Hi folks,
My top priority at this moment is to finalize hiring our initial Head of Governance. This is an extraordinarily important role for HoS, and it’s extraordinarily important that we find the best person for the role. This would be true even if HoS were up and running and mature; it’s doubly important given that HoS is new, and that the initial Head of Governance will play an outsized role in the initial system design.
Note: I first announced and described the role here:
I also shared some more personal thoughts on the role, and on why it’s so important, here:
Here’s a quick update on where the hiring process stands.
The role was posted on the NF Careers Board on April 19 and it was closed to new applications this week. We received a total of 61 applications. I’ve been periodically reviewing new applications, and I finally finished reviewing them all two days ago. I rejected all but 15 applicants.
Of the remaining 15 applicants, two have passed interviews with myself and other stakeholders at NEAR Foundation. One passed an interview with me, and is in the process of being interviewed by other NF stakeholders. I currently have one other initial interview scheduled, later today. Given the importance and high profile nature of the role, all of the finalists will also be interviewed by Illia.
I’ll do one more review of the remaining 11 applicants. I expect to reject most or all of these applicants for this role, but I flagged the applications for a second review because, while some of them may not have the qualifications for Head of Governance, I feel that they could be strong candidates for another position in HoS. To be clear, we’re not hiring for any other positions in HoS at the moment, but I’d like to at least keep these applicants’ information handy for when we do hire, and it may be worth personally reaching out to them in the interim to see if they’re interested in getting more involved.
As far as I’m aware, two of the applicants hosted AMAs or community calls, and several have also posted topics here on the forum introducing themselves, sharing their positions on several issues that are important to HoS, and explaining why they think they’re qualified for this role. Note that this process is entirely permissionless; the candidates decided to do this of their own accord, and the fact that they chose to post information on the forum or host a call has nothing to do with the interview process I describe above, or with the status of their candidacy. In general, however, I have encouraged candidates who have asked to engage with the community, to get to know the community, to understand the issues and what’s at stake, etc.
We’re continuing to look for ways to allow the community to weigh in on the decision, and we’re open to suggestions or ideas. While the final hiring decision will be made by a hiring committee at NEAR Foundation, we’ll factor community feedback into this process.
As previously stated, the current plan is to hire the Head of Governance as a full time staff member at NEAR Foundation for an initial period of time, with an eye towards transitioning them to work directly for the DAO. As with everything else that transitions to DAO support and management, once that transition happens, the Head of Governance role falls completely under the oversight of the DAO, which can decide to rehire them, or to hire a different Head of Governance. We’ll be releasing more charters and policy documents soon with more information on this process.
However, I haven’t completely ruled out instead hiring the Head of Governance under the DAO. We’ll make this decision in consultation with the chosen candidate.
We very much hope and expect to conclude the hiring process by the end of this month, at the very latest, and we’re really excited what the future holds for HoS once it has strong, capable leadership in place.
That’s all the information I have to share for now! I’ll share more here as it becomes available. Don’t hesitate to reply here if you have questions.
Cheers,
Lane
