Please note: We will acknowledge receipt of all applications, if you haven’t heard from us within a couple of days of submitting, please reach out.
Lead Trainer and Curriculum Developer – Open Source Specialism
Background and role overview
Background to the role
As science becomes more complex, multidisciplinary, and spread across multiple locations, the human infrastructure to facilitate connections among researchers and to coordinate the flow of information becomes essential. These roles, collectively termed scientific community engagement managers, make up an emerging and growing specialist field. Community managers are not only found in research institutions – they are also found in professional associations that bring together scientists around shared goals, and in infrastructure organizations where scientists work together to evolve the tools, standards, and practices that shape how modern research is done. This emerging field is being championed by the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement (CSCCE).
Thanks to a new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), we’re now looking to hire an experienced lead trainer and curriculum developer with expertise in open-source communities to work on a training program for NSF’s Pathways to Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) grantees. Fully-funded for two years (until the end of 2024), you’ll be leading the delivery of all of the program’s training in 2023 and 2024. You’ll be contributing to curriculum development, leading delivery of every 6-week virtual training – including reviewing materials in our new learning management system (LMS) – and building out short-form training for the invited coaches who’ll be supporting learners participating in the program. CSCCE is increasingly working with open-source communities so, funding-dependent, we hope the role will continue beyond the initial period.
Team composition
Reporting to CSCCE’s Director, who is co-PI on this grant, you’ll be part of a comprehensive project team that includes a full-time instructional designer and program manager, several staff who’ll co-deliver training, and a new project manager who’ll be coordinating the delivery of the project. We’re also working in partnership with collaborators at the US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI) on this grant, and you can expect to interact with their team during this project.
What we’re looking for
You’ll bring significant, proven experience in delivering training to support POSE grantees in scaling from projects to Ecosystems – which will include topics such as governance, community engagement and organizational roles and team coordination, as well as curriculum development expertise. You’ll be attentive to learners’ needs, responsive in your communications, and take joy in providing challenging, supportive and impactful learning experiences. CSCCE’s teaching philosophy combines practical resources and contextualized examples with space for reflection, experimentation, and collaboration. You’ll be equally comfortable creating structured activities and holding spaces for learners to explore in community with one another.
Outside of the virtual classroom, you’ll enjoy working as part of a busy, all-remote team that strives to provide best-in-class experiences. You’ll be highly organized, able to move forward multiple threads of the same project at the same time, and enjoy finding solutions that bridge a range of stakeholder needs. Experience with project management tools such as Trello and Canvas LMS would be a significant bonus.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Key tasks and responsibilities
Delivering virtual training – you’ll be delivering around 10, 6-week training sessions per year to NSF POSE grantees, as well as leading the development and delivery of short-form onboarding training for the coaches who’ll be supporting the program.
Manage the use of online learning tools – we’ll be using Canvas LMS plus a range of online tools including Padlet, Mural, Wonder and Gather to deliver training. You should ideally have experience using an LMS or other tools and be comfortable with quickly gaining fluency in any new tools.
Curriculum development – You’ll be joining a team developing the curriculum for this new training program and will have critical input into the program based on your open-source expertise (software, data, and/or hardware).
Communications – Excellent communications lubricate all of our work – as a team, with learners, clients, and other stakeholders. You’ll create clear, actionable communications for our range of learners and you’ll be used to regularly reporting out about your work to a range of stakeholders – which will include an external evaluator and other project partners.
Materials creation – You’ll be comfortable creating a range of materials to support the successful delivery of the program’s learning experiences, some of which will be published for wider dissemination. Materials might include a glossary of terms, logistics sheets, case studies featuring guest speakers and tip sheets for onboarding coaches.
Skills and experience
We have typically found that staff need three broad areas of expertise to succeed at CSCCE:
- Role-specific skills – in this case, virtual training and curriculum development;
- The comfort and ability to work in an efficient, all-remote startup environment where transparent communications and ownership of your work is paramount; and,
- Community management expertise (or at minimum, interest) – in this case, we’re most interested in your experience with open-source communities and projects.
Specific things we’re looking for:
- 3 – 5 years’ experience in a teaching role, preferably within an open-source context(s)
- Experience with online teaching in a range of different formats using a range of supplementary learning tools (whiteboards, polls, quizzes, spatial chat tools etc.)
- Experience creating clear, actionable materials for learners
- Scientific training up to postgraduate level (Masters or PhD) or equivalent experience in STEM environments
- Experience taking part in complex, highly collaborative projects
- Bonus: Experience being an active member or leader of an online community of practice
- Bonus: Graduation from CSCCE’s Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF) course
- Bonus: Experience using Canvas LMS
- Bonus: Experience managing others – you may have a direct report (an additional trainer) in year two of this project.
Working at CSCCE
The way we work as a team and with our community members and clients is driven by our core values:
- We continuously strive to be inclusive
- We empower one another
- We learn and share
- We trust – and hold space for – one another
- We express gratitude and recognition
We’re a highly collaborative, fully remote, US-based team that values and supports personal and professional development. We value honest and transparent communications in our work together and actively cultivate a team culture of learning and iteration. You can expect to have input into projects from day one, bringing a flexible, adaptable attitude and willingness to take ownership of moving your projects forward throughout their lifecycle – from conception to delivery, evaluation and iteration.
We warmly welcome applications from individuals with backgrounds not currently represented in our growing team and are happy to chat informally about the role if you have questions that you’d like to explore. Please email info@cscce.org.
Compensation and benefits
This is a full-time role with a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, 401k, and vacation. You will need to be eligible to work in the U.S. and you will be able to work for the majority of your time in the Eastern time zone.
The salary range for this role is $80 – 85k per annum, depending on experience.
How to apply
Please send a CV and cover letter of no more than two pages to info@cscce.org explaining why you’re excited about this project and how it aligns with your skills. If you have not already taken CSCCE’s Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals course, you would join the next cohort.
We are still interested in applications for this role.
Please note: We will acknowledge receipt of all applications, if you haven’t heard from us within a couple of days of submitting, please reach out.