EARTH Digital Platform Coordinator

50% Community Platform Administration

• Administer the community forum platform including user accounts groups permissions discussion categories content areas notification settings and platform configuration within delegated authority.
• Maintain public member-restricted and limited-access areas consistent with approved access policies membership categories and stakeholder needs.
• Configure and maintain discussion spaces resource libraries announcement areas member-facing pages working group spaces and other approved platform areas.
• Coordinate with platform vendors university information technology personnel communications staff and EARTH leadership to resolve operational issues and support platform enhancements.
• Maintain platform housekeeping practices including archiving obsolete content reviewing navigation structures managing outdated pages or categories and escalating issues requiring policy or leadership review.
• Support implementation of platform features such as member profiles announcements discussion boards event follow-up spaces curated content collections and stakeholder resource areas.
• Maintain administrative documentation sufficient to support continuity of platform operations.

20% Website Administration and Content Operations

• Support and maintain approved EARTH website content as part of the broader community forum effort including public pages member-facing resources announcements events staff information industry-facing information and other approved web content.
• Coordinate content intake review approval-routing posting revision and retirement workflows for website and forum materials.
• Work with EARTH staff and subject matter experts to translate approved source materials into organized accessible and user-friendly website or forum content.
• Maintain basic content taxonomy tagging navigation consistency version awareness and content lifecycle practices across the forum and website.
• Support consistency between the EARTH website and community forum including cross-linking resource placement event follow-up announcements and member-facing information.
• Coordinate with communications web support institutional branding accessibility or information technology personnel when website changes exceed the positions delegated authority.
• Identify outdated duplicative incomplete or hard-to-find website and forum content and recommend corrective action.
• Support basic web accessibility practices and coordinate with appropriate university personnel when content documents or platform features raise accessibility concerns.

10% Access Control and User Administration

• Manage named-user access for approved EARTH industry members academic partners staff students advisors and invited stakeholders.
• Maintain role-based access control structures aligned with membership status committee participation working group assignments content sensitivity and approved public/private segmentation.
• Coordinate user onboarding and offboarding workflows for external users including new member representatives departing users changed company contacts and time-limited stakeholder access.
• Maintain user-access records membership contact lists group assignments access lists and operational documentation.
• Support accurate implementation of membership-tier access committee access advisory access working group access and other approved access categories.
• Monitor access issues and route ambiguous cases to the appropriate EARTH leader Industry Liaison Officer Innovation Officer university office or designated decision-maker.
• Escalate access requests involving confidential materials unpublished research intellectual property export-control concerns membership agreements or other restricted information.

10% Community Operations and Member Support

• Provide front-line operational support to forum users including account access navigation assistance content location support notification settings posting questions and routine troubleshooting.
• Support forum activity by posting approved prompts announcements event follow-up materials discussion starters resources and member-facing updates.
• Assist with routine moderation workflows including monitoring posts flagging inappropriate or misplaced content routing technical questions and escalating sensitive issues.
• Support member onboarding and orientation to the forum including preparation of user guides frequently asked questions short instructions and platform-use materials.
• Help ensure that the forum remains organized current accessible and useful to industry members academic partners students staff advisory members and approved stakeholders.
• Identify recurring user needs content gaps platform friction points and operational issues that may require process improvement or leadership attention.
• Support the transition from a static content repository model toward a more active community platform model.

5% Reporting Analytics and Continuous Improvement

• Track and report routine forum and website metrics such as user registrations active users discussion activity content views member engagement resource use support requests and content updates.
• Prepare periodic operational summaries for EARTH leadership and other relevant staff including program reporting requirements.
• Recommend improvements to navigation access-control workflows content organization member onboarding website usability and platform operations.
• Maintain standard operating procedures administrative documentation content calendars access-control procedures and platform-management records.
• Support future evolution of the forum operating model as EARTHs member community public-facing resources and stakeholder engagement needs mature.
• Assist in evaluating whether additional platform features integrations workflows or administrative practices are needed.

5% Coordination and Stakeholder Interface

• Coordinate with the Industry Liaison Officer Innovation Officer Research Project Manager Education and Workforce Development Director communications staff program management staff researchers students and other EARTH personnel as needed.
• Work with industry member representatives and approved stakeholders in a professional service-oriented manner.
• Support cross-functional workflows involving public information member-restricted information event follow-up committee support working group activity and curated resource collections.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality and discretion when handling member lists restricted materials unpublished information access rights and operational issues.
• Participate in planning discussions related to forum operations website needs content governance platform improvement and member support.
• Recognize that final strategy and policy decisions rest with designated EARTH leadership while providing effective platform implementation and administration of the community forum and related website functions.

Disclaimer
The University of Kansas prohibits discrimination on the basis of race color ethnicity religion sex national origin age ancestry disability status as a veteran sexual orientation marital status parental status gender identity gender expression and genetic information in the universitys programs and activities. Retaliation is also prohibited by university policy. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies and is the Title IX coordinator for all KU and KUMC campuses: Associate Vice Chancellor for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Room 1082 Dole Human Development Center 1000 Sunnyside Avenue Lawrence KSTTY.

Work Schedule
M-F 8-5

Contact Information to Applicants
Emily Weiss

1. High School diploma or GED 5 years related experience OR Bachelors degree in related field 1 year of related experience
2. Two or more years of professional experience administering or substantially supporting a digital platform website online community member portal learning platform content management system customer support portal association platform or comparable system.
3. Demonstrated ability to manage user accounts permissions content areas workflows or platform configuration in a structured digital environment as evidenced by application materials.
4. Strong organizational skills and ability to maintain accurate records lists documentation calendars and operating procedures as evidenced by application materials.
5. Ability to work independently within defined policies and escalate issues appropriately.
6. Strong written communication skills and ability to prepare clear user-facing instructions announcements summaries and support materials.
7. Demonstrated judgment in handling restricted information access-control issues stakeholder communications and operational ambiguity.
8. Ability to work with technical academic industry administrative and external stakeholder audiences.

1. Degree coursework or professional experience in a science technology engineering or mathematics field or demonstrated experience supporting technical research-intensive engineering product development or academic-industry collaboration environments.
2. Three or more years of relevant experience in digital platform administration website administration community platform operations member portal administration or comparable stakeholder-facing digital operations.
3. Experience with B2C or B2B community platforms forum platforms association platforms or member engagement systems such as Higher Logic Vanilla Higher Logic Thrive Invision Community Discourse Member365 Hivebrite or similar systems.
4. Experience with website administration or content management systems such as Drupal WordPress SharePoint or comparable platforms.
5. Experience supporting public and restricted-access content environments.
6. Experience with role-based access control named-user account management member onboarding or external stakeholder access workflows.
7. Experience in a university research center consortium association nonprofit professional society technology-transfer or industry-engagement environment.
8. Familiarity with accessibility web governance content lifecycle management information architecture metadata tagging or content taxonomy practices.
9. Ability to interpret user feedback platform analytics and operational patterns to recommend practical improvements.
10. Familiarity with research innovation technology commercialization engineering energy refrigerants cooling heating ventilation air conditioning and refrigeration or academic-industry partnership environments.

Position Overview
EARTH is developing a community-forward online platform to serve as the primary digital entry point for its public industry-facing and access-controlled stakeholder engagement. The EARTH Community Forum is envisioned as more than a document repository. It will combine public information member-restricted resources curated source materials discussion spaces announcements event follow-up and user support into a managed digital environment for industry members academic partners students researchers advisory groups and approved external stakeholders. The platform is intended to support reliable access control organized content stewardship member onboarding and ongoing interaction across EARTHs research workforce development and technology translation activities.
To address this challenge a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC): Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) is creating a sustainable refrigerant lifecycle to address technical environmental and societal challenges facing the HVACR industry. EARTH is a multi-institution multi-disciplinary team from the University of Kansas University of Notre Dame University of Hawaii University of Maryland University of South Dakota and Lehigh University.
This is a 100% twelve-month benefits-eligible regular appointment that reports directly to the ERC EARTH Administrative Director. Currently the position is designated as on-campus. Alternative and flexible work schedules will be evaluated as per ERC EARTH policy and center guidelines.
The EARTH Community Forum Administrator is responsible for administering and maintaining EARTHs external community platform and associated website content operations. The role requires independent judgment access-control discipline stakeholder-facing communication platform administration experience content workflow management and the ability to coordinate across academic industry public and administrative functions. The position is operationally autonomous within defined policy boundaries and supports the growth of the platform into a broader community engagement asset.


Additional Candidate Instruction
A complete application consists of:

• online application
• cover letter
• resume
• three professional references

Only complete applications will be considered. Application review begins Saturday August 1 2026. To ensure consideration please apply prior to that date.