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Position Summary/Purpose of Position:

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, College Park, is hiring a collaboration and outreach coordinator (University rank: Faculty Specialist or Senior Faculty Specialist) to work with the ICONS Project, START’s in-house simulation and wargaming team, across its full portfolio of projects.

The ICONS Project creates simulations and scenario-driven exercises to advance participants’ understanding of complex problems and strengthen their ability to make decisions, navigate crises, think strategically, and negotiate collaboratively. ICONS develops and manages the ICONSnet software platform for hosting role-play simulations, computational models, wargames, and scientific research on topics affecting democracy, security, and prosperity.

This is a full‐time position, with an initial term of 12 months (starting in Summer 2024), with potential for renewal given availability of funding. The salary range is $65,000 to $85,000 per year depending on qualifications. ICONS is a small team, so the individual hired for this position will have a broad range of responsibilities. The primary set of responsibilities will be to understand, engage, organize, strengthen, and grow ICONS’s networks of stakeholders to further ICONS’ mission and attract revenue at larger scales. The main metric for success in this role will be growth in the number of people using ICONS simulations, collaborating with the ICONS team on research and sim development, and engaging with the team across ICONS’s full range of activities and issues areas. The secondary set of responsibilities is more administrative in nature: project management, customer service, oversight of the internship program, research support on projects and proposals, and other forms of administrative support.

The individual hired for this position will collaborate closely with Dr. Robert D. Lamb, Director of ICONS, to support and implement the strategic vision of the program, with duties including but not limited to:

  • identify opportunities for collaboration with instructors, gamers, researchers, policymakers, funders, communities, etc., including collaborations that grow revenue (e.g., instructors purchasing sims), those that further ICONS’s mission (e.g., policy trainings, academic consortia, community outreach, etc.), and those that raise ICONS’s profile (e.g., interdisciplinary workshops, speaker series, research consortia, etc.);
  • lead “engagement marketing” efforts to directly connect with ICONS stakeholders and collaborators across multiple channels, including interviews, events, workshops, newsletters, conferences, social media, customer service, and general networking as well as targeted and general outreach marketing;
  • research, identify, and engage with potential collaborators; develop and maintain a stakeholder database to track interactions and collaborations on an ongoing basis; and develop ICONS brand personas to help the team understand the various stakeholders who engage with us (agencies, funders, instructors, etc.) and the outreach partners who engage with these stakeholders;
  • act as the main external point of contact within ICONS across its full portfolio of activities, including customer service requests and business administration interactions;
  • coordinate internal project management processes in collaboration with other ICONS staff, manage the internship program, and contribute to strategic planning processes within ICONS; and
  • other outreach, administrative, or basic research tasks as needed.


The person selected for this position will work onsite at START headquarters, and will report directly to the ICONS Project Director. This position is eligible for telework up to two days per week.

 

Top Benefits and Perks: Faculty Benefits Summary

 

Minimum Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications (All Ranks):

  • Bachelor’s degree in social science, education, policy, communications, business administration, marketing, or related field.
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate (written and verbal) and build relationships with a variety of stakeholders from diverse intellectual and cultural backgrounds.
  • Familiarity with one or more of the topics in ICONS’s research agenda or simulation catalog, as evidenced by experience in research, teaching, training, or consulting on those topics.
  • Experience with basic data collection and analysis targeted at actionable insights.


Required Qualifications (Faculty Specialist):

  • At least two years of work experience in a role requiring effective, systematic, multi-channel stakeholder engagement.


Required Qualifications (Senior Faculty Specialist):

  • Advanced degree in social science, education, policy, communications, business administration, marketing, or related field OR at least four years of work experience in a role requiring effective, systematic, multi-channel stakeholder engagement.
  • Ability to demonstrate at least minimal consistency with two or more of the “preferred qualifications” listed below (i.e., at least two of the bullets in the list).

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The required writing sample (see below) should be short and demonstrate your proficiency in communicating with stakeholders.

 

Preferences:

  • A proven track record with small organizations managing, growing, and supporting effective, diverse, and mission-aligned networks or coalitions within academic, governmental, or non-profit sectors.
  • Proficiency in stakeholder or ecosystem mapping, market analysis, social network mapping, or related methods.
  • Familiarity with qualitative, participatory, or systems research methods (e.g., qualitative coding, action research, group model building).
  • Experience in the education market as an instructional designer, instructor, customer-service provider, or marketer — or as a consultant designing and delivering trainings or workshops — with a preference for experience with educational technology, role-playing games, wargaming, data science, or web apps.
  • Familiarity with project management methods and technologies such as Agile suitable for small research or knowledge-based teams.
  • Familiarity with processes and tools for customer relationship management (CRM), newsletter distribution, surveys, and data management.
  • Knowledge of engagement marketing, social media strategies, media outreach, audience engagement, or platform visibility.
  • Multilingual capabilities, cross-cultural experience, and/or experience engaging effectively and sensitively with diverse communities and historically marginalized groups.

 

About ICONS:

The individual hired for this position will help grow the ICONS Project’s capacity to carry out its work over the next two years. While not responsible for all aspects of ICONS’s mission, it will be useful for applicants to understand what ICONS staff will be working on during this initial period:

  • Ecosystem. ICONS regularly engages multiple audiences across a wide range of sectors on a wide range of topics and for a wide range of purposes. Instructors worldwide use ICONS educational simulations in their classrooms. Corporate and government sponsors use ICONS simulations and the ICONSnet platform for high-impact training. Experts at government agencies, universities, nonprofits, consultancies, and think tanks collaborate with us through workshops, research projects, and knowledge-sharing endeavors. Colleagues across the University of Maryland system organize around topics of common or public interest.
  • Research. ICONS’s funded research currently focuses on integrating artificial intelligence and social-complexity modeling into the science and practice of wargaming. Additional research topics over the next two years are likely to include democratic recovery, mass shootings, accelerationism, Arctic and Indigenous security, regional dynamics of Russia, negotiation and crisis communication, disinformation and influence campaigns, peacebuilding, or asymmetric conflicts.
  • Simulations. The ICONS education catalog, used by dozens of instructors and thousands of students every year, currently includes about two dozen human-to-human role-play simulations on a wide range of political, environmental, and economic scenarios. Many of these are updated annually, and in the next two years we will be looking to expand the catalog to include new topics of interest to ICONS’s community of stakeholders.

 

About the University of Maryland:

Founded in 1856, University of Maryland, College Park is the state’s flagship institution. Our 1,250-acre College Park campus is just minutes away from Washington, D.C., and the nexus of the nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial centers of power. This unique proximity to business and technology leaders, federal departments and agencies, and a myriad of research entities, embassies, think tanks, cultural centers, and non-profit organizations is simply unparalleled. Synergistic opportunities for our faculty and students abound and are virtually limitless in the nation’s capital and surrounding areas. The University is committed to attracting and retaining outstanding and diverse faculty and staff that will enhance our stature of preeminence in our three missions of teaching, scholarship, and full engagement in our community, the state of Maryland, and in the world.

 

Background Checks: Offers of employment are contingent on completion of a background check. Information reported by the background check will not automatically disqualify you from employment.

Closing Date: Open Until Filled

Best Consideration Date: 06/05/2024

Physical Demands: Work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.

Diversity Statement: The University of Maryland, College Park, an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, creed, marital status, political affiliation, personal appearance, or on the basis of rights secured by the First Amendment, in all aspects of employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

 

Required Documents

  1. Resume
  2. Cover Letter
  3. Writing Sample 1