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

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 work has been featured on the front page of the LA Times and profiled by CalMatters as a model for system-wide transformation.

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.