Spelman College is currently seeking applications to fill the staff position listed below:
Innovation Lab-Lab Manager
Arts and Visual Culture
Position Number FC-1413
Full-Time, Non-Exempt (12 months)
NOTE: This position is 100% grant funded and continued employment is subject to the availability of funds.
Note: This job announcement has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities required or assigned to an employee in this position.
Position Summary:
The Innovation Lab (IL) is the College’s creative commons for interdisciplinary collaboration, rapid ideation and product prototyping. The position reports and works closely with the Director(s) of the IL. The lab aims to increase the infusion of leading edge technologies into the liberal arts curriculum to augment STEAM learning.
The current position is an upper-level technical lab management position in this dynamic, academic unit of the College that serves students, faculty and staff. The IL works with internal and external partners to facilitate access to the resources of the lab and to coordinate, organize, and execute workshops, lectures, hack-a-thons and other student engagement programs.
As Lab Manager, the successful candidate will be the primary technical lead for the lab, the primary safety officer of the lab, the primary operational manager of the lab and the primary supervisor of student aides working in the lab.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
· Serves as the technical lead for the IL. The Lab Manager is expected to be familiar with all the capabilities of the lab. Further, the Lab Manager is expected to become sufficiently familiar with the main equipment in the lab so as to offer at least introductory guidance to the patrons of the lab.
● Responsible for the assembly, setup, configuration, calibration and maintenance of all equipment in the lab.
● Serves as the primary safety officer of the IL. Use of the lab necessarily includes health and physical hazards to patrons of the lab. These include possible exposure to sharp objects, power tools, rotating machinery, chemicals, fumes, high decibel equipment, bright lights, hot surfaces, lasers, electric power and other hazards. It is the responsibility of the Lab Manager to mitigate the risk of injury to patrons of the lab.
· Trains patrons of the lab on general safety and on specific safety measures required for individual pieces of equipment and implements basic safety measures including signage, lockouts and access controls to ensure the safe operation of the lab.
● Ensures general upkeep of the lab and will develop and enforce all lab usage policies, including but not limited to, safety policies, clean up policies, equipment usage policies, equipment checkout policies, project storage, etc.
● Provides content, supervises, conducts and/or assists with conducting workshops, hack-a-thons, lectures, tours, and other events hosted by the lab (organized by the IL Lab Manager). This includes, but is not limited to hosting the sessions, providing technical support for, and/or documenting the sessions.
● Collects lab usage data and assist the Director with end-of-year reporting. The collected data may include, but is not limited to, lab usage, project type, patron classification, majors, curriculum integration metrics and other metrics requested by the Director(s).
● Interviews, hires and supervises all student workers in the IL. There will be two types of student workers in the IL: Lab Leaders and student interns. (Lab leaders are paid student aides who rotate through the lab. Student interns are unpaid student aides working towards an Innovation minor and who must rotate through the lab). The Lab Manager will have discretion on selecting and relieving student workers. The Lab Manager will serve as student supervisor and be responsible for the training of these student aides on safety as well as technical aspects of the lab.
● Advises faculty, staff, and students with their IL projects, and conducts in-class training sessions as requested by faculty to facilitate classroom usage of the IL.
● Promotes IL activity through sharing ideas, workshops, and faculty, staff, and student work on social media, sending a monthly email newsletter, and maintaining the IL calendar, social media accounts, and web presence. As a result, the Lab Manager will also create assets for the IL (flyers, posters, presentations, etc.).
● Makes purchasing decisions for equipment and consumables.
Educations and/or Experience:
· Bachelor’s degree required. A minimum of five years of related work experience or equivalent combination of education and experience are required.
· This position requires strong mechanical and digital technical skills and the ability and willingness to continuously acquire new skills as the holdings of the Lab increases. Familiarity with laser cutting, 3D printing, AR/VR, physical computing and basic computer programming are particularly desirable.
· This position requires strong customer service focus, excellent written, verbal and time management skills, and the ability to handle multiple tasks. Professional demeanor with the ability to interface with internal and external customers is essential. Independent judgment is necessary to plan, prioritize and organize a diversified workload with attention to detail. Leadership abilities with excellent analytical and detail oriented skills are critical to success in this role. The ability to work effectively under pressure, be proactive, demonstrate initiative, and promote teamwork is a key asset in the role.
· Excellent oral communication skills are required when presenting information and responding to questions from internal and external customers in one-on-one or group situations. The individual must be able to write business correspondence and compose memos, letters, and emails. They must also be able to read, analyze, and interpret documents such as safety rules, and procedural manuals.
· To perform this job successfully, an individual must have intermediate computer and software skills including Adobe Creative suite, CAD software, MS Office suite, and Google Suite. The individual must have intermediate skills in using hand tools, power tools and must have some experience with computer-controlled equipment typically found in makerspaces (laser cutters, CNC machinery, 3D printers, etc.). Basic computer programming skills, such as Python, Processing, p5.js, HTML5, CSS3 and/or JavaScript, is highly desirable as are basic skills with electrical and electronic circuitry (i.e. Arduino).
Certificates, Licenses , Registrations:
The employee must be able to drive and have a valid driver’s license.
See more and apply here.