DSF calls for applicants for a Django Fellow

After ten years of contributing to Django, four of which were paid as part of the Django Fellowship program, Tim Graham has decided to step down as a Django Fellow this spring to explore other things. Tim has made an extraordinary impact as a Django Fellow. The Django Software Foundation is grateful for his service and assistance.

The Fellowship program was started in 2014 as a way to dedicate high-quality and consistent resources to the maintenance of Django. As Django has matured, the DSF has been able to fundraise and earmark funds for this vital role. As a result, the DSF currently supports two Fellows - Tim and Carlton Gibson. With the departure of Tim, the Django Software Foundation is announcing a call for Django Fellow applications. The new Fellow will work alongside Carlton.

The position of Fellow is focused on maintenance and community support - the work that benefits most from constant, guaranteed attention rather than volunteer-only efforts. In particular, the duties include:

Answering contributor questions on IRC and the django-developers mailing list

Helping new Django contributors land patches and learn our philosophy

Monitoring the security@djangoproject.com email alias and ensuring security issues are acknowledged and responded to promptly

Fixing release blockers and helping to ensure timely releases

Fixing severe bugs and helping to backport fixes to these and security issues

Reviewing and merging pull requests

Triaging tickets on Trac

Being a Django contributor isn't a prerequisite for this position. We'll consider applications from anyone with a proven history of working with either the Django community or another similar open-source community. Geographical location isn't important either - we have several methods of remote communication and coordination that we can use depending on the timezone difference to the supervising members of Django.

If you're interested in applying for the position, please email us describing why you would be a good fit along with details of your relevant experience and community involvement. Also, please include the amount of time each week you'd like to dedicate to the position (a minimum of 20 hours a week), your preferred hourly rate, and when you'd like to start working. Lastly, please include at least one recommendation.

Applicants will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Details of Django and/or other open-source contributions

Details of community support in general

Understanding of the position

Clarity, formality and precision of communications

Strength of recommendation(s)

Applications will be open until 1200 UTC, January 11, 2019, with the expectation that the successful candidate will be notified around January 25, 2019.