering that contribute to building a more equitable and effective government for all. From centering cross-functional collaboration and human centered design to learning how to communicate with stakeholders and navigate bureaucracy effectively, our Fellowship is designed to equip early-career technologists with the skills necessary to thrive.
THEORY OF CHANGE
Fellowship alumni go on to attend top graduate universities, lead non-profit organizations, start-ups, and think tanks, and become leaders in the public and private sector. They join our growing network of 700+ professionals who are dedicated to solving our nation’s most pressing issues. The core components of our Fellowship are what propel alumni into the next chapter of their career. Throughout the Fellowship our technologists:
Get paid to develop as a mission-driven technologist.
Fellows work alongside skilled government technologists on impactful, large scale projects.
Grow personally and professionally.
Fellows attend weekly educational events led by top technologists eager to share how products, services, and policies are crafted to improve our country.
Find a mentor and receive personalized support.
Through one-on-one calls that explore relevant topics like career guidance or skills development, Fellows gain skills that will carry them into their future careers.
Join the public interest tech community.
Through our cohort model that features group-check ins, social networking calls, and opportunities to connect with alumni, Fellows gain a forever network of public interest professionals.
Nearly 50% of our alumni now work full-time in social impact, taking on opportunities in the government, at the White House and Congress, and in the social sector, at companies like Recidiviz and Skylight Digital.
WHAT WE VALUE
Coding it Forward Fellows are expected to be:
A technologist proficient in common techniques, tools, and frameworks in one of our five roles.
Someone who is mission-driven and excited for the opportunity to help our government better serve the American people.
An excellent communicator who is able to make technical concepts digestible for non-technical audiences and work with a wide range of stakeholders.
An independent problem solver willing to take the initiative and take the lead in being the technical contributor to their projects.
Someone who is comfortable navigating ambiguity and an everchanging pace of work in government.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR
Fellows tackle high-impact work in one of five areas of practice: cybersecurity, data, design, product, or software engineering. Each Fellow will be matched to a role where their skills and expertise are most fitting and needed. We encourage candidates to explore past projects on our GitHub to get a sense of typical project scopes and skills utilized.
-
As a Cybersecurity Fellow, you are comfortable with creating programs, practices, and policies to safeguard the security of applications or networks.
Example cybersecurity projects include:
Creating and validating security features for an application used by the host office.
Reviewing security features for potential vulnerabilities and recommending policies and requirements.
-
As a Data Fellow, you are comfortable with creating data products to aid decision-making and streamline access to government data.
Example data projects include:
Creating an analytical dashboard to improve emergency preparedness for a municipality.
Training a machine learning model to classify submission categories of grants received by the host office.
Developing a data processing pipeline to efficiently clean and transform new data automatically.
-
As a Design Fellow, you are comfortable with researching, creating, and improving designs for products, systems, and services.
Example design projects include:
Creating a design system to unify look and feel across public-facing tools hosted by the host office.
Conducting user research and prototyping a new interface design for a city service mobile app.
Creating graphic/visual designs for a series of signage on government data collection and privacy guardrails.
-
As a Product Management Fellow, you are comfortable with coordinating, researching, and launching digital features or products.
Example product management projects include:
Researching requirements, analyzing benefits and challenges, and creating a proposal for deploying a customer-facing AI chatbot.
Creating a product roadmap to plan and coordinate the launching of a new feature for the city website.
-
As a Software Engineering Fellow, you are comfortable with designing, developing, and testing applications, platforms, or systems.
Example software engineering projects include:
Developing a website centralizing knowledge sources across various departments of the host office.
Creating a public-facing API of a specific dataset to facilitate ease and efficient public access.
Developing a mobile app prototype for city employees to route to request locations and document issues.