Reporting to the Senior Director of National Geographic Citizen Explorer Lab, the Manager will direct the planning and day-to-day implementation of projects and products in participatory science and open exploration for National Geographic Society. He/she will be responsible for all business processes, including but not limited to, budget, tracking progress, troubleshooting, and communication as well as partnerships development and coordination.
The Manager will work in close collaboration with National Geographic education and digital teams, as well as other internal and external stakeholders to create, and integrate participatory science and open exploration content in National Geographic’s online products, platform, and experiences.
The Citizen Explorer Lab aims to connect a new generation of Explorers, scientists and changemakers with the natural world and the human journey, empowering them to engage with National Geographic mission and further their knowledge of the planet. This will range from documenting unknown fossils to discovering a new solar system. The Citizen Explorers Lab will establish and scale the first-ever global “Ground-Truthing” network to collect otherwise unattainable data on any scale from anywhere. This position sits within National Geographic Labs, which are comprised of three focus areas: Exploration Technology, Geographic Visualization, and Citizen Exploration.
- Execute on a multi-faceted strategy and plans to accelerate and scale National Geographic’s role as a global leader in participatory science and exploration
- Distill requirements and project manage products and projects that support the overall Citizen Explorer Lab’s vision and strategy
- Support the development of work plans, goals, and measurables targets. Ensure consistent criteria and performance metrics for evaluating success.
- Represent Citizen Explorer Lab on a day-to-day basis among project and product teams internally and externally
- Promote integration and coordination of the Citizen Explorer Lab activities with the two other labs.
- Work across National Geographic’s programs and explorer community to enhance engagement, data collection, and impact through participatory science and open exploration opportunities
- Direct, in close coordination with the Digital team, the development of the National Geographic’s online exploration and engagement platform to support global outreach campaigns and to connect the public to National Geographic’s Explorers, science, and exploration activities in real time.
- Support the design and execution of crowdsourced data collection campaign focused on bridging ecosystems and biodiversity data gaps to inform conservation planning.
- Manage and maintain partnerships with the world’s best and most impactful participatory science initiatives and with like-minded organizations for data collection, communication, and collaboration through citizen science activities.
- Working closely with the entire NatGeo Labs team, ensure that all activities and derived data are consistently captured, managed, catalogued, and archived.
- 5+ years of experience in product or project management, with a focus on crowdsourced technologies.
- Experience managing and developing citizen science programs.
- Experience in techniques of planning, directing and coordinating large scale international public outreach campaigns.
- Preference given to those with a portfolio of creating and executive technology lead citizen science programs and experiences.
- Candidate should be team oriented, but confident in the value of his or her own ideas, contribution, and role, and be able to exercise independent judgment.
- Strong interpersonal skills to deal positively and productively with a wide range of personalities are required.
- Superior organization skills and the ability to handle multiple tasks under the pressure of tight deadlines.
- Canidate should be knowledgeable and have a proven track record of success and knowledge in the citizen science and open innovation community, with an emphasis of advancing or leading programs that use technology (including apps, in situ hardware and database management and data collection).