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FAIR Station Project, Product Manager Position Description

The Product Manager will lead the end-to-end product effort, from discovery and roadmap development through pilot deployments, with an emphasis on pragmatic, interoperable workflows, clear value for field stations, and long-term sustainability. You will coordinate a cross-functional team spanning engineering, UX, and community  engagement; partner with collaborating infrastructures such as PID and metadata providers; steward an advisory group; and communicate progress, outcomes, and impact to funders and stakeholders.

The Product Manager will report to the FAIR Station Principal Investigator and will be an employee of CS&S. They will work closely with the UC3 Product Team to align FAIR Station with UC3’s broader digital curation strategy and with the open infrastructure ecosystem. The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on execution: user research, requirements shaping, backlog/roadmap management, pilot design, and clear, frequent communication.


FAIR Station Project, Product Manager Position Description

Employer: Code for Science & Society (CS&S) (Fiscal Sponsor of FAIR Station)

Reports to: Maria Praetzellis

Status and Type: Non-Exempt Full-time, grant-funded (two years, potential extension)

Location: Remote (U.S. or international)

Travel: Occasional travel for workshops, site visits, and community events

Compensation: $120,000-$140,000 USD annually

Benefits: Comprehensive benefits through CS&S; summary available for review upon request

The Mission and Vision

Field stations and marine laboratories (FSMLs) sit at a critical intersection in the research lifecycle: the point where data collection, operational logistics, and research practice converge. While FSMLs play a central role in enabling place-based research, the tools that support them typically focus on access and logistics, with limited ability to capture, track, or connect downstream research activities and outputs. As a result, institutions, researchers, and local communities lack reliable ways to discover, assess, and demonstrate the long-term impact of research conducted at these sites.

FAIR Station is a multi-year initiative to design, build, and pilot a next-generation, open-source platform that extends existing reservation management systems into a comprehensive environment for managing research activity across its full lifecycle. By embedding best practices for research data management, metadata capture, and downstream stewardship directly into operational workflows, FAIR Station aims to support FSML administrators, institutions, and researchers in tracking research outputs, improving interoperability, and strengthening long-term data stewardship with minimal additional administrative burden.

The project builds on the existing Reserve Application Management System (RAMS), which currently only supports reserve visits across the University of California system. FAIR Station will evolve RAMS into an open-source platform, hosted by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) and made available to the broader global field station community. The project is led by the UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library (CDL) and the University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS), with fiscal sponsorship and administrative support provided by Code for Science & Society (CS&S). Funding for this position is provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.

Position Overview

You will lead the end-to-end product effort, from discovery and roadmap development through pilot deployments, with an emphasis on pragmatic, interoperable workflows, clear value for field stations, and long-term sustainability. You will coordinate a cross-functional team spanning engineering, UX, and community engagement; partner with collaborating infrastructures such as PID and metadata providers; steward an advisory group; and communicate progress, outcomes, and impact to funders and stakeholders.

The Product Manager will report to the FAIR Station Principal Investigator and will be an employee of CS&S. They will work closely with the UC3 Product Team to align FAIR Station with UC3’s broader digital curation strategy and with the open infrastructure ecosystem. The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on execution: user research, requirements shaping, backlog/roadmap management, pilot design, and clear, frequent communication.

Responsibilities

The Product Manager owns the FAIR Station roadmap and backlog, working in close partnership with a dedicated technical lead and domain experts. Product direction is informed by UC3, UCNRS, and community stakeholders, while day-to-day prioritization and sequencing are the responsibility of the Product Manager.

Product & Portfolio Leadership

  • Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap; balance near-term pilot milestones with long-term scalability and sustainability.
  • Actively manage the day-to-day product backlog, including ongoing grooming, prioritization, and sequencing of work in collaboration with engineering and stakeholders.
  • Translate discovery findings into prioritized specs and measurable outcomes; maintain a transparent backlog and release plan.
  • Define lightweight success metrics (adoption, data linkage quality, admin time saved) and drive continuous improvement.
  • Enforce a lean architectural approach to prevent feature bloat, ensuring the platform remains lightweight, maintainable, and functional in a resource-constrained environment.
  • Coordinate with the UC3 Product Team to ensure the platform remains aligned with the broader product strategy across other areas of focus, including research data management, digital preservation, data publishing, and persistent identifiers.
  • Collaborate with the UCNRS team to ensure the platform continues to meet their user needs while also facilitating adoption by stations outside of the UC system.

User & Community Engagement

  • Lead user research with field-station staff, researchers, and administrators; synthesize needs into intuitive, low-overhead workflows.

  • Convene the advisory group; incorporate public-interest, equity, and accessibility considerations.

  • Build partnerships with open infrastructure (e.g., DataCite, Crossref, ROR, ORCID; repository and protocol services) to ensure smooth PID and metadata flows.

  • Recruit and coordinate a network of users who can champion the platform to their peers in the FSML community.

Delivery & Operations

  • Steward the transition from existing reservation and logistics workflows to new capabilities, ensuring continuity of service, clear communication with current users, and appropriate support models during and after pilots.
  • Guide engineering/UX through iterative prototyping, usability testing, and staged pilots; de-risk integrations and change management.
  • Document decision logs, product requirements, and implementation guides for pilots and future adopters.
  • Coordinate reporting to funders; contribute to communications, demos, and community presentations.

Strategy & Sustainability

  • Ensure the platform is designed as a public good: open-source, globally applicable, and usable by under-resourced field stations without adding administrative or financial burden.
  • Contribute to articulating FAIR Station’s impact narrative for funders, institutions, and the broader research community.
  • Map adoption pathways (hosted/managed service vs. self-hosted patterns), support models, and costing.
  • Scan adjacent policy/standards landscapes; align with emerging best practices in research information and open science.

Qualifications & Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of product management or program/project leadership delivering software-enabled services in research infrastructure, scholarly communications, open science, digital libraries, publishing, or adjacent public-interest tech

  • Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and ship incremental value (roadmaps, prioritization, delivery)

  • Strong stakeholder facilitation and community engagement skills; able to translate between technical and non-technical audiences

  • Excellent written and verbal communication; clear, concise documentation and reporting.

  • Commitment to open, interoperable, and equitable infrastructure

Preferred

  • Experience working with field stations, place-based research, environmental data, or research operations
  • Experience with PIDs/metadata or scholarly publishing workflows (e.g., DOI, ORCID, ROR; repository or journal metadata)
  • Familiarity with standards and best practices in research data management and open infrastructure ecosystems
  • Prior work in grant-funded or fiscally sponsored environments; comfort with budgets, reporting, and compliance.
  • Advanced degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.

Code for Science & Society Values & Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Code for Science & Society is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applications without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit a letter of interest and resume detailing how your experience and qualifications align with the responsibilities of this role to [email protected]. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and closes March 23, 2026. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. If you require reasonable accommodations at any stage of the application or hiring process, please contact us at [email protected]. For additional information on the organization, please visit CSS’s website at www.codeforsociety.org.