Project Director, VIVO
DuraSpace is seeking a dynamic and entrepreneurial Project Director for the open source VIVO
project (www.vivoweb.org), a world-wide community focused on creating software tools,
ontologies, and services. The VIVO Project Director will have the opportunity to play a major
role in a collaborative movement that will shape the future of research.
VIVO is an open source semantic web application for integrating and sharing information about
researchers and their activities and outputs at a single institution while supporting discovery of
related work and expertise across a distributed network of institutions.
The VIVO Project Director is a new, full-time position. The Project Director, accountable to the
VIVO Executive Committee and employed by DuraSpace, will lead the VIVO community in
accomplishing its goals by fulfilling the following responsibilities:
Primary Responsibilities
Provide strategic vision
● Work closely with the international VIVO community to develop and articulate a
strategic vision for VIVO, conveying its value and impact
● Guide the VIVO community in the development of near-term and long-term strategic
goals
● Help develop and gain support and participation among stakeholders for a business
model that will sustain the work of the VIVO project
● Actively promote VIVO and the wider cause of research discovery and access to the
international scholarly community and other key stakeholders
● Be an effective spokesperson for the project through outreach, public speaking, and advocacy.
Oversee operations
● Build and oversee a dynamic and effective core team, augmented by contributors from
collaborating institutions, government agencies, and commercial enterprises
● Oversee projects and staff to ensure timely implementation of products and services
● Plan and manage budgets, fundraising, and business operations such as managed
services providing revenue for the project. Provide regular status and financial reports
to the executive team, DuraSpace, and sponsors. Fund raising is especially important at
this stage of VIVO’s evolution
● Seek out and engage in collaborations that will leverage resources and expertise for the
advancement of the project.
Community Management
● International outreach to institutions, government organizations, sponsors, funding
agencies, and others
● With the Executive Committee and DuraSpace, solicit new institutional and corporate
sponsors as well as providers of services to the VIVO community
● Help recruit new adopters and contributors.
Oversee Software Projects
● Help project leads to gather requirements, understand use cases, plan successful
projects
● Help prioritize work
● Substantially contribute to and articulate the vision for the VIVO software and ontology
and related applications
● Help establish and communicate the long-term roadmap.
Marketing and Communications
● Key role in developing marketing strategy and materials for the project
● Key role in communications with stakeholders, contributors, sponsors, partners, serviceproviders, etc.
● Coordinate representation for VIVO community at key conferences and workshops.
Skills and Competencies
Required
● A Masters degree with at least 7-10 years of progressively increasing responsibility in a
research discipline and/or business, or equivalent work experience
● Experience working with technology project teams; ability to communicate effectively
with technical staff
● Excellent management skills and demonstrated success managing teams working in
disparate locations
● Entrepreneurial skills, especially the ability to successfully promote innovative concepts
and enroll stakeholders in new solutions
● Strong ability to think and act strategically, and demonstrated success at bringing
concepts to realization
● Able to communicate effectively both in person and virtually using a variety of media
and technologies.
Preferred
● Experience working with VIVO
● Experience in the areas of research discovery, collaboration, and open access
● Experience communicating with an international community of users, stakeholders,
sponsors, and partners
● Analytical skills in crafting successful funding and business models for innovative
projects
● Fund raising skills in a non-profit domain.
DuraSpace is a small not-for-profit organization providing leadership and innovation for open
source technologies that promote durable, persistent access to our digital culture. We
collaborate with academic, scientific, cultural, and technology communities by supporting projects and creating services to help ensure that current and future generations may discover
and access our collective digital heritage.
DuraSpace is an equal opportunity employer. Non-traditional applicants are welcome. We offer
health and retirement benefits. Salary is commensurate with experience. We are
headquartered in the Boston MA area, but most of our employees work virtually and are located
around the USA. We are a true believer in the virtual office and use a variety of online tools to
facilitate our ability to work as a collaborative and collegial team. Extensive travel is expected
for this position, both within the US and internationally.
To Apply: A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as
the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the
position, include your salary requirements, and outline skills and experience that directly relate
to this position. Please email the cover letter and resume to vivojobs@duraspace.org.
