Who we are:

The Sovereign Tech Agency is a public organization dedicated to the digital sovereignty of the economy and society. Our mission is to strengthen the foundations of our digital autonomy and secure open digital technologies as the critical infrastructure of the 21st century. Open digital infrastructure is the backbone of the digital world. It is essential for the flow of information, for government, for business, and for innovation, much like roads and bridges in the physical world. The most effective strategy for building this infrastructure is open source software: it is the bedrock on which our digital society is built - powerful, collaborative, and democratic. With a commission from the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation, the Sovereign Tech Agency invests in critical software components, develops programs, and creates structures that sustainably strengthen the open source ecosystem, including the people behind the code. Our work is unique: we are leading the way on how governments engage with open digital infrastructure and laying the groundwork for how modern societies ensure resilience, technological diversity, and public digital services. Together, we are building Europe’s digital future – open, secure, and sovereign.

Who we are looking for:

This role is part of the Sovereign Tech Fellowship program. We are hiring up to three internal Sovereign Tech Fellows who will contribute to strengthening critical open source infrastructure through expertise in maintenance, community management, and technical writing. We are looking for experienced open source professionals with a proven track record of meaningful involvement in established projects, whether through maintaining software, building and moderating communities, improving documentation, or combining several of these areas. You take ownership, work independently, and think beyond short-term fixes. You care about resilient processes, inclusive collaboration, and transparent decision-making. You communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences and are comfortable working in distributed, international environments. You are committed to open source as a public good and your motivation to help critical projects thrive technically, socially, and structurally.

Your Tasks:

As a Sovereign Tech Fellow you will play a pivotal role in sustaining and strengthening critical open source digital infrastructure. Depending on your role (maintainer, community manager, or technical writer), you will work on the following tasks. We appreciate that there might be constant or temporary overlaps between roles.

Maintainer:

• Lead and support essential maintenance work across one or more widely-used open source projects, including activities such as code review, bug fixing, vulnerability triage, release engineering, and community coordination.
• Work with and mentor other contributors, helping to grow community engagement, diversify contributor participation, and share knowledge across teams.
• Contribute strategically to project health and stability, addressing long-term technical debt, improving security, and enabling resilient development practices.
• Communicate your work and progress to both technical and non-technical audiences, highlighting your impact on project sustainability and ecosystem resilience.
• Engage in the broader ecosystem of the tech stack and their communities, ensuring cross-project collaboration and aligned development

Community Manager:

• Actively steward and grow the community of one or more critical open source projects, fostering a welcoming, collaborative, and resilient environment.
• Moderate and facilitate discussions across project channels (e.g. issue trackers, mailing lists, chat platforms, forums), ensuring constructive dialogue and adherence to community guidelines.
• Facilitate effective collaboration and decision-making, including organizing and moderating community meetings, supporting governance processes, and documenting outcomes transparently.
• Design and improve onboarding pathways for new contributors, helping lower barriers to entry and supporting long-term contributor retention.
• Support conflict resolution and maintain community health, addressing challenges proactively and upholding codes of conduct.
• Represent the project externally by attending conferences, meetups, and ecosystem events, advocating for the project’s mission, and building partnerships.
• Strengthen contributor engagement and retention, identifying opportunities to recognize contributions and foster long-term involvement.
• Measure and reflect on community health, using qualitative and quantitative signals to continuously improve engagement and sustainability.

Technical Writer:

• Develop, improve, and maintain high-quality documentation, including user guides, API references, tutorials, onboarding materials, and release notes.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible language for different audiences - from new contributors to experienced developers and users
• Design and optimize documentation structures, ensuring information is easy to find, logically organized, and aligned with user needs.
• Collaborate closely with maintainers and contributors to document features, workflows, governance processes, and best practices accurately and consistently.
• Establish and refine documentation standards and processes, including style guides, contribution guidelines, and review workflows.
• Support contributor onboarding by identifying documentation gaps and reducing barriers to entry through improved guides and learning resources.
• Contribute to release communication, including changelogs, migration guides, and summaries of major updates.
• Champion documentation as a core part of project sustainability, helping embed writing and knowledge management into the development lifecycle.

Sovereign Tech Fellows will also support the work of the Sovereign Tech Agency. They will share their expertise to help develop new initiatives and programs that strengthen the open source ecosystem and support its different stakeholders. This may also include taking part in a new international maintainer community that the Sovereign Tech Agency plans to launch in 2026.

Your Qualities:

• You hold a degree in a technical field or bring comparable experience
• You have at least three years of active involvement in the open source ecosystem. For maintainers and community managers, this includes demonstrated contributions to open source projects. For technical writers, this includes at least three years of experience contributing to technical documentation for software projects.
• You understand the full lifecycle of open source development, from contribution and review processes to releases, documentation, governance, and community collaboration.
• You care deeply about the sustainability, security, and long-term stability of the open source components you support and the broader ecosystems they are part of.
• You collaborate effectively with contributors from different backgrounds and experience levels, and you foster constructive, respectful dialogue.
• You work independently, manage your time reliably, and adapt to evolving priorities across technologies and communities.

For us, your motivation, attitude, and vision are as important as your resume. Even if you don’t fit all requirements, we welcome your application.

What we offer:

• Based on experience and qualifications, the annual compensation for this role (at 40 hours per week) is 64,000 to 82,000 Euro aligned with the TVöD-Bund wage agreement for the public sector.
• Flexible and remote-friendly work arrangements for all family and life situations, from our office in Berlin-Mitte, from home (within Germany), or in a hybrid model o Please note: we have four in-person team meetings in or around Berlin per year, and almost all meetings are scheduled during GMT +1 working hours.
• 30 days of vacation (based on a 5-day work week)
• Support for your professional and personal development, including the opportunity to attend international conferences
• Two-year employment contract term
• In our small, agile team, your perspective matters: we explicitly welcome you to contribute ideas and suggestions about how we can develop as an organization and to actively participate in shaping our future.

If you’re interested in the Sovereign Tech Fellowship as a freelance contractor, this is also an option. Please find more details here: https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fellowship#module-program-details

Diversity and Inclusion:

We are a diverse team and welcome applications from BPoC (Black and People of Color), individuals with disabilities, people with migration backgrounds, and individuals from other groups underrepresented in technology development. If you belong to these groups, please feel free to mention it in your application. However, we encourage you to refrain from including a photo of yourself or any information about your age, gender, marital status, or similar details in your documents.

How to apply and the next steps:

Please submit your application with a cover letter and CV in English using the form linked from Sovereign Tech Fellowship program page: https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fellowship

We will confirm receipt of your documents by email.

• Submission deadline for applications is on April 6, 2026, at 11:59 PM (CET)
• Selected candidates will be invited for video interviews starting April 20, 2026
• Final decisions and offers will be communicated by the end of April 2026
• Freelance and employment contracts begin from May 1, 2026, depending on availability

If you have any questions after reviewing the Sovereign Tech Fellowship program page, our blog post, and FAQs, please email us at fellowships@sovereign.tech.