Project Manager, Discovering the SPARC (NASA Science Activation)

Project Manager, Discovering the SPARC (NASA Science Activation)

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University Mission

The University of Scranton is a Catholic and Jesuit university animated by the spiritual vision of Saint Ignatius Loyola, a tradition of excellence, and a commitment to the common good. The University is a community dedicated to the formation of students, and to the freedom of inquiry and personal development fundamental to the growth in wisdom and integrity of all who share its life.

Department Physics & Engineering

Job Purpose

Full-time, 12-month staff position; start date early 2027; renewable annually through October 2031, subject to funding and performance.

The Department of Physics and Engineering seeks a Project Manager to lead the day-to-day operations of “Discovering the SPARC: Space Physics through Amateur Radio Communications,” a five-year NASA Science Activation program. SPARC is carried out with the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), an international collaboration of scientists and amateur radio operators who use ham radio to study the ionosphere and space weather.

SPARC connects the public, teachers and students to NASA heliophysics through five activities: Discovery Stations, where amateur radio operators bring live space weather to museums, libraries, schools and clubs; a high school space weather curriculum taught through the ARRL Teachers Institute; a web interface for real-time radio and NASA data; new observing modes for the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station network; and the annual HamSCI Workshop. HamSCI is a volunteer-powered, multi-institution community, so this role combines classic project management with building the community’s own project management capacity.

The Project Manager works under the direct supervision of Dr. Frissell, in partnership with the department’s administrative staff, the University’s research offices and the SPARC partner institutions, and will have the opportunity to present the project’s work at scientific, education and amateur radio conferences.

For the right candidate, this position is eligible for fully remote work. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. Immigration sponsorship will not be offered for this position.

Essential Duties

Project management and reporting

• Keep the master schedule, milestones and reporting calendar
• Track spending against the budget with the department’s administrative assistant, and reconcile it with the University’s post-award finance office
• Draft rebudget proposals for the Principal Investigator and the University’s Authorized Organizational Representative
• Monitor subawards to ARRL, the Space Science Institute, MIT Haystack Observatory, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Alabama, and the evaluation agreement with Kera Collective
• Track the information for NASA Science Activation’s annual data calls as activities happen, through the year: reach (numbers and locations), partners, subject matter experts and outcomes, gathering inputs from all SPARC partners
• Compile annual progress reports to NASA and the responses to Science Activation data calls, with the external evaluator, Kera Collective
• Provide project management support across the HamSCI research awards that feed SPARC

Program activities

• Support the ARRL and Space Science Institute co-leads of Discovery Stations and the Ambassador program with scheduling, logistics, tracking and reporting
• Coordinate Personal Space Weather Station deployments to partner sites
• Plan the annual HamSCI Workshop
• Manage the HamSCI Newsletter, hamsci.org and project social media

Community and volunteers

• Recruit, train and coordinate volunteer project managers for the HamSCI working groups
• Represent the project in the national NASA Science Activation community, including its monthly meetings and annual in-person meeting near Washington, DC

Additional

Skills

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required

• At least three years of project or program management experience

• Clear writing and careful budget tracking

• Comfort coordinating many partners at once

• Skill with shared documents and online collaboration tools

• Interest in science education and public engagement

• Preferred Qualifications

• Five or more years of project management experience with NASA Science Activation and citizen science projects in heliophysics

• Experience with grant-funded, multi-institution or volunteer-based programs

• Experience with federal grants, informal science education or citizen science

• An amateur radio license and an interest in space science

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification

• Years of Experience

• 3

• University Classification

• Professional

• FLSA Classification

• Exempt

• Schedule/Work Hours

• Schedule is generally Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with flexibility as needed. Additional hours as required.

• Full Time/Part Time

• Full-Time

• Annual Schedule

• 12