Program Officer for Sustainable Digital Infrastructures

Full-time, Remote Position
Responsible to: Co-Director Katherine Kim
Salary: $65,000 – 70,000
We have determined the salary range for this position based on parity with other staff roles, and what our budget can sustain. Therefore, we are not able to negotiate benefits or salary beyond the range listed here. Employees in this position are paid a salary on a monthly basis and are not eligible to receive overtime pay. Please consider whether you are comfortable with the terms, base salary range, and benefits provided prior to applying.

Job Description:

The Program Officer for Sustainable Digital Infrastructures will be responsible for supporting Educopia’s portfolio of research, consulting, and community cultivation as it pertains to sustainable digital infrastructures. This portfolio includes capacity building and community development for the MetaArchive Cooperative, leading multi-organizational research projects that take a collective impact approach to field level digital sustainability and infrastructure challenges, and providing expert consultation to partners seeking support for their digital curation efforts (e.g., program evaluation, collections surveys, policy development, systems & interoperability mapping, sustainability planning, etc.).

The Program Officer will be highly self-directed, comfortable managing a varied portfolio of competing priorities, and will support an array of collaborative work with project teams and partners. The scope of this position requires a dedication to responsible management of schedules and scope, values-driven and data-informed approaches to decision-making, clear and consistent communication with stakeholders, commitment to anti-oppressive facilitation, and a relational understanding of infrastructure. The ideal candidate is passionate about the intersection of community cultivation, collective action, knowledge management, program planning, and organizational development within the information landscape. We are excited about applicants that share our deep belief that racial equity and social justice are important, and will be committed to their personal equity journey in addition to helping lead Educopia on its organizational equity journey. We expect all candidates to demonstrate empathy and intentionality in their interpersonal communication. 

Job Responsibilities Include:

  • Build and manage relationships with relevant knowledge management/digital preservation/data curation/digital sustainability/open infrastructure communities and organizations, and prospective and current clients, research partners, funders, and community members.
  • Provide capacity building and coordination support to the MetaArchive Cooperative
  • Coordinate the work of external partners and contractors related to MetaArchive and digital infrastructure-related projects
  • Contribute to research and consulting projects (e.g., serving as lead and/or support on projects related to data governance, digital preservation, knowledge management, and information access; compiling and synthesizing data; leading meeting facilitation; creating and writing client and funder reports)
  • Stay informed and up-to-date on: alignment and facilitation tools and techniques; trends in the information landscape likely to exert force for change within collectives and organizations; research on group dynamics, organizational development, social learning & group sensemaking, and decision making; participatory action/community-based research tools and approaches 
  • Conduct issue-based research and synthesize information to provide strategic and policy recommendations to project partners as well as clients
  • Collect and report analytics related to relevant affiliated community activities, research projects and consulting activities
  • Assist Educopia Co-Directors with planning, evaluation, and implementation of relevant programmatic targets and goals (e.g., assessing and recommending research opportunities related to sustainable digital infrastructure that also align with Educopia’s vision, mission, and strategic plan)

Qualifications:

  • At least three years working in the field of knowledge management, digital preservation, digital curation, information infrastructures
  • Familiarity with: command line (e.g., Unix shell), scripting languages, digital preservation standards such as the OAIS Reference Model, packaging and data structures (e.g., BagIt, OCFL), and metadata (e.g., PREMIS)
  • Commitment to the personal and professional work of acknowledging systems and modes of interaction that have caused harm, predicting potential future harms of our practices and approaches, and proactively shifting those practices and approaches in order to cultivate trust and mutual respect among staff, clients, and partners 
  • Knowledge and experience designing, coordinating, and facilitating complex multi-stakeholder engagements, research projects, and/or communities of practice 
  • Knowledge of and experience with governance modeling, sustainability planning, theory of change development/logic modeling, strategic planning, program evaluation, group visioning and/or recalibration of mission-vision-values
  • Experience with project management tools such as Asana, Airtable, Confluence, and Jira
  • Strong analytical, quantitative, and problem-solving skills 
  • Curious and dedicated to continuous learning

Compensation

Base salary is $65,000 – 70,000/year, commensurate with experience. Benefits include 16 hours per month of paid vacation, 8 hours per month of paid sick leave, and 13 paid holidays, as well as health insurance reimbursement, additional insurance options, and retirement match options. The person hired in this role will also be provided with a technology stipend up to $2,000 to set up their remote workspace.

Application

Please submit the following materials to hr@educopia.org:

  • Current resume
  • Cover letter that directly connects your past experience and interests to the responsibilities and qualifications of the Program Officer position description and qualifications
  • 3 professional references (name, relationship, email, phone number)

Timeline

We will begin reviewing applications on September 8, 2023 and we will continue to welcome applications until the position is filled.

Work Environment

Educopia Institute is a fully distributed team, and this position will work remotely. We communicate daily via Slack, Zoom, GSuite, and email. Team meetings are held weekly via Zoom in order to learn together, workshop a topic or a challenge, to reflect, to plan, and otherwise connect. Smaller groups within the team trade off coordination and agenda setting for team meetings each quarter. One week per quarter, the team clears their calendars of meetings to observe a “quiet week” in order to catch-up, go heads down on a project, and/or engage in professional development. All Educopia Board and Staff share a commitment to the personal and professional work of acknowledging systems and modes of interaction that have caused harm, predicting potential future harms of our practices and approaches, and proactively shifting those practices and approaches in order to create the conditions for trust and mutual respect.

About Educopia

Educopia’s long-term mission is to support collaborative communities in the production, preservation, and sharing of knowledge. Through pursuit of this mission, Educopia is helping to shift the information landscape towards equity, interdependence, and alignment for greater impact. Educopia’s primary areas of activity include applied research, fiscal sponsorship, and community cultivation consulting. For more information about our organization, please visit http://www.educopia.org.

Educopia Institute is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified As an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer, Educopia welcomes all qualified applicants. We also believe that traditional hiring and recruitment practices disproportionately impact the most marginalized people in society in negative ways, including people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, trans and intersex people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and LGBTQIA people. Because we believe that collective action is most powerful in creating change when it is informed by many different lived experiences, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.