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The Center for Open Science (COS) develops tools to support the scientific workflow (i.e., Open Science Framework), fosters community standards for open practices, and conducts metascience research - science on scientific practices. The Policy team at COS conducts grassroots and top-down stakeholder interventions to change norms, incentives, and policies toward open scholarship. Much of this work is through delivery of services including community organizing and project management of stakeholder interventions to foster open behaviors, and delivery of free product solutions to stakeholder groups including badges to signal open practices at journals, Registered Reports to promote research rigor and eliminate publication bias, and TOP Guidelines to improve journal, funder, and institutional policies for culture change toward greater transparency and reproducibility.

The new Program Manager is responsible for planning and overseeing the day-to-day work on policy initiatives, manages the Community Manager who is the operational lead for an NSF-funded grassroots program in Education research and a Project Manager who is the operational lead for COS’s role in DARPA ASIST and provides project management for stakeholder interventions. The Program Manager will likewise have an operational role in advancing the culture change policy initiatives with publishers, funders, societies, and/or institutions.  

The Program Manager reports to the Director of Policy Initiatives. The Policy team operates in a flexible management process that seeks to optimize agile decision making, independence of project execution, and accountability to organizational leadership and the external community.

The Program Manager will have managerial responsibility for policy team members meeting milestones, and delivering on grassroots organizing and stakeholder influence efforts with effective, efficient effort and high standards for ethics and transparency. 

In partnership with the Director of Policy, the Program Manager will work to achieve organizational goals of supporting a more inclusive and transparent research ecosystem. This work will require effective communication with external stakeholders. Familiarity with academic research community stakeholders (e.g. funders, universities, and publishers) is desired. 

As such, the Program Manager will have demonstrated excellence in both big picture understanding of the scholarly research landscape for influencing stakeholders, and on-the-ground operational skills in steering a team toward delivery on project commitments. The successful candidate will have a track record of identifying and overcoming barriers to project completion.

• Managing people, timelines, budget, deliverables, and project execution
• Managing risks and issues and taking corrective measures
• Coordinating the project tasks and their interdependencies
• Managing and using resources across project tasks
• Responsibility for ensuring that team meets all deliverables on-time with high quality
• Daily program management throughout the program life cycle (e.g. leads scrum and sprint planning)
• Managing communication, negotiation, and planning among project stakeholders
• Executing the substantive goals of the policy team and recommending operational solutions
• Implement strong documentation practices for all project activities to ensure transparency and reproducibility
• Assess and improve processes, such as evaluation of funder and journal policies, with the aim of facilitating community contribution and automation where possible. 
• Communicate and evangelize open scholarship policies to stakeholder communities
• Support community-based, grassroots initiatives and facilitate community engagement with Community Manager as direct report and operational lead
• Engage, influence, and support decision-makers from stakeholder communities (funders, journals. Societies, institutions) on adoption of open scholarship policies and initiatives
• Plan project management staffing and support with partners on policy/incentive/norm initiatives and interventions
• Support negotiation and budgeting for partnerships on policy/incentive/norm

• Outstanding personnel management skills
• Highly efficient and task-oriented
• Attention to detail and very strong documentation and workflow management skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, interpersonal skills, and ability to work independently and in coordination with a team for advancing shared objectives on a very assertive timeline
• Ability to prioritize, make decisions, problem-solve, and ask for help
• Good knowledge and handling of project and program management methodology and technique, including determining which processes and tools best fit a team
• Experience with agile practices
• Strong practical experience in project management
• Proficiency with collaboration tools
• Experience with highly collaborative projects
• Substantial experience and expertise in the research culture, ideally with direct experience in one or more of research, scholarly communications, research fundings, or institutional administration
• Experience and substantial knowledge of open science and publisher or funder policies
• Experience with research methodology
• Ability to rapidly assess research across a variety of scientific domains
• Demonstrated commitment to transparency, rigor, and reproducibility in research

• Salary range $68,000 to $78,000 commensurate with experience. The position is located at the Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, VA.  On-site is desired, but remote work will be considered.

• COS offers full time employees:

  • 401(k) with employer match. COS offers a matching contribution of 100% up to 3% of pay and another 50% up to 5% of pay (the full match will be 4% if participants elect to defer 5%)
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance. COS covers 100% of employee premium and 50% of all dependent coverage costs under the base plan
  • 15 days vacation in year one
  • Paid family medical leave. COS offers paid leave for up to three (3) months to all full-time, regular employees to care for their child after birth, after or during the adoption process, or to care for their spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition
  • Modern office space and other amenities
  • COS promotes a flexible work environment that supports a healthy work/life balance

Please submit a resume/CV and cover letter explaining your background and interest in the position here. Questions about the position and COS are welcome, and can be directed to jobs@cos.io. COS is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from members of groups underrepresented in science and technology industries.