Upwork adverts (drafts)
Upwork adverts (drafts)
Two adverts, one per profile in the brief. They're cheap to run in parallel, and each one speaks clearly to one kind of person. Comparing the responses tells us which profile the market actually has. Post both at once, then tune each one after about two weeks of responses.
Settings for both. The fields are Upwork's; check them in the posting form.
- Experience level: Entry.
- Location: worldwide. No preference, so we don't filter out the markets we want.
- Type: hourly, with a weekly cap of 20–40 hours. Part-time is welcome.
- Rate: $10–20/hr. Negotiate down for a full-time offer, towards the end state of $1.5–2k a month including Upwork fees.
- Duration: 3–6 months, starting with a 10–12 week apprenticeship.
- Screening questions: see each advert. Ask for a cover letter.
A. Outreach-first
Title: AI-first growth & outreach apprentice: learn to build, too
Description:
Datopian is a small, established company that builds open data portals (CKAN, PortalJS) for governments and organisations around the world. We're changing how we work: each person, with AI agents doing the labour, owns more and more of the work, from finding clients to delivering for them.
We're looking for people who are intelligent, interested and take initiative, and who already use AI tools every day. You might come from marketing, content, research, lead generation or sales. You don't need to code. You do need to be hungry to learn to build: with AI, you can.
What you'll do first: find organisations with outdated data portals, research them, and write outreach that gets replies. Then you'll learn to build demo portals from their own public data, using our AI tooling.
What you get: a 10–12 week paid apprenticeship with two people working with you, and a clear assessment at the end. If it works, you get an ongoing role with a lot of room to grow. We're small, so good people can take on a lot, fast.
Wherever you are in the world is fine. We especially welcome people outside the usual markets.
Screening questions:
- Show us one thing you made or did using AI tools (a link, a doc, a screenshot). What did you do, and what did the AI do?
- Pick a government or public organisation's data website, in your country or anywhere. In three sentences: what's wrong with it, and who would you contact about it?
- How many hours a week can you work, and from when?
- Start your answer to this question with the word "portal". What other work are you doing at the moment?
B. Builder-first
Title: AI-first developer apprentice: build data portals, and talk to clients
Description:
Datopian is a small, established company that builds open data portals (CKAN, PortalJS) for governments and organisations around the world. We're changing how we work: each person, with AI agents doing the labour, owns more and more of the work, from finding clients to delivering for them.
We're looking for people who are intelligent, interested and take initiative, who build with AI every day, and who can explain what they built to a non-technical person. A sense of design is a plus. You don't need years of experience or a CS degree.
What you'll do first: build working demo portals from real organisations' public data (a half-day time box each), and help send them to the organisations as outreach. Then you'll build on client projects alongside an experienced builder, and learn to lead the client side.
What you get: a 10–12 week paid apprenticeship with two people working with you, and a clear assessment at the end. If it works, you get an ongoing role with a lot of room to grow. We're small, so good people can take on a lot, fast.
Wherever you are in the world is fine. We especially welcome people outside the usual markets.
Screening questions:
- Show us something you built with AI tools (a link or repo). What did you decide, and what did the AI do?
- Explain that project in three sentences to someone who doesn't code.
- How many hours a week can you work, and from when?
- Start your answer to this question with the word "portal". What other work are you doing at the moment?
Why question 4 starts with "portal": it's a cheap check that someone reads carefully. Responses written by a bot usually miss it. The other questions test the three Is and AI use from day one.
Open
- The company line: add a line on how long Datopian has been going, and a link.
- Titles: "apprentice" is honest and filters for people who want to grow. It may put off people who are more experienced, and that may be fine.
