About City Bureau
City Bureau is an innovation lab reimagining local journalism, civic media, and participatory democracy. We equip people with civic skills, develop resources that directly meet people’s information needs, and create pathways for deliberative dialogue that strengthens communities. We envision a world where all communities have the information, tools, and resources they need to actively shape their futures and cultivate a more responsive and just democracy.
Location: Remote, with occasional travel to Chicago (City Bureau headquarters) and partner communities. If residence is in the Chicago area, will be expected to participate periodically in person at City Bureau community events.
About Documenters
City Bureau’s Documenters program makes local democracy real and accessible to anyone. We do this by training and paying community members to attend and take notes at local public meetings, turning the knowledge, relationships, and capacity of local residents into a powerful community information resource.
Since launching Documenters in Chicago in 2016, local news and community organizations nationwide have adopted the program through the Documenters Network, which now includes more than 20 programs housed in local organizations across the country, with more added every year. Collectively, we have trained more than 4,000 community members and documented more than 5,000 public meetings across the country.
Using a network approach, City Bureau partners with local community and news organizations to start local Documenters programs (“sites”) in order to equip communities to understand and shape local policies and public systems. City Bureau stewards the overall Documenters program model; provides custom central technology through Documenters.org to operate and publish Documenters assignments; and offers convenings, template materials, and more to sites that support innovation, learning, and connection.
About the Job
City Bureau is seeking a Product and Ops Support Manager to join our Product team and be the backbone of product and operational support to 25+ Documenters sites.
Documenters sites work day-to-day inside the Documenters.org platform, the online home for Documenters workflow management and content. Documenters.org is a custom built software product owned and developed by City Bureau, and it is continuously evolving.. The user base for the platform has grown substantially over the last several years, as has the functionality of the product, and we are expanding our Product team to ensure users have the support they need to succeed with the product.
This role will be the front line for responding to new product support requests, helping our users get unstuck, and collaborating with the rest of the product team and with the overall Documenters teams when new functionality, process, or documentation is indicated.
This role will also be responsible for managing administrative and operational workflows to onboard, offboard, and maintain sites, including contract renewals, invoicing, and access to third party software systems that complement Documenters.org.
We’re looking for someone with product support experience who genuinely enjoys spending time with users and has a background in creative troubleshooting and problem solving. The ideal candidate loves being customer-facing, is a problem solver who gets to the root cause of an issue, can collaborate with engineers and non-technical folks alike to come up with creative solutions, and has high attention to detail.
This role will report to the Director of Product and will collaborate closely with all Documenters team members as well as our technical partners.
You should apply if:
You get energy and joy from working with end users: You genuinely enjoy jumping on a call to figure out why someone’s having a challenge with a system, and build ongoing relationships with our end users. You are empathetic and want to truly understand their challenges and needs. You’re thoughtful about explaining issues with clarity and kindness.
You are a problem solver: You’re a pro at getting at the root cause of a problem. You quickly develop deep, hands-on expertise in product and systems knowledge, and are willing to go into the weeds to figure out what’s going on. You are independent, but know when it’s time to escalate and call in additional stakeholders to figure out what to do next.
You have high attention to detail: No question is too trivial! You don’t let things fall through the cracks, and you’re on top of incoming issues and responses. You’re a strong project manager, and proactive about response and followthrough.
You’re excited about being a part of a collaborative team: You look forward to contributing to product strategy and roadmapping and can bring what you’ve learned from working with users to the table. You’re comfortable working with all levels of technical savvy, from engineers to folks who really hate technology.
Responsibilities
Product support
Monitor and triage incoming product requests for Documenters.org.
Troubleshoot product challenges with users to get them unstuck. Identify root causes for user issues and work with team partners to identify where changes to product, documentation, UI, etc might be needed to make users more successful.
Escalate issues that can’t be resolved at Tier 1 to the product team, and help with resolution to issues by collaborating closely with the team to find the right solution.
Maintain regular communication about issues & their resolutions with users.
Contribute to product roadmapping and strategy by providing user feedback to Product and contributing to roadmap prioritization work.
Create and update product support documentation.
Network operational support
Manage administrative workflows for contracts, invoicing, and MOUs with partner organizations in collaboration with City Bureau’s Operations team.
Manage system access, permissions, and workflows for partner organizations in critical third party platforms such as Airtable and Basecamp.
Triage and respond to incoming operational user inquiries; escalate inquiries that can’t be resolved at Tier 1 to the appropriate partners
Create and update technical documentation for systems access and administration.
Systems and process management
Maintain and evolve the product support process and tools
Maintain and evolve the process for contract/MOU renewals, invoicing, and subgranting
Research and recommend new systems tools to improve user and internal experiences (e.g. an improved ticketing system); own implementation of new tools
Collaborate on the development of new processes owned by other key stakeholders; take initiative to recommend key process improvements.
Qualifications
Customer support experience
2+ years prior software product support experience
Supports customers with empathy, patience, and clarity
Skilled at turning challenging conversations into positive creative and direct resolutions
Comfortable working with diverse individuals and adapting to different communication styles
Relationship building & communications skills
Gets energy and joy from spending time with end users
Proactively engages in real time to understand user problems
Meets users where they are irrespective of their technical savvy
Proactively maintains user relationships and has high follow through.
Writes user-facing content in a clear, concise, and friendly way
Problem solving skills
Demonstrated ability to independently develop deep, hands-on expertise in product & systems knowledge. Adept at navigating systems proactively to get answers.
Experience collaborating with product and / or engineering teams; experience with cross-functional collaboration with multiple types of skillsets and stakeholders.
Proactive and accountable; able to take initiative and drive projects forward independently.
Experience building systems and processes where gapped.
Operational experience
Tech savvy. Experience troubleshooting custom-built and 3rd party software.
Experience implementing and maintaining 3rd party software tools for an organization.
Has project managed complex workflows in the past.
High volume, high efficiency: on top of issues; responds not only on time but proactively.
We expect that the strongest candidates will have the above skills and areas of expertise in varying degrees. If you don’t have every qualification, please consider applying, and use your application to tell us about the skills you bring that would help us build this team.
Compensation, Benefits and Support
$71,000 annual salary. City Bureau uses a universal compensation system.
Full time with benefits package including health care, dental, vision, life insurance
Employer sponsored 401k plans, with 100% employer match up to 4% of salary
$1,000 annual technology and work tools allowance
$1,000 professional development allowance
15 days paid vacation, not including health days
11 company holidays each year, which may be exchanged for employees who celebrate other holidays
A 4.5-day week for most of the year. For three months during the summer, City Bureau operates on a 4-day work week.
Work from home options. City Bureau also has a central office and requires periodic in-person retreats and work sessions.
A culture of intentional professional development and organizational learning: City Bureau staff hold regular share outs to learn from one another and hold regular community check-ins to connect and surface feedback on policies and practices.
Our Anticipated Timeline
We’re projecting the following timeline for this hiring process. We will notify candidates of any shifts as we move through the process.
Application closes on Jul 13, 2025
Within two weeks of closing applications, you will know if you’ve moved onto the interview stage
Within two weeks of your interview, you’ll know if you moved onto the case exercise stage
Within two weeks of your case exercise completion, you’ll know if you moved onto the final interview
We expect to make a final offer by late August
City Bureau is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
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