We are looking for a student assistant for IT and system administration (m/f/x) with a passion for Open Source Software

Location: Berlin Neukölln; 15–20 hours per week; starting from May 2024

Since 2009 Liquid Democracy has worked to create the future of democracy. As an independent non-profit organization, we strive to discover new concepts and methods for digital citizen participation. Our recent projects include the central civic participation platform for the state of Berlin https://mein.berlin.de , the research project KOSMO about artificial intelligence and moderation https://kosmo-moderation.de/ and adhocracy+ https://adhocracy.plus , our most recent platform to make digital democracy easy for everyone.

More info on our projects can be found on our website at https://liqd.net/en/projects/. The code of our projects can be obtained via https://github.com/liqd.

Starting in May 2024, we are looking for a Student Assistant for IT and system administration to join our team.

Your responsibilities

As a student assistant for IT and system administrator you work closely along with the scrum team, and admin and finances team.

The following tasks are among your responsibilities:

  • maintain and monitor our internal Open Source tools that keep our organisation running:
    • Taiga.io (Scrum app)
    • Nextcloud - Self-hosted cloud app
    • Bitwarden - Self-hosted cloud password manager
    • Mailinglists, DokuWiki, Mattermost and Etherpad lite
  • provide support for technical issues and questions around our IT infrastructure to team members
  • help maintain and set-up our computers (Mac and Linux)
  • assist in maintaining our servers running our Open Source participation platforms
  • assist in migrating some of our projects to a distributed servers infrastructure
  • update existing servers' deployment and maintenance documentation (README, docs)
  • help maintain our local office network for us and our subtenants
  • working on improvements to our internal privacy and data protection processes

Who we are looking for

  • You are currently enrolled in a computer science, engineering, or related program in a German university, or have a passion for Linux and the Command Line
  • Familiarity with Linux/Unix and macOS operating systems
  • Basic knowledge of the python programming language
  • Basic understanding of networking concepts and Linux web servers tech
  • a passion for Open Source Software and the underlying principles
  • Comfortable conversing in German (comparative to a B2 level) and English
  • You are interested in actively shaping a democratic and self-organized culture within the whole team
  • You like to take responsibility in a small team and are interested in shaping self-management process and a healthy communication culture
  • Someone who can be on-site in Berlin to provide tech supportYou feel comfortable to collaborate and communicate directly with our project partners and clients

What we offer

  • being part of shaping the technical infrastructure of one of the most experienced and renowned FOSS participation software
  • options to work in homeoffice and remotely (in co-ordination with your team members) mara: maybe add here if need be, because we want someone at the office basically.
  • Limited contract for 2 years with the option for unlimited position afterwards
  • 15–20 working hours per week, depending on your preferences
  • 6 weeks of vacation per year
  • structured onboarding process with a mentor
  • montly benefits: sponsored Urban Sports Club membership or GuudCard / Deutschlandticket
  • contribute your vision to our software and Liquid
  • salary: 1.050 € – 1.400 € per month depending on your working hours per week
  • Start date: May 2024; earlier or later date is also possible

Why should you work with us?

We work for society

At Liquid Democracy you work at a non-profit which wants to further social change and strives to find innovative answers to pressing political questions.

Democracy at work

We value democratic innovation not only in our projects but also in our internal processes. All team members decide on questions concerning the team together in our weekly plenary. We use our participation platform adhocracy+ to discuss and brainstorm together. As a team member you shape the internal democratic structure as well as our societal mission to enhance and innovate digital democracy.

Healthy communication

We think a good work environment needs more than modern computers and flexible working hours (we have those as well). To have healthy and productive discussions, we use and experiment with ideas such as non-violent communication and systemic consensus finding.

About your workplace

Work location

We have an open-plan office in Neukölln on the second floor. There is an elevator accessible via a ramp, an automatic door, and a non-automatic door. There are several all-gender restrooms that are not barrier-free. Meetings of the entire team take place online or hybrid. Individual groups freely decide whether to meet online, offline or hybrid. After the trial period, team members decide for themselves how much time they want to work from the office or home office, depending on their responsibilities. If it is not possible for you to work in the office, e.g. for accessibility reasons, feel free to contact us and we will find a solution.

Diversity

We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, identities and perspectives. Therefore, we encourage you to apply regardless of your background, gender, sexual orientation, age group, physical or mental ability, or social background.

We share the view that organizations in the technology sector in particular need to become more diverse. We still have a long way to go as an organization, but we are actively working to identify and counteract discriminatory structures.

How to apply

We look forward to your digital application via email to sysadmin24@liqd.net. Please include your earliest possible start date and, if you have any, links to some previous projects on GitHub or elsewhere. Please note: A cover letter explaining your motivation is much more important to us than your CV and certificates. Applications and any questions can be directed to Mara (they/them). The deadline for applications is April 21, 2024 (previously: April 5, 2024). Please note that we will already begin with interviews before the deadline.