We're #Hiring for Our Concourse Team!

We're looking for a Digital Product Owner and a Digital Communications Strategist

January 2025 Update: Following this late 2024 post we hired two great new colleagues and they have started on our team. Congratulations to Amy, our new GX Communications Strategist and to Bradleigh, our new GX Product Owner!

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The GX Concourse team has been small but mighty for the last year - just myself and Caitlyn Coughlin. We’ve both been wearing many different hats as needed to get this project up and running, but more importantly to build relationships and a community with our stakeholders. This initiative is a big change not just in technology, but in how we as a county are approaching service delivery.

We’re on track to launch our 2.0 website with an initial cohort of 14 agencies in Q2 of 2025, which means we are ready to add staff to our team’s numbers. We’re hiring for a Digital Product Owner to manage the website, analytics, and platform governance, among other things. And we’re hiring a Digital Communications Strategist to help our county agencies implement their communications strategies with our current tools, and piece them all together on the website.

Digital Communications Strategist LinkedIn Post

Digital Product Owner LinkedIn Post

Below I’ll go into detail about the team, but want to give you the important information up front. You can find the slide decks explaining each role in our LinkedIn posts: Digital Product Owner, Digital Communications Strategist. And the application is on the Data Center’s NEOGOV page here. If you don’t meet all the qualifications but are interested - please apply!

Legalistic Requirements

It’s important to get these out of the way, first.

• This job is located in Columbus, Ohio; we do not pay for relocation

• We require in-office work each week (currently 2 days in-office)

• Interviews are in-person at our office during November

So… you need to be in the Columbus area already or you need to get here ASAP. We have hired people that relocated on their own, so if you already have plans to move and are interested in this role, reach out. But if you don’t plan to relocate, don’t apply. There’s already lots of tech talent in central Ohio. Additionally…

• You must be authorized to work in the U.S.

• We do not sponsor work visas or other immigration processes

• Employment is contingent on background checks and drug testing

Yes, recreational marijuana went legal in Ohio this summer, but our policies have not caught up with that reality yet. But given we handle a lot of sensitive information about citizens, we have a responsibility to ensure our employees are not impaired. We are serving the public, after all.

Okay, now on to the good stuff about the job!

What does the GX Concourse team do?

We’re here to center the needs of our communities as we build a public-facing web presence for Franklin County that serves every resident, every day. That’s the tagline, sure, but it’s also true. We use low-code/no-code digital platforms designed with government in mind, so that staff editing content in agencies don’t need to have developer-level skills to make quick updates.

What this allows us to do—as the centralized owners of the platform—is find the overlaps, points of connection, and cross-agency pain points the public experience when interacting with Franklin County online. This is why all of our roles are focused on supporting our colleagues in county agencies to own their own content, while we coordinate those cross-over points to find solutions together.

Below is more detail on each role on the team, but I want to call out a few characteristics we need in every role. We are…

…mission-driven. We’re here to meld contemporary digital experiences with local government services, collaborating with teams that make our communities better every day. You’ll prioritize real transformation over mere digitization, you’ll seek meaningful impact rather than flashy metrics, and you’ll help us build long-term public trust. Join us to make an impact, not fill a seat.​

…curious, inventive, adaptable, and determined. To make government better, you’ll learn (and respect) the status quo, then start asking the questions to help everyone adapt. When we hear “that’s not how we do things,” we (politely) stick to our guns while ensuring everyone makes it to the other side intact. You’ll need bottomless curiosity to learn context, sincere compassion for overworked public servants, and eyes locked on the prize.

…emotionally mature communicators. Yes we work in technology, but our solutions are only as good as how much they help people. We understand how to listen to learn, not just refine your point. Every role on this team will be training, writing documentation, and collaborating closely with each other and our agency colleagues.

…interested in finding joy and fun together along the way. Look: this work is tough. We take the work seriously, but not always ourselves.

Without further ado, meet the team!

GX Concourse Manager

Hi, I’m Sarah. As the manager, I always see my role as helping everyone meet the standards of our best selves in the work we do together. I’m here to identify the strategic direction, clear roadblocks, and hold us accountable to our professional values and the goals of this project - to help build public trust in the government. That is a tall order, I know. But even if we make an inch of progress, it’s worth it.

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Digital Content Strategist

Caitlyn Coughlin, who’s title has been Product Owner up to now, is going to continue the good work she’s been doing building relationships with our agency colleagues to be our Digital Content Strategist. She’s the perfect person for this role, and we’re so excited to have her in it.

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Digital Product Owner

This role is going to be the backbone of our website that we will be able to build off of with our other roles. The tools we use are low-code/now-code, but you’ll need to bring some technical chops to help us continue to grow our digital service delivery.

You’re a good fit for this role if you are…

…as analytical as you are empathetic. This role is at the heart of our insights and data-driven strategy. We’ll need you to be able to understand how to build reports and read data not just for the numbers, but the story they tell about how people are feeling and behaving while on our websites.​

…an impeccably organized technologist. You’ve got the technical chops to manage our sitemap, build reporting dashboards, or update the CSS on our design theme, sure. But you understand the tools you own are only as good as they are understandable to the staff using them. You love to create documentation, think about how to scale governance structures, and help people understand how the tools you own can help solve their problems.

Qualifications Summary​

• At least a couple of years working in digital, web editor, or product management-type roles​

• Comfortable with some CSS and HTML​

• Experience building reporting dashboards​

• Understanding of product roadmaps and backlogs in a Product Ownership model​

• Experience working with customers and building relationships a big plus​

• Great documentation and training skills – we need you to help people learn the tools you own​

• Collaborative problem solving – be okay not knowing the answer and asking for help​

You can find the slide deck explaining the role here, and the application is here. If you don’t meet all the qualifications but are interested - please apply!

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Digital Communications Strategist

This role is new to the county, and so has a ton of opportunity. You’ll be building out a county-wide event calendar on Eventbrite, submission guidelines, promotion guidance, etc. You’ll also be scaling the county’s use of govDelivery, our e-news platform. This will include training, guidance, and occasionally writing content for agency communications. We also want to build a county communications calendar to help coordinate our communications so they don’t compete with each other.

You’re a good fit for this role if you are…

…a data-driven digital communicator. Crafting perfect messaging and great visuals are just as important as identifying the behaviors and needs of the segment you’re targeting. You understand that communication is only as effective as what people hear and understand, and you love finding ways to measure that.​

…a true teacher and collaborator. This role isn't just about writing great emails. It's about supporting our agency partners in implementing their own strategies and helping them build their own communications skills. It will require teaching, training, and listening more than anything. We're here to help the public feel taken care of while they find what they need.

Qualifications Summary​

• At least a few years in a digital communications or email marketing role​

• Experience managing audience segments and email reporting​

• Experience developing and managing meaningful relationships with customers (internal or external)​

• Familiarity with digital design tools and creating email templates​

• Impeccable communications – writing, editing, training, documentation​

• Multi-lingual is a plus​

You can find the slide deck explaining the role here, and the formal application is here. If you don’t meet all the qualifications but are interested - please apply!

Our Hiring Process

1. We review resumes and conduct initial informal calls with candidates that may be a fit; the calls are not interviews, just info-sharing from us to you

2. We invite selected candidates to a first interview about technical skills, project work, and other experience; it's a panel format including staff and parallel managers, and we do it on-site in our offices

3. We invite finalists to a second interview that expands on themes from the first interview (also a panel format, also on-site)

4. We want to identify our preferred candidates in November and formally hire in early December, but every role is vital to our success, so we’ll take extra time if needed

   1. Our intended timeline is to make a job offer in late November, then make the offer official in early December (long story), then the start date would be early January 2025.

Our Hiring Team

Here are some key people you may meet during chats about the job or via interviews:

• Sarah Gray - GX Concourse Manager (hiring manager)

• Eric Nutt - GX Development Manager (parallel manager)

• Caitlyn Coughlin- Digital Content Strategist (peer)

• Harrison Ponce - GX Product Owner (parallel peer)

• Renee Mascari-Bauer - Delivery Services Manager (parallel manager)

• John Proffitt - Chief Digital Officer

• Lacey Pahren - People Experience Specialist (HR)

• Kimberly Carroll - People Operations Manager (HR)

Questions?

If you have any questions, please feel free to connect with Sarah Gray or John Proffitt on LinkedIn (see above). We’re happy to help anyone figure out whether this is the right opportunity for you.