Senior Project Manager - Old Announcement

Editable Copy of the STEAM Camp Senior Project Manager Announcement

Announcement

Open Source Ecology (see https://opensourceecology.org) is looking for a Senior Project Manager for organizing the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camps. This is a full time position, starting immediately, reporting to the OSE executive director. We are offering competitive pay based on experience and skills. This position is location-independent.

Does the open source economy speak to you as the next evolution of human consciousness? Do you want to create a passionate, high performing team to make this happen? Do you believe that global, open collaboration is a prerequisite for getting there? Do you want to solve pressing world issues, and teach others to do so with you? Are you open to rapid learning across boundaries to update your mental models continuously?

Currently we are developing the 9-day Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp as a regularly-scheduled immersion education program to be deployed concurrently in multiple cities around the world. Based on the success of our first STEAM Camp, we felt that we can make a dent in the universe by offering collaborative design training for public development of common products. This program involves the development of open source hardware products, their marketing mix, and producer training- such that we democratize production and bring innovation back to every community. See the STEAM Camp Curriculum for the specific program.

We need a Senior Project Manager to help us organize and execute the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camps as we expand this program. We plan to reach up to 24 events in parallel in cities around the world – such that at each parallel event – we have a combined effort of about 500 participants who can work together on collaborative design. Do the STEAM Camps speak to you as something that can do a lot of good, and do you have the management and operations skills to execute such complex events? Then this job may be for you.

Primary Responsibilities

These include:

• Managing the recruitment of instructors for the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp
• Coordinating and managing STEAM Camp instructors in delivering necessary curriculum - both for the main STEAM Camps and custom events
• Refining and finalizing curriculum for uniformity and ease of execution
• Coordinate with instructors and other prototypers and subject matter experts on producing related prototypes and kits
• Managing the building, quality assurance, and distribution of kits to all instructors prior to the STEAM Camps
• Scheduling STEAM Camp and related events, and assuring admin, marketing, and logistics support
• Develop and execute a marketing strategy in collaboration with OSE Executive Director
• Facilitating collaboration between STEAM Camps as necessary as they are run in multiple locations around the world at the same time to provide a collaborative aspect between different locations
• Managing the evaluation, upgrading, and optimization of the STEAM Camp Curriculum
• Optimizing the cost structure and managing the budgets for STEAM Camps
• Refining and documenting the process for effective delivery of the STEAM Camps
• Attending select STEAM Camps, and learning the STEAM Camp curriculum to the point of being able to potentially serve as an Instructor within 18 months of start.

All of these responsibilities will receive support and involvement from the Executive Director and other STEAM Camp instructors.

Expectations

Expectations for the Senior Project Manager in the first 6 months include:

• Recruit 6 new instructors every month until a stable pool of 24 instructors is available
• Reach 12 STEAM Camps running every 2 months
• Managing the efforts for each STEAM Camp location to achieve 12 paying participants or more each time one of the camps run
• Managing production and delivery of kits for each instructor's event
• Managing online registrations and customer support
• Publish monthly blog updates on STEAM Camp developments
• Publish all work openly and update time log on a daily basis on the OSE wiki
• Attend at least one STEAM Camp as a participant
• Publishing an operations manual for STEAM Camp management to recruit assistance

Candidate Expectations

We are looking for a highly relational applicant, capable of managing relationships and complexity, and open to learning new skill sets. Applicants must be fluent in English and and proficient in written communications.

Applicants need not be technically proficient in open source hardware, but should have a basic level of hands-on building skills that allow for understanding of a product build process. Applicants should understand the open source ethic, and have some prior knowledge of the field, both technically and culturally.

Compensation will be based on experience and skills, with performance-based bonuses. Our intention is to align the variable compensation component to the benefit OSE receives from the success of the STEAM Camp programs.

OSE has been an all-volunteer organization for over a decade. You should come into this job expecting to have a major impact on OSE's execution and will have tremendous opportunity to shape the future OSE. We are developing a quadruple strategy of: (1) running STEAM Camps; (2) producing kits; (3) running Summers of Extreme Design/Build and other immersion build workshops; and (4) Incentive Challenges. We want to expand and grow the STEAM Camps to provide a solid revenue stream, while building a platform for open source product development. The STEAM Camps would thus feed into kit production, summer camp programs, and incentive challenges. OSE's long-term goal is creating education campuses that serve as the next evolution of both basic and higher education towards integrated skill sets for the Open Source Economy. The STEAM Camps provide a boot camp for collaborative product development that carry us far towards our long-term goal: transitioning the economy towards collaborative design for a transparent and inclusive economy of abundance.

Application

To apply for this position, please send an email, with Senior Project Manager Application in the subject line, to info at opensourceecolgy dot org - with a link to a 4-page Proposal (about 2000 words). Your email should include a paragraph or two summarizing your interest in and qualifications for the position. Please send your CV, résumé, or other documents if they support your application. If you have any questions regarding this application, please email us. Please review STEAM Camp - How It Works in as much detail as possible for the background so you are oriented when writing your Proposal. There are many links in there that you can follow.

Your Proposal should describe what you would do and what steps you would take to develop a plan to execute the first event: running 12 STEAM Camps in 12 large population centers around the world - as if it were to happen 3 months from your writing. In your plan, you need to consider the existing curriculum and resources of OSE, noting the caveat that OSE works openly and transparently. This means that everything that we have produced regarding STEAM camp organization and the STEAM Camp content - is on the OSE wiki - https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/. For example - if you see the STEAM Camp Curriculum page on the wiki, all the curriculum that we have would be there. If the curriculum details are not to be found, that means that they are not documented and thus need to be documented as part of the outstanding prep work for the first event. This process would describe the gaps we have that would need to be addressed.

Please publish your Proposal by starting a page on this wiki. Just copy the URL for your proposal page - this is the link that you have to send us for your Application. Your Proposal should naturally revolve around execution details of the Primary Responsibilities section above. At this stage, we are putting most effort towards, first, the development of the curriculum and second - developing the instructor team. Think of your proposal as a document that is not just a test exercise - it should actually be helpful to us in getting closer to the first event where 12 instructors are able to deliver the same event in 12 locations. You can think of it as a 4 page summary of a detailed working plan that you will execute against if we hire you. Make sure that you include a total budget, including your own pay. The proposal should demonstrate in as much detail as possible - your relational, strategic, organizational, and execution capacity. Our goal in this exercise is to learn and experience how you think and your knowledge of what we’re intending to do gained from a review of our open content.

The application process continues with our feedback on your proposal, where we may ask for further clarifications or details on your plan. This feedback and your responses to them could be given through this Wiki or through video communication, we’ll let you know which in advance with time to prepare. This application process intends to arrive at a clear assessment of your potential to add value to our program. If in our exchanges we see clear potential, we will set up a conference call with you. As a final step of the application, we will ask you to produce a finished and detailed project plan for your next 3 months - starting from where we are - until the first event that you are responsible for organizing. You would be hired upon OSE's acceptance of the proposal.