Summary

  • GNOME launches the Fellowship program, offering $70k-$100k for 12-months of work.
  • The first cycle funds developer productivity, including documentation, dev tools, testing, and maintainability.
  • You can apply if you have a background with GNOME and can get through the vetting process.

How good do you think you are with GNOME? Are you skilled enough to and a 12-month stint with the desktop environment and get a large amount of funding on the way? If so, today is your lucky day. GNOME has announced the Fellowship program, which offers people $ 70k–$100k to work on it for a year.

GNOME reveals its official Fellowship program

You can get paid to work on GNOME for a while

As reported by Phoronix, the GNOME team unveiled its Fellowship program over on its blog. Desktop environments live and die by their contributors, and sometimes the people working on the software do so on a volunteer basis. However, GNOME wants to offer people between $70k-100k through its Fellowship program:

A fellowship is funding for an individual to spend dedicated time over a 12 month period working in an area where they have expertise. Unlike traditional contracts with rigid scopes and deliverables, fellowships are built on trust. We’re backing people and the type of work they do, giving them the flexibility to tackle problems as they find them.

It seems the Fellowship program will run in cycles, with each one focusing on a specific area of GNOME. For the first cycle, the team wants to bring on people who can "[make] GNOME more maintainable, efficient, and productive for developers." This includes polishing documentation, tweaking developer tools, testing frameworks, and more.

Think you have what it takes to become a part of the Fellowship? Well, there's a good chance that competition will be fierce. GNOME says it wants to bring on "at least one 12-month fellowship," and people can apply for either full-time or half-time work, with half-timers leaving the door open for more people to join the fellowship.

To apply, you'll need to demonstrate "a track record in GNOME or relevant experience" and abide by US sanctions. If your application makes it through, it still needs to be reviewed by the GNOME Foundation Board committee before you're given the green light. Still, if you're a huge fan of GNOME and want to get paid to work on it for a year, I can't think of a better opportunity than this.

If you'd like to learn more, or if you're ready to throw your hat into the ring, head over to the GNOME Fellowship page for application details. You have until April 20th to submit your interest.