Chris Riley is an engineer at Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser. But his job doesn't involve writing code, testing software, or any of the other engineering tasks we typically associate with tech companies. Instead, Riley tries to influence government both in the US and abroad by writing and analyzing tech-related policy proposals. Yes, this is a real job.
Riley, who has a PhD in computer science and worked as a senior analyst for the State Department, is now employed by Mozilla as a "policy engineer." He's part of a small but growing contingent of people trying to help bring the world of policy and technology closer together. "I don't know of anyone else who has that title," he says. "But I think the approach is not uncommon, the idea of defining a problem, with a deep understanding of the engineering."
As issues from network neutrality to intellectual property law become ever more contentious, Internet companies have stepped up efforts to shape the policies that have the biggest impact on their interests. Google is one of the biggest spenders on corporate lobbying in the country, and spent more than $16 million on lobbyist last year, according to Open Secrets, while Facebook spent more than $9 million. Last year Uber hired Barack Obama's former campaign manager as its own vice president of policy and strategy. Together, these big-name companies and several others have formed the Internet Association to advance their policy goals in Washington.
Riley says being a policy engineer means two things. First, he makes sure the policies that he proposes are well grounded in technological reality. "Not just promoting the technology industry's interests, but making sure they reflect things like security and privacy, things that involve insights into the actual technology," he says.
Second, he brings an engineering mindset to policy. "I try to craft it as a problem and a solution set," he says. "I define the problem very formally and precisely."
For example, Riley says Mozilla was worried that the debate over network neutrality was becoming too polarized, with one side advocating full reclassification of Internet service providers as public utilities, and the other side advocating to maintain the status quo. Last year, Riley helped Mozilla draft a network neutrality policy proposal that, instead of completely reclassifying providers, would apply a similar set of rules only to services providing Internet access to homes and businesses, not to the connections between service providers.
Riley describes this approach as a different way of getting to the same place -- network neutrality -- while asking for fewer concessions from service providers and without modifying existing laws and precedents. Ultimately, the FCC decided to go with full reclassification, but it's a good example of the way Riley thinks about policy problems.
Of course special interest groups have hired lobbyists for centuries, and the information technology business is far from the first technical industry to try its hand at influencing policy. Automakers and the aerospace industry, for example, have long had a strong interest in the intersection of law and government. In that sense, what Riley does isn't entirely new. But thinking about policy from an engineering perspective, as opposed to trying to avoid politics altogether by influencing society through technology itself, does represent a change in the way tech companies are thinking. "It's new, but in an evolutionary way," Riley argues. "Rather than a dramatic comprehensive change sense."
Riley started out as a technologist. "When I was studying computer science I was bothered by the way that I saw law and policy evolving as they related to technology," he says. So after he finished his PhD at Johns Hopkins University, he went to Yale Law School to learn more about the policy side.
But he says his path isn't the only way into a policy engineering career. To those who are already deeply versed in politics, he suggests learning how to program and becoming more familiar with technology in general. And though law school played an important role in finding a policy job, he says it's not absolutely necessary. Technologists, he says, can start by simply learning more about how policy is actually written in both Washington and Europe.
When it comes to landing a job once you've acquired the necessary knowledge, he says networking is the key. And one of the best ways to do that is to become a part of an advocacy movement or campaign you feel passionate about.
Riley's not sure what the job market for policy engineers is like, but he says one thing is certain. "We need more of them," he says. "We need more people who can speak both policy and engineering, as long as it continues to be open and beneficial."
