Senior IT Worker

Palante Technology Cooperative is seeking a new technical support person to join us in our work with incredible nonprofit and community organizations. The new worker will join our tech support team, providing remote support to our clients, and on site assistance to our clients in New York City if they are able to (this is not a requirement, but it is a plus).

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position has been filled, with the target start date of ASAP.

Who We Are
Palante Tech is a worker cooperative that provides tech services to progressive nonprofit, social justice, activist and community organizations. Over the years, in our individual and collective work, we’ve developed a deep understanding of nonprofit tech needs and the expertise required to meet them. Each of us has also been long involved with activism and organizing in non-technological capacities. This breadth of experience allows us to provide services that are tailored to meet the specific needs of nonprofit community organizations.

Palante is currently composed of seven worker-owners living around the US. You can find out more about each of us on our website at https://palantetech.coop/about.

Wages and Benefits
All Palante workers are paid at the same hourly rate of $36.50, plus patronage if they become worker-owners after 9-to-12 months of successful onboarding. We typically consider 30 hours/week to be full time. Professional development and community involvement of various sorts are also paid; we encourage workers to seek out opportunities! We offer 11 paid holidays per year, with paid vacation and health time accruing per hour worked. We offer health, dental, vision, and disability insurance to all workers, as well as an FSA, paid parental and family leave, and paid bereavement time. Workers are eligible for a paid sabbatical after 8 years of working at the coop. We have a strong commitment to collective accountability, treating each other well, and ensuring that each worker is able to lead a healthy, fulfilling, and balanced life. You can read more about our cooperative values at https://palantetech.coop/our-values.

Our Worker Cooperative
As a member of our worker cooperative you will participate in the day-to-day business of Palante Tech: prospecting for new work, managing projects and clients, helping with billing and bookkeeping, and making business decisions via consensus at our weekly meetings. We have many areas of work and we encourage all workers to learn about them all and branch out into other areas. All Palante Tech workers are candidates for worker ownership of the cooperative; one of the benefits of ownership is patronage, or a share in the company profits based on a worker’s percentage of the total hours worked. You can read this piece from 2016 for more information on what it’s like to work at our coop.

Who We’re Looking For
We’re looking for someone who has a well-rounded set of technical skills and is good at learning new skills. We prefer that you have experience with working remotely and independently; you should be comfortable with a high amount of communication via phone, video, email, chat, and an online project management system. Ideal candidates will share our commitment to working with progressive and social justice nonprofits & community organizations.

The ideal person will be able to demonstrate the following qualities and skills:

• Ability to work remotely with minimal supervision in an organization with collective decision making processes
• Talent for explaining technical concepts to a non-technical audience
• Outstanding customer service and people skills in person, over the phone, and via email
• Comfort solving a wide range of software, networking and hardware issues that might be found in small (5-20 person) offices
• The ability to work well under pressure when the situation requires it
• Ability to do root cause analysis
• Ability to create/update thorough and accessible documentation
• Commitment to worker-cooperatives and alignment with our values

Also most or all of these technical skills:

• Installing and configuring routers and switches, both residential and SOHO-grade (e.g. Ubiquiti/UniFi, Sonicwall TZ170, Zyxel ZyWall series)
• Installing, configuring and troubleshooting a wide range of Windows operating systems and software (Windows 10/11, Microsoft Office, web browsers, etc.)
• Configuring and troubleshooting email-related issues across a number of platforms/clients (SMTP, IMAP, Thunderbird, Outlook, smartphone clients)
• Able to configure and troubleshoot firewall-related issues
• Comfortable writing and editing basic scripts to automate simple tasks
• Installing, configuring, and troubleshooting servers, particularly
• Windows Server, Debian/Ubuntu (<10%)
• Experience with Google/MS Admin
• Familiarity with the open source software ecosystem
• Familiarity with the Linux command line
• The ability to write clear technical documentation for internal use

Other pluses:

• Experience with leveraging automation (Puppet, wpkg, chef, powershell, and similar)
• Experience with MySQL, PHP, bash scripting, Samba, Postfix, Apache
• Experience with MS Azure AD
• Experience with PGP encryption
• Knowledge or experience with horizontal or collective decision making process and/or organizations
• Located in the NYC tri-state area with the ability to travel to client offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn (this is a bonus but not a requirement, and travel time and personal protective equipment are covered by the cooperative)

Furthermore, this job has the following requirements:

• Fluency in English
• Ability to climb stairs, lift and carry computer-sized objects
• Ability to to read text from a screen for extended periods of time

Responsibilities for the role & work plan:

First month:

• Onboarding. Train up and learn Palante’s internal and client-facing systems and processes including LastPass, Gusto, HappyFox, Redmine, Harvest, MayFirst, and RingCentral. This also includes onboarding to consensus-based decision-making.
• Become familiar with Help Desk processes including but not limited to on-call procedure and tier system.
• Staff our tech help desk as a tier-1 agent, providing entry-level, ticket-based tech support to our web, database, and tech clients. Training will be provided for this part of the role.
• Start monthly buddy/steward check-ins and complete 1st/3rd month Worker-to-Owner Transition check-ins.

First 3 months:

• Conduct site visits a few times a month to provide on-site support such as networking device setup, hardware installation, and hardware maintenance.
• Staff our tech help desk as a tier-2 agent, providing tier-2 remote support using our knowledge base in addition to your own expertise and Palante-provided training.
• Participate in coop processes including our weekly meetings and/or different teams as interest and experience align.

3-6 months:

• Staff our tech help desk as a tier-3 agent, providing tier-3 remote support using our knowledge base in addition to your own expertise and Palante-provided training.
• Facilitate staff meetings on a rotating basis, if desired. Resources can be provided for this part of the role.

6+ months:

• Assist in prospecting and onboarding of new tech support clients.
• Prepare for worker-owner transition. Worker-ownership happens somewhere between 9 and 12 months.

How to Apply

Please email us at jobs@palantetech.coop with the following:

A cover letter including:

• Why you’re interested in joining a worker cooperative
• Your relevant skills and experience for the job
• Your resume

People of color, women, genderqueer and trans folks, and queer folks strongly encouraged to apply.