Open Life Science (OLS, https://openlifesci.org/) is hiring a Programme Manager to coordinate and manage a global, multilateral grant-funded project with the aims to (1) deploy and manage open cloud infrastructure for under-resourced communities in Latin America and Africa, (2) create training and build capacity within these communities, and (3) identify a participatory service model for this infrastructure.
Our mission at OLS is to cultivate the next generation of researchers and community leaders through enabling open knowledge exchange, equitable collaborations, and centering marginalized voices and interests. Structured around open science capacity building by upskilling and fostering open science ambassadors across different sectors, OLS is committed to accelerating the adoption of open science principles in a variety of technical, engineering, scientific and citizen spaces. A core offering of OLS is the 16-week cohort-based open science training and mentoring programmes that have engaged over 400 open science trainees and experts from over 60 low- and middle- (LMICs), and high-income countries (HICs).
In the past three years, we have collaborated with many individuals and organisations, and expanded our services beyond the mentoring programme to enable our participants to take on leadership roles at OLS and other communities. We believe that community leadership centering on people and equity is crucial to ensuring socially responsible and ethical development of research, technology and infrastructure. OLS is committed to strengthening the existing, and building new collaborations to train and nurture diverse community leaders worldwide.
This Programme Manager role is instrumental to the successful execution of the “Collaborative Interactive Computing Service Model for Global Communities” project funded for 2-years (2023-2024) by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. You will be leading the project management and coordination, internal, and external communication efforts in this project. You will also be working closely with and supported by the teams at the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement (CSCCE) and Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) on overall community and governance design, information flow and content management for the project and the communities involved. In the second year, you will be leading the delivery of a Spanish and/or French leadership training programme alongside stakeholders from MetaDocencia and the Carpentries communities, based on OLS’s existing programme model and materials.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is passionate about working with a global, multicultural, and distributed team and is looking to grow their project management, community building, communication, stakeholder engagement, and open leadership skills.
Reporting to the OLS Director of Finance and Operations Emmy Tsang, who is a Co-PI on this grant, you’ll play a central role coordinating a project team that includes representatives from the six collaborating organisations (2i2c, The Carpentries, Center for Collaboration and Community Engagement, Invest in Open Infrastructure, MetaDocencia, and Open Life Science). You’ll also interact with community leaders at local communities that will be involved in this work. On a day-to-day basis, you’ll be embedded within the OLS team, which currently includes 4 Co-Directors, a community coordinator and 5 fellows, as well as within the OLS community of 400+ mentors, experts, and participants.
Establish and maintain a standard workflow to gather and curate materials, create process and documentation from the project, and share these materials openly under the CC-BY license.
We do not expect the applicants to already have all the skills within the scope of this project. We will create possibilities to develop new expertise and grow in the role.
We note that for this new position, this job description cannot be exhaustive. Additional tasks will be broadly in line with the key responsibilities, and all changes will be collaboratively defined as part of regular performance review opportunities.
The position is funded for 24 months to carry out the activities as described in the grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Our base contract assumes around 35 hours a week as a full-time role, with the option to start/end and work at times that are flexible and work for you. The annual salary range is £45,000 to £48,000 with benefits.
OLS is committed to providing a nurturing and flexible work environment. This job will be fully remote, and we are happy to consider applicants from any country. Ideally, 2 hours or more of your work day should overlap with the OLS leadership team based in the UK and Europe (UTC to UTC+2).
OLS is committed to providing a nurturing and flexible work environment. This job will be fully remote, and we are happy to consider applicants from any country, although ideally 1-2 of your working hours or more would overlap with the OLS leadership team, who are based in the UK and Europe. Non-UK applicants may need to be hired as a contractor and manage tax/benefits themselves in their home country, in which case your base rate of compensation will be higher to cover overheads and benefits.
If the successful candidate has the right to work in the UK and is based in the UK (where OLS is registered as a company), we will offer:
If the successful candidate is based outside the UK, we will work to offer the best equivalent options available in compliance with local and international labour laws, or equivalent pay as a contractor to allow these benefits to be purchased locally.
Please use this application form to apply. On the form, you will be asked to upload a CV (2-5 pages) and a cover letter (about 750 words; stating why this opportunity is compelling to you, what you want to achieve in this space, and what you bring to this work).
When uploading your CV and cover letter, please name your files “Name_CV” and “Name_CoverLetter”. Please limit file sizes to maximum 10MB.
Interviews will take place virtually via Zoom. We are happy to arrange technical assistance to participate in the interviews (e.g. a month of high-speed internet, webcam, or headset costs), as well as childcare and access arrangements such as captioning or an interpreter.
Job application closing date: 15 January 2023.
We plan to interview candidates within 4 weeks of the closing date.
OLS is an employer that recognises that experience can be more about opportunity than ability. We aim to identify talented individuals who may not have been given the opportunities of their peers due to the cumulative effects of discrimination on factors such as race, gender, disability, gender identity, and the intersectionality of that discrimination.
Note: If you like the scope of this job but are unsure if your profile fits this role - please apply anyway.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all employees. If you feel that the description of this role has not matched up to the commitment of these ideals, please let us know via jobs@openlifesci.org, or contact one of the OLS directors directly - one of (Yo, Bérénice, Emmy, Malvika) at https://openlifesci.org/. The OLS Code of Conduct can be found here: https://openlifesci.org//code-of-conduct.