EARTH Community Forum Administrator

Position Overview

EARTH is launching a dynamic online platform designed as the central digital gateway for public, industry, and controlled-access stakeholder engagement. Rather than merely serving as a repository, the EARTH Community Forum integrates public information, member-only resources, curated content, discussion areas, announcements, event recaps, and user support into a managed digital ecosystem. This platform supports robust access controls, organized content management, member onboarding, and sustained interaction among industry participants, academia, students, researchers, advisory groups, and authorized external parties.

The initiative is part of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC): Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH), which addresses technical, environmental, and societal concerns in the HVACR sector. This multi-institutional collaboration includes the University of Kansas, Notre Dame, Hawai'i, Maryland, South Dakota, and Lehigh University.

This is a full-time, twelve-month, benefits-eligible role based on-campus with potential flexibility according to ERC policies. Reporting to the Administrative Director, this mid-level professional position demands operational platform expertise, independent judgment, and proactive execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the community forum platform operations including user accounts, groups, permissions, discussion categories, notifications, and configuration under delegated authority.
• Maintain public, restricted, and limited-access platform areas in accordance with defined policies and stakeholder needs.
• Configure discussion forums, resource libraries, announcements, member pages, and working group areas.
• Collaborate with platform vendors, IT teams, communications, and leadership to resolve operational challenges and implement improvements.
• Conduct platform housekeeping such as archiving outdated content, managing navigation, and escalating policy issues.
• Oversee website content related to EARTH, ensuring coordinated intake, approval, posting, revision, and content retirement workflows.
• Convert source materials into structured, user-friendly content while maintaining taxonomy, tagging, and content lifecycle standards.
• Administer user access controls aligned with membership tiers, committees, working groups, and content sensitivity.
• Lead user onboarding/offboarding processes, maintain access records, and monitor membership changes.
• Provide frontline support to users, assisting with navigation, account issues, content access, and routine troubleshooting.
• Moderate content, support community engagement with announcements, prompts, and updates.
• Track forum and website metrics, prepare reports for leadership, and suggest operational enhancements.
• Coordinate closely with multiple stakeholders including industry liaisons, innovation officers, researchers, and communications teams while maintaining confidentiality and professionalism.

Required Qualifications

• High School diploma or GED plus five years of relevant experience, or Bachelor's degree plus one year of related experience.
• At least two years managing or supporting a digital platform such as community forums, member portals, learning management systems, or similar.
• Proven experience handling user accounts, permissions, workflows, and platform configurations.
• Excellent organizational skills with capability to maintain detailed documentation and procedures.
• Strong written communication skills for user guides, announcements, and support materials.
• Good judgment in managing confidential information, access control, and stakeholder communication.
• Ability to engage with diverse technical, academic, and industry audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Education or experience in STEM fields or supporting research-intensive, product development, or academic-industry environments.
• Over three years’ experience administering digital community platforms or related systems.
• Familiarity with community engagement platforms like Higher Logic, Discourse, Member365, or others.
• Experience with CMS platforms such as Drupal, WordPress, or SharePoint.
• Knowledge of role-based access control, member onboarding, and stakeholder access management.
• Exposure to university or nonprofit research environments and web governance practices.
• Comfortable analyzing user feedback and platform metrics to drive improvements.
• Understanding of refrigeration, HVAC, or engineering research partnerships is advantageous.

Application Details

• Submit online application, cover letter, resume, and three professional references.
• Applications will begin review on August 1, 2026; incomplete applications will not be considered.
• Contact person: Emily Weiss, eweiss@ku.edu
• Salary range: $52,000 - $68,000 annually.