Embedded Operations Partner — Work Side by Side with Incarcerated Leaders Reshaping Justice

San Quentin SkunkWorks; San Quentin (CA); On-site; USD 27,552 - 41,328; Part time

Job summary

A leading innovation lab in a correctional facility is seeking an operational partner to assist the leadership team at San Quentin SkunkWorks. This unique role involves on-site collaboration during weekly sessions, executing plans, capturing metrics, and providing administrative support. Ideal candidates will possess operations or project management experience, comfort with tools like Google Workspace and Zoom, and a strong sense of reliability. Join a national movement that empowers incarcerated individuals and transforms the justice system through innovative leadership.

Qualifications

• Experience in operations, project management, or program coordination, either professional or volunteer.
• Ability to build relationships with diverse individuals.
• Comfort in unstructured environments and taking direction from incarcerated leaders.

Responsibilities

• Assist the leadership team by executing their plans during working sessions.
• Support the design and management of various program areas.
• Capture metrics and provide administrative support during meetings.

Skills

Operations experience

Project management

Comfort with Google Workspace

Strong follow-through

Ability to work as a peer

Reliability

Tools

Google Workspace

Zoom

Monday.com

Job description

SkunkWorks began as a bold idea inside San Quentin – what if incarceration could become a launchpad for change? Founded by incarcerated people and built in partnership with outside professionals, we’ve grown into a nationally recognized innovation lab inside prison walls.

Our goal is simple but radical: transform the justice system by centering the leadership of the people most impacted by it. We design and test solutions inside—and then work to scale them beyond the walls.

Our programs put incarcerated leadership into practice. We reclaim prison spaces with murals that restore dignity, run intensive leadership trainings that prepare incarcerated people to guide reform, and host monthly gaming events that bring more than 150 people together across divides. Each project is a live experiment in building a justice system that works better for everyone.

We’ve been featured in CalMatters, the front page of the LA Times, and are backed by CDCR. But our biggest achievement? Building a movement where incarcerated people lead—and the world listens.

Join the incarcerated-led innovation lab partnering with the Governor’s Office, eL Seed, FaithXLVII, UC researchers, and other leaders across art, policy, and systems change.

Our incarcerated leadership team drives the vision. They design programs, plan events, build partnerships, and lead initiatives that are drawing national attention. But inside a prison, they can't access computers, join a Zoom call, or secure a conference room without a cleared volunteer physically in the room.

This role closes that gap — not by sitting in the background, but by working alongside the team as an operational partner.

The Role

You’ll spend one four‑hour session per week on‑site at San Quentin, embedded with the incarcerated leadership team during a structured working block. You're not observing. You're in the work.

The leadership team sets the direction. Your job is to help them execute it — in real time, in the room, with the tools and access they can't reach on their own.

What a Working Session Looks Like

No two sessions are the same. In a given week you might be building an event timeline, capturing metrics across a program area, drafting a follow‑up to a VIP partner, updating project boards, or jumping on a Zoom call and taking notes while the conversation is live.

The common thread the leadership team sets direction, and you help them move it forward.

Who This Is For

You're organized, resourceful, and comfortable walking into a working session without a rigid script. You can take direction from incarcerated leaders and add value without needing to lead. You're the kind of person who hears a plan and immediately starts thinking about what needs to happen next.

What you bring

• Operations, project management, or program coordination experience — professional or volunteer
• Comfort with tools like Google Workspace, Zoom, and Monday.com (or similar)
• Strong follow‑through — if you take a note, it becomes an action
• The ability to work as a peer alongside people whose lives and context are very different from yours
• Reliability — the team builds their week around these sessions, and your presence is what makes them possible

Helpful but not required

• Nonprofit, civic, or community organizing experience
• Familiarity with event production or stakeholder management
• Background in data, metrics, or program evaluation

The Impact

Most organizations keep their most important people farthest from the work. SkunkWorks does the opposite. The people leading this organization are incarcerated — and we are building something that is changing how the country thinks about justice, rehabilitation, and who gets to lead.

Your presence in the room is what makes that work possible.