Job Summary
We are hiring a community manager to grow a vibrant, active, and
supportive community for people who engage weaving as a form of
experimentation in their research and/or art practice. Currently,
our community consists of a set of users, contributors, and
resources for AdaCAD, a specific piece of open-source design
software we developed to support the creation of complex woven
textiles. The software supports about 500 monthly users who share
their practices and communicate with the project team via
Instagram, Discord, or direct email messaging. With the support of
a National Science Foundation grant, we seek to increase our
engagement with user and contributor communities as well as broader
communities with relevant practices, but who may not identify as
AdaCAD users.
Our team currently consists of four people who are also faculty or
PhD students at the university. We work with about 2-4
international contributors at a time to collaboratively create new
features and resources for the community which we release in our
software and documentation, at docs.adacad.org. We also gain
project feedback in conversation with a group of advisors who
occupy positions in teaching, research, and industry across
open-source creative code and weaving communities. The
relationships we build through the software and community often
become the grounds for future research projects, which we sometimes
publish in venues aligned with human-computer interaction and
design research. We aim for the community manager to join our
leadership team to provide extra support for outreach; engagement
with our board; and providing support for our contributors that
have previously exceeded our capacity.
To these ends, The Community Manager is responsible for leading
strategy, developing and managing programs that will help us grow,
understand, engage, and co-develop resources with our community
members, contributors and advisory board. This will include
organizing and leading regular governance meetings to identify key
priorities and directions for the community; developing programs
that meaningfully engage our community and help us understand their
needs while also creating pathways for them to meaningfully
participate in project governance; and creating spaces to showcase
community members within our existing landscape of websites and
resources.
CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all
applicable federal, state, and local laws governing
nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a
workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and
dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to
apply, including protected veterans and individuals with
disabilities.
Who We Are
The community manager will work closely with the Unstable Design
Lab, which is an interdisciplinary research lab within the ATLAS
Institute at CU Boulder. The ATLAS Institute fosters radical
creativity and invention by offering a full suite of
interdisciplinary academic programs through the College of
Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) coupled with research labs
focused on engineering, biotechnology, computing, design,
fabrication, art and more.
What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
Outreach Program Management
- Lead strategy and development of plans for onboarding users and
contributors; making sure new community members feel welcomed,
supported, and adhere to the community guidelines.
Proactively collaborate with community members to identify key
needs or desires and scaffolding activities that help us address
those needs and desires.
Create user-friendly workflows for sharing community projects
online across social media and documentation platforms.
Identify events that engage the existing community and/or bring
awareness of our project to new groups and represent AdaCAD at
those events.
Develop and manage program evaluation and assessment plans,
collecting and analyzing data to demonstrate progress towards
strategic goals.
Governance Development
- Work closely with the project leadership to establish and
engage an advisory board who can provide feedback and guidance to
the project at regular intervals.
- Establish, plan, convene, and lead project governance meetings
for the AdaCAD advisory board, project team, and an international
group of contributors at least 4 times per year.
- Create and implement best practices and norms for governance
meetings, including publishing meeting minutes for public
review.
- Develop and collaboratively revise foundational documents (e.g.
code of conduct, contributor expectations, etc.).
- Establish a workflow for handling disputes, conflicts, or
grievances between community members.
Operations Management for AdaCAD Summer School
- Liaise with summer school invited speakers and attendees to
coordinate travel, presentations, workshop logistics, shipping and
payment of honoraria.
- Track, document, and publish the results and outcomes of
outreach activities to the AdaCAD documentation.
- Oversee all operational aspects of the summer school (meals,
photography, accessibility, room setups, etc.) in close
collaboration with project leadership.
- Manage a team of student volunteers who will provide additional
support for the event.
Other Roles and Responsibilities
- Support the travel and payment logistics for outreach programs
while navigating a complex set of university rules and
workflows.
What You Should Know
- This is an 18-month limited term remote position and will be
posted as 100% FTE. However, the percent in time may be adjusted
down to 75% FTE depending on preference of hired candidate. We plan
on discussing this further with candidates during the interview
process.
- Our goal is to have someone in the position by February
1st.
What We Can Offer
Starting salary range is $62,400 - $66,000. Relocation assistance
may be available within department guidelines.
Benefits
At the
University of Colorado Boulder , we are
committed to supporting the holistic health and well-being of our
employees. Our comprehensive
benefits package includes medical,
dental, and retirement plans; generous paid time off; tuition
assistance for you and your dependents; and an ECO Pass for local
transit. As one of Boulder County’s largest employers, CU Boulder
offers an inspiring academic community and access to world-class
outdoor recreation. In fact, CU Boulder has been named one of
Forbes' America's Best
Large Employers , ranking #4 among large employers in Colorado
and #28 among universities nationwide. Explore additional perks and
programs through the
CU Advantage program.
Be Statements
Be ambitious. Be groundbreaking. Be Boulder.
What We Require
- 1 year of experience designing and leading outreach within a
creative community, preferably a "grass-roots" community formed
around a common interest.
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and
experience.
What You Will Need
- Ability to build, sustain, and grow professional relationships
and networks.
- Ability to manage multiple projects and tasks simultaneously
and pivot between them as required.
- Proficiency with facilitating in-person and virtual
meetings.
- Excellent communication and documentation skills
- Experience leading multi-person teams in complex projects.
- Comfort preparing and uploading materials to our existing
website (which requires basic/low-level of programming and use of
the command line).
- Experience organizing activities within and among
interest-centered communities
- Basic graphic design training and proficiency with Adobe Suite
(or equivalent).
- Sensitivity to and appreciation of cultural, political, and
geographical differences present in our community with ability to
work well with community members from around the world.
What We Would Like You to Have
- Experience participating in or contributing to an
interest-oriented community.
- Prior experience as a community manager for an open-source
project.
- Experience managing the social media presence for a creative
community, proposing and creating new content.
- An active textile practice.
- 1-2 years of experience doing related work.
Special Instructions
To apply, please submit the following materials:
- A current resume.
- A cover letter that specifically tells us how your background
and experience align with the requirements, qualifications, and
responsibilities of the position.
- Optional: A PDF that lists examples of or links to any
public-facing design work you have created. This may be a link to a
personal portfolio and/or an image of a physical/digital poster you
may have made for an event. Please include up to 3
links/examples.
We may request references at a later time.
Please apply by
November 20, 2026 for consideration.
Note: Application materials will not be accepted via email. For
consideration, please apply through
CU Boulder Jobs.
In compliance with the Colorado Job Application Fairness Act, in
any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying
information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school
attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting
or removing this information.
Posting Contact Information
Posting Contact Name: Boulder Campus Human Resources
Posting Contact Email: Recruiting@colorado.edu
