Over 4,000 people1 have applied for the 35 open positions on NYC’s Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew, the new team at New York City Office of Technology & Innovation that will partner with agencies to move from ideas to implementation within months, not years. I am excited about the impact that these 35 people will be able to have on how the city delivers services, but keenly aware that this means that thousands of qualified applicants won’t get one of these jobs.
If you have applied for a PIT Crew and don’t end up with one of those roles, I want to share other ways that you can have an impact on government service delivery in New York City and beyond. New Yorkers need your interest, passion and skill, so consider taking advantage of one of these other pathways. I will walk you through some of the other paths you can take to do work that matters in and around New York City government.
Work for another NYC government agency
PIT Crew isn’t the only team within New York City government focused on improving service delivery and how residents experience government. It’s just the newest, and has had pretty great marketing.
PIT Crew is an example of a centralized team that will be working with teams across agencies, but is unlikely to ultimately own the findings or products they build. There are several other teams like this across the city. There are also agency-level teams who focus on building tools and products within a particular field. Each agency also has an IT department that has the most sustained and direct impact on how agencies work and deliver. All of these types of teams and their work matter.
NYC Digital Service
NYC Digital Service is another team within the NYC Office of Technology & Innovation focused on delivering public-facing digital experiences in partnership with agencies and stakeholders across the city.
NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (NYC OTI)
The parent agency of both the PIT Crews and NYC Digital Service, OTI delivers services to New Yorkers and to their fellow agencies to connect people to City services and increase opportunities. Learn more about their services here.
NYC Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (aka NYC Opportunity)
NYC Opportunity helps the City use evidence and innovation to reduce poverty and increase equity. Some of the teams that may be of interest include the Service Design Studio and the Digital Products Team.
NYC Campaign Finance Board
CFB is an independent agency that is dedicated to making local democracy more equitable and transparent. They provide access and information for New Yorkers to vote and run for office, and administer NYC’s matching fund program, enhancing the impact of small-dollar donations.
CFB has a growing design, product and project management organization focused on delivering high quality digital tools and products to New Yorkers, candidates and local campaigns.
NYC Planning Tech
The NYC Department of City Planning has been a leader within the city in building easy-to-use tools for staff and the public alike. They have built tools like Applicant Maps, a tool to produce the required maps for applications to the City Planning Commission, ZoLa, New York City’s zoning & land use map, and many more.
Other teams that hire technologists include:
Find NYC government jobs at cityjobs.nyc.gov, or browse current civic tech and government tech openings, including many of the teams and orgs listed here, on Tech Jobs for Gov.
Work for a state or regional digital service or civic tech team
Beyond New York City government, there are many other teams and agencies at other levels of government that you can work for while living in New York City. Just like in the City, there are both centralized teams as well as agencies that hire technologists. Some of the centralized teams include:
New York State Digital Service
The New York State Digital Service is a team of strategists, product managers, and technologists who work with agencies to streamline and improve the digital experience across New York State.
New York State’s Human-Centered Design (HCD) Team
The HCD team at the New York State Office of Information Technology Services runs the NYS Design System and Digital Accessibility work, as well as helping teams across the state build digital services that prioritize user outcomes, meet accessibility standards like WCAG 2.2 AA, and work better for everyone overall.
Learn more from the ITS podcast.
New York State Office of Customer Experience
The CX Office champions a customer-centric culture and is working to transform how New York residents access services and benefits from the state. They created the New York Experience Playbook, and set the CX strategy, working with teams across the state to simplify processes and better use technology to reduce barriers to service and decrease wait times.
MTA Digital Service Team
The MTA Digital Service team works on the (non-ad) screens in the subway, as well as running TrainTime and the MTA App and mta.info. This team of about 20 engineers, PMs and designers work are responsible for all customer-facing digital endpoints. Find MTA jobs at mta.info/careers.
New Jersey Innovation Authority
NJIA uses data-driven, human-centered, and agile processes to identify, understand, and address all kinds of complex challenges. They work collaboratively across the State, across sectors and with the public to design and deploy better public products, services, and policies to New Jersey residents, businesses, and institutions. Find jobs at innovation.nj.gov/join.
Find New York State jobs at statejobs.ny.gov. If you’re open to looking beyond just New York State, consider checking out CODE PA, the Maryland Digital Service, MassDigital, Colorado Office of Information Technology and other digital service teams across the country.
Work for a civic tech organization that partners with government agencies
The civic tech ecosystem is growing, and there are many different types of organizations that support the work happening inside New York City and other governments. These include non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, public benefit corporations, universities, philanthropies and more. I’ve shared a non-exhaustive list of some of the organizations I am familiar with that work in and around NYC below.
Non-profits
For-profits
Philanthropy
Rockefeller Foundation (provided funding for one PIT Crew)
Academia
What agencies or organizations are missing? Leave a comment to let others know about work happening in and around NYC government.
Work for a GovTech startup or company
There are a variety of startups and tech companies that work closely with government teams to fill gaps and ultimately provide better government services. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I’ve shared some that work remotely and in NYC below.
Propel: building technology that makes people’s government benefits better, at the speed and scale they deserve.
Holly: AI-driven job design, compensation planning, and workforce analysis for local government hiring
Civic Roundtable: a government operations platform purpose-built for local, state, and federal government agencies and their partner organizations
Polimorphic: the complete AI platform for government services
Concourse: building software that fits governments instead of forcing governments to fit the software.
🔎 Didn't find what you're looking for above? Tech Jobs for Gov tracks open roles across agencies, state digital service teams, civic tech orgs, and more in NYC and across the country, updated as new listings come in.
Luke Farrell, Deputy Commissioner & Director, NYC PIT Crew, shared the latest numbers at BetaBagels 016 - A Conversation with OTI’s PIT Crew hosted by BetaNYC last week.
Don't forget the biggest agency of all, Office of Technology and Innovation. They do the heavy lifting for all tech in the city and hire thousands