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🗺️ While US governments are definitely making advances, there are a lot of incredible global examples for us to learn from and watch. Some of what caught my attention from around the world this week:

Ukraine continues to be a leader in fast-paced digital government transformation in response to the war. What started as a mobile app for digital driver’s license and car registration, quickly expanded to form the basis for accessing government services digitally. Today, Diia has over 22 million users and allows access to over 140 digital services, critical for a time when Ukrainians continue to be displaced. An independent org has been tracking Ukraine’s GovTech reform progress, and recently announced that Ukraine’s GovTech Reform Index just hit its highest score ever. Hear from Kateryna Frolova, the head of the Global GovTech Center in Kyiv, about her personal transition from private sector tech to government, the work she does in Ukraine and advice for others entering public service.
South Africa launched their Roadmap for the Digital Transformation of Government in May 2025, with the goal to unify fragmented digital services by 2030. They launched the next phase of their visa digitalization scheme at the end of July, and they have expanded access points for Smart ID applications from 214 offices to 541 offices through a partnership with the banking sector.
Malaysia is addressing the Once-Only challenge, the idea that people shouldn’t have to resubmit the same data to different government agencies, through the Malaysian Government Central Data Exchange (MyGDX). GovInsider shared that a major test was verifying national examination results in real time for university applicants, a time when there are typically over one million data verification requests per hour. The platform has over 400 live APIs and a common metadata standard.
Vietnam’s prime minister approved the National Digital Transformation Strategy for 2026-2030 in mid-July as part of the goal to become a developed digital nation. They set a goal for full digitalization of all administrative records and outcomes by 2030, and a 99% public satisfaction with online public services. To kick off, they launched a 100-day action plan to remove digital transformation bottlenecks, running through November 30, 2026, initially including a national digital mapping platform, a National AI Competence Center and more.

🤖 Jennifer Pahlka sat down with Remco Zwetsloot from the Horizon Institute for Public Service to talk about her thoughts on where AI actually helps government. The takeaway from the conversation is that she sees the real opportunity in regulatory simplification and vendor dynamics. She rightfully called out that some of the major barriers to fixing government systems are that regulations are incredibly complex and confusing, citing that in one state the DOL regulations for an unemployment system are 7,119 pages. AI can help review those regulations, make sense of them, and point at what is contradictory or confusing. It can also provide government employees with the tools to understand the complexity of a potential change in federal or state regulations, allowing them to look at their own codebase with the help of AI before paying a vendor $50M+ for a change order to meet that regulation. Her final takeaway is that government doesn’t need expensive AI researchers, but rather needs people who understand both the technology and the constraints of the system. There’s a great reading list if you want more.

🏛️ New York Focus found that New York’s AI-use inventory is undercounting use cases…by a lot. Only 13 of roughly 100 state agencies reported AI use that “directly impacts the public”, but programs that have been shared publicly like DMV’s facial recognition, the State Police’s use of Dataminr, and a caseworker-monitoring tool at OCFS are all missing from the AI-use inventory.

🧭 If you’re looking for a job in government, knowing what the hiring timeline might look like is usually nearly impossible and something you’ll likely have to expect. Work for America and Harvard Kennedy School found none of the 12 largest US cities can break hiring down by stage, and pre-posting bureaucracy gets folded into numbers meant to measure recruiting speed. WFA is recruiting cities for a fall cohort to fix it.

🏙️ Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania made a statement in the 2026-27 about his commitment to digital transformation. CODE PA, headed by Sara Hall, and formerly led by PA CIO Bry Pardoe, receives $3.7 million to modernize permitting processes in partnership with the Commonwealth’s Department of Environmental Protection. It also includes $10M for cybersecurity infrastructure, and $7 million to modernize SNAP EBT cards from magnetic stripes to chip-enabled cards.

🏙️ San Francisco issued an Request for Information (RFI) for a citywide integration infrastructure layer connecting city departments’ data and systems. This is a common challenge, and one made worse when every agency defines terms differently. The Searchlight Institute recently published its research on why this is so hard. Two programs can use the same term to mean different things, and the mismatch can have massive implications for things like eligibility determinations. One California county counted 225 homeless children under HUD’s definition of homelessness, and 12,959 under the Department of Education’s.

🍻 San Francisco: Join for a Civic Gathering Happy Hour in San Francisco, a casual meet up for folks in and around civic tech. Aug 18 at 5:30pm PDT. Register here.

🚢 Virtual: Join the Port of Long Beach for a virtual information session about their open Manager, Digital Innovation role. Aug 18 at 5pm PDT. Click here to join the meeting.

🎭 NYC: BetaNYC is hosting a Civic Tech Summer Showcase, where community members will be showing off their latest civic tech projects. Aug 20 at 6pm EDT. Learn more here.

📈 Boston: Join for a hackathon, RAG the City: Ask Boston Anything, on August 22 at 10:45am EDT. The goal is to use Boston’s public datasets and build a RAG system that lets residents ask questions and get real answers, with two tracks: one focused on the architecture and one on the experience. Learn more here.

🍩 Los Angeles: Join Data + Donuts for a discussion from LA County’s Homelessness Prevention Unit on Predicting and Preventing Homelessness in LA County. Aug 26 at 8am PDT. Register here.

🗽NYC, SF and Gainesville, FL: Join for CityCamp, a community unconference where attendees will build the agenda on-site for discussions around policy, programs, tech, tools, data and more. September 19 or 20. Register for NYC, San Francisco and Gainesville, FL.

🤔 Virtual: ITU and UNDP are hosting a free training course on Responsible digital transformation: impact assessments for AI and data governance, building on UNDP’s Human Rights Impact Assessment methodology. Course takes place from Oct 6 - 27, with applications open Aug 11 to Sept 19. Learn more here.

🍻 NYC: Put it in your calendar. Civic Tech’ish is going to Governor’s Island on Oct 10 for an afternoon happy hour and an optional Billion Oyster Project volunteer session. RSVP opens August 18. Subscribe to the Luma to get updated when it opens.

There are hundreds of jobs listed right now at techjobsforgov.com and new ones are added every day. The newsletter includes a selection of roles currently open.

🍀 Data Quality & Service Design Specialist | MA Department of Workforce Development | up to $104k
🍎 Senior User Researcher | NYC Office of Technology & Innovation | up to $160k (closes Oct 4)
🦀 Human-Centered Design (HCD) Specialist | U.S. Patent and Trademark Office | up to $111k (closes Aug 25; eligibility limited)
🦀 Patents Customer Experience (CX) Specialist | U.S. Patent and Trademark Office | up to $158k (closes Aug 25; eligibility limited)
🌽 Web Content Systems Specialist | Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology | up to $10k/month (closes Aug 20)
⛰️ Senior Service Designer (Remote From Anywhere In Colorado) | Colorado Office of Information Technology | up to $145k
⛰️ Digital Service Expert (Design) | Colorado Office of Information Technology | $130k (closes Aug 23)
🐻 Website Content Designer | CA Department of Healthcare Services | up to $8k/month (closes Aug 24)
🫎 Digital Content Specialist | City & Borough of Juneau | up to $91k (closes Aug 20)

🍎 AI Project Lead | Kings County District Attorney | up to $140k (closes August 26)
🌲 Deputy Director, Artificial Intelligence | MaineIT | up to $121k (closes August 14)

🍎 Digital Media Accessibility & Operations Specialist | CT Department of Administrative Services | up to $142k (closes Aug 14)

Know someone interested in civic tech? Forward this their way.

This Week in Public Sector Tech — Aug 14, 2026

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