Job opening

NGI0 Regional representative
(‘widening area’)

Currently open — Brno University of Technology

On behalf of NGI Zero (and thanks to the additional financial support from the WIDERA/HopOn facility), our partner, Brno University of Technology, seeks an intrinsically motivated and competent regional representative (part-time, 0.2-0.6 FTE). As our contact point, you help us better understand and address the needs of your region/country and engage the local community with the Next Generation Internet initiative's NGI Zero. This is a new position entirely. Over time, we are looking for multiple people to get a reasonable coverage of the so-called ‘widening countries’¹, essentially the upcoming economies in Southern Europe or Eastern Europe. For now, we intend to start with one suitable candidate.

NGI Zero is a unique series of grantmaking programmes led by the NLnet Foundation, started in 2018. Brno University of Technology is a well-reputed academic institution in the Czech Republic that is part of the NGI Zero coalition that runs these programmes. NGI Zero concurrently funds hundreds of state-of-the-art projects worldwide, on all layers of technology - and always free and open source.

You believe in our mission, so this job fits like a glove. In this position, you serve in a dual role: as a promotor of the open technological building blocks within the existing NGI Zero portfolio and as a recruiter to help spot, invite and engage local talent with the potential to enrich that portfolio with new projects. You have good situational awareness, which you will use to help us reach better visibility and do targeted outreach within your country or region. We have a pragmatic communication and dissemination strategy and much freedom. Together, we constantly rethink and execute the overall plan in a context-aware and culturally sensitive way.

We want everyone to benefit from the fantastic work done inside the projects we fund. This is why we aim to extend our portfolio with fresh new ideas and talented people with various skills, insights and backgrounds. Thanks to the extra budget for engaging the ‘widening countries’, we can spread additional love to broaden our footprint and anchorage in Southern and Eastern Europe. As a regional representative, you amplify the voice of our projects, haul in the movers and shakers in your local ecosystem, and help increase awareness of the various opportunities within NGI Zero. Tell us what region you can cover and how you intend to do that.

You firmly believe in the power and societal importance of free and open-source software and hardware, as well as open standards and data. As a regional representative, you will use your communication skills, enthusiasm and strategic insight to help us engage with the right people who can leverage these technological building blocks for the greater good - and can go beyond. We expect you to:

• deliver presentations and/or otherwise create a presence at relevant FOSS and R&D events
• create, gather and translate content for local publications and media outlets to do guerilla marketing
• engage with educational institutions and relevant local stakeholders that could benefit from or contribute to NGI Zero
• recruit, train and nurture volunteers who want to help spread the word in a decentralised way
• be a sparring partner for people in your service area interested in applying for grants
• Coordinate translation efforts for free and open source software, documentation and educational materials, Wikipedia pages, etc.

You are organised and can work independently. You have a hands-on mentality and are creative and social. You find joy in bringing people together and helping people. You have excellent communication skills in your native language(s) and enough grasp of English to understand and effectively communicate with the rest of NGI Zero (and understand the portfolio). Furthermore, you are based in the region of your choice itself (in one of the widening countries) and:

• have a suitable educational or professional/not-for-profit background
• can translate technical issues into something that ordinary people can grasp
• can find your way around the local free and open-source community and are in good standing
• are eager to learn and willing to dive into potentially unknown areas of knowledge

You do not have to be a domain expert on any specific technology: the job requires a generalist eager to learn about new things daily, with an eye for detail and a good memory.

Offer

You will have a responsible and rewarding role in an informal and hard-working not-for-profit setting. You will be under contract by Brno University of Technology. Your contribution is of great importance in making our work visible. In return, you will have the opportunity to meet many people, deepen your skills as a professional — and actually help shape new media themselves. This is a job where you are likely to learn every day and can take a dive into many exciting projects and state-of-the-art technologies.

If you are passionate about free and open-source software and believe that we should not wait for others to fix the problems of technology today, this is the ideal position for you!

We offer:

• a remote position so that you can work from home
• a part-time contract for six months, with the option of prolongation if all parties are satisfied with what has been achieved
• an attractive market-based salary based on knowledge and experience
• lots of responsibility and room for personal growth
• work in an exciting international context with cutting-edge technology and a fantastic community.

Are you interested, and do you meet the requirements in the profile? Then send your application, accompanied by an up-to-date CV and a targeted motivation, to Pavel Smrz: smrz@vut.cz. Please include a short overview of what region you could reasonably cover (e.g. which country/countries) and how you would suggest covering this. Please be as concrete as possible. Note that depending on the size of the area you can cover, the available budget may scale between 0.2 and 0.6 FTE.

Feel free to tip off a friend!

NOTE: As defined in the Horizon Europe regulation the widening countries Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The widening Associated countries (on condition of an association agreement) are Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine. The widening outermost regions are: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte Saint-Martin, The Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands.