RFP: Fractional Product Leader
OVERVIEW
Work for America is a nonpartisan nonprofit working to solve the government staffing crisis by helping state and local governments recruit, hire, and inspire the people they need to deliver for their communities. We believe that public service should be a desirable, accessible, and stable career path for Americans from all walks of life.
From connecting mission-driven talent with government jobs, to helping cities modernize hiring systems and tell a more compelling story about public sector work, Work for America is making it easier for great people to serve, and for communities to thrive. Our work has been recognized by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and TIME for its innovative approach to rebuilding the public workforce. Read more here.
Civic Match is our free, national talent matching platform for jobseekers and governments. Jobseekers create profiles, get matched to roles, and track their applications. Government hiring managers post jobs, search candidates, and build shortlists. Work for America staff manage the platform and provide support to both sides of the marketplace.
More than 440 state and local government customers and 14,000 jobseekers have used the platform. In September 2026, we opened Civic Match to anyone who wants to serve, and we anticipate this expansion will help us reach our goal of 25,000 jobseekers utilizing the platform by the end of the year.
Work for America's Current Tech Stack
This tech stack may shift, and we welcome recommendations from the selected consultant.
Front end: React
API / app framework: Next.js, Astro
Authentication: Clerk
Database: PostgreSQL, Prisma, Dragonfly
Background jobs & workflows: Inngest
Hosting & infrastructure: Vercel, AWS
Email: Resend
Analytics: Google Analytics
CRM & email automation: HubSpot
Resume parsing: Super Parser
Job data ingestion: ScrapingBee
Data sync: Airtable (but transitioning to Tableau)
PURPOSE OF THIS RFP
We are seeking a fractional product leader to help us decide what Civic Match should become. More than 450 governments and 16,000 jobseekers have come to us with little marketing, and that network is our most valuable asset. The platform is how we serve it, and we want a product leader who can help us build the right one.
This begins as a 60-day diagnostic engagement with two goals. First, diagnose where the Civic Match platform stands today, from the product itself to how we build and maintain it. Second, define and start building the technical team we need to keep growing it.
Civic Match launched as a custom-built MVP in January 2026 after starting out on Airtable. It now has to carry tens of thousands of jobseekers and government partners. That growth needs a clear product direction, a roadmap the whole organization understands, and the right model for building and running the platform.
The fractional leader will work closely with our Product Manager, Data Coordinator, and CRM lead. By day 60, Work for America should have a clear diagnosis, a prioritized roadmap, and a team plan we can act on right away.
SCOPE OF WORK
This is a fixed-fee, 60-day diagnostic engagement. You will primarily focus on two goals across the 60-day engagement.
Goal 1: Diagnose the platform
Get to know the Civic Match team and how jobseekers, government hiring managers, and relationship coordinators use the platform.
Start with a quick, high-level health check before any firefighting. Working with our Product Manager, rate the platform on areas like stability, data quality, and AI readiness, and flag anything that needs an immediate fix.
Collaborate with our current external product and engineering partner to review the roadmap, backlog, analytics, codebase, and how product work happens today.
Identify how Civic Match could sustain itself over time, including what governments would pay for.
Prepare the product for a transition away from our current product and engineering partner, to ensure a seamless transition by end of year.
Help us decide what to build, how to build it, and in what order. For example, we expect stable data comes before AI matching and want your view on the right sequence.
Goal 2: Strengthen the team
Recommend the right build model for Civic Match, whether an external engineering partner, a small AI-native team, or a mix. We want to stay lean and see how far we can get with what we have.
Help select a new engineering partner if that fits the model, and either way, lead the transition from our outgoing one.
Set up a working rhythm for product, including sprint cadence and planning and review meetings.
Coach our Product Manager.
By day 30, we expect:
A platform health assessment with ratings and a list of immediate fixes.
A recommended build model and team proposal
By day 60, we expect:
A prioritized 6 to 12 month roadmap with proposed KPIs.
Engineering partner selection underway or complete, with a plan for transitioning from our outgoing partner.
A proposal for the execution phase
We also expect a short weekly written update to our Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Program Officer covering progress, risks, and decisions needed.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
We care more about how you think than the boxes you check. We're looking for someone exceptionally curious who is always testing the newest tools, cares deeply about public service, and is hungry to build something big. You've likely worked across product, design, and engineering, and you use AI to move faster than a traditional team could.
Several years leading product at a growth-stage company or nonprofit, ideally including a platform you helped build from early stages.
Fluency with AI-native building and development. You use the latest tools in your own work, can manage both people and AI agents, and know how to ship AI features responsibly, including evaluation and bias testing.
A bias toward short cycle times. You form a hypothesis, get it in front of users, and adjust within days.
Enough technical depth to question estimates, spot risk, and structure a lean engineering team. Our stack is listed above.
Experience with two-sided marketplaces, including how they grow and how freemium or subscription models could sustain them.
Experience hiring and managing external engineering partners, including holding them to a high bar and changing course when needed.
Strong written and verbal communication. Much of this role is making tradeoffs clear to people with different levels of technical background.
A deep commitment to quality and willingness to call out tough problems or decisions if they put quality at risk.
Low ego and comfort working with a small team and senior leaders who have strong views.
Experience in government, civic tech, or nonprofits is a plus. Knowing how to scope work so governments can easily buy it is a bigger one.
This role is for an individual. We will consider proposals from firms if they name one person who will do the work.
ENGAGEMENT STRUCTURE & TIMELINE
Engagement type: Independent contractor
Term: 60-day fixed-fee engagement, with the potential to extend into an execution phase
Budget: We anticipate a fixed-fee engagement in the range of $30k–$40k. Proposals outside this range will be considered, but those within it will be most competitive. Respondents proposing a higher fee should include a short rationale and, where possible, note which elements of scope could be adjusted to fit within it.
Location: Remote within the United States
Travel: Minimal travel anticipated (potential to join a team retreat in NYC)
Collaboration: The consultant will report to our Chief Operating Officer and work day to day with our Product Manager, Data Coordinator, and CRM lead. They will also work closely with our Director of Civic Match, the broader Civic Match team, and our Chief Program Officer.
HOW TO APPLY
Interested applicants should submit a written proposal that includes:
A short summary of your background and why this engagement fits you, with a resume.
How you would approach the 60-day diagnostic and what you would need from our team to do your best work.
Two examples of prior work, ideally showing you building or rebuilding a product with a lean team.
Your availability, including your earliest start date, whether you can commit 3-4 days per week for 60 days, and any other commitments we should know about.
Your fixed fee for the diagnostic.
Three references we can contact directly. At least one should be someone who worked with you as a client or manager.
Please submit proposals here by Friday, October 16. All questions should be sent to kate@workforamerica.org by Wednesday, October 14. Feel free to use AI tools as you normally would in this role, but cite how and which tools you used as part of your final proposal.
WORK FOR AMERICA’S MISSION, VISION, AND VALUES
MISSION
Work for America helps state and local governments recruit, hire and inspire the next wave of public servants, ensuring better services and a stronger America.
VISION
Work for America aims to make public service a more desirable, accessible, and stable career path that uplifts families, communities and our country.
VALUES
Hope with realism. We lead with ambition and optimism, but we are not naive. Our on-the-ground work keeps us clear-eyed when it comes to the challenges of what’s real and what’s possible.
Care and high standards. We move quickly when it matters, and slow down when it counts. We stay focused on the work in front of us, make space to rest, and hold our work to a high bar for the people and communities that rely on it.
Teamwork with empathy. We operate as one team. No task is too small, and we meet each other with humor and respect that strengthens real partnership.
Build for today and tomorrow. We fix what’s in front of us and design for what comes next, creating solutions that last while making room for new ideas to take root.
Honor public service. We believe in the power and promise of public service, and we honor the people who carry that promise forward every day.
