What are the responsibilities and job description for the AdaCAD Community Manager position at University of Colorado?
Requisition Number:
75507
Location:
Boulder, Colorado
City
Boulder
State
Colorado
Employment Type:
University Staff
Schedule:
Full-Time
Posting Close Date:
20-Nov-2026
Date Posted:
14-Oct-2026
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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.
Salary : $62,400 - $66,000