User Support Specialist

The Center for Open Science (COS) is committed to fostering openness, integrity, and reproducibility in scientific research. Our mission is to improve the alignment between scientific values and practices, enhancing the accumulation and application of knowledge. As part of a forward-thinking team that embodies a technology start-up mindset, we move quickly to identify challenges, develop solutions, and work collaboratively to promote openness.

COS maintains the Open Science Framework (OSF) as a free, open source project management and collaboration tool that supports researchers throughout the entire research lifecycle - from planning, to conducting, to reporting, and discovering research. With 700,000 users globally, OSF is one of the most ubiquitous research management tools in many disciplines and communities. OSF users are primarily researchers, and the User Support Specialist will provide support and guidance to them as they follow best practices in their research workflows. A successful candidate for the role will have experience with research workflows or have been a researcher themselves, and able to provide guidance on open scholarship best practices to assist users.

As the User Support Specialist, you will play a crucial role in ensuring an excellent user experience for OSF users, supporting the Product team by managing user relationships, addressing inquiries, and providing triage support for technical issues. You will assist users in navigating the OSF, driving engagement with open science practices and contributing to the development of helpful user documentation. This role is integral to COS's mission of supporting scientific transparency and integrity through exceptional user support and communication.

Description of responsibilities:

• Recognize key barriers and opportunities that researchers face with project lifecycle management, data management, and data sharing.
• Provide primary issue triaging on the user support help desk, responding to researcher reports of issues and feature requests.
• Coordinate with Product, Engineering, and Quality Assurance teams to ensure prompt resolution of issues.
• Maintain a deep understanding of general OSF capabilities to respond to user queries effectively.
• Support community engagement programs by cultivating strong and trusted relationships within research communities.
• Identify accomplishments of OSF users through user support interactions.
• Assist in developing OSF user documentation and resources.
• Report on customer relations activities regularly and contribute to the evaluation of user support trends.

Required skills:

• Significant experience with OSF (Open Science Framework) preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience in customer/community engagement roles.
• Ability to work as a team player and collaborate across teams to achieve outcomes.
• Strong multitasking skills, with the ability to handle and prioritize various tasks.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and documentation skills with a keen attention to detail.
• Self-starting, industrious, and independent worker who seeks new challenges and responsibilities.
• Experience using customer interfacing systems such as Zendesk or Help Scout, a plus.

Required experience and/or degree:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience within a research or scientific environment.
• 1+ years of experience in communications, engagement, or a related position​

This is a part-time, fully remote position and will not exceed 25 hours per week. 

This position has a requirement to attend up to 4 in person meetings per year. 

COS supports flexibility in work scheduling. Individuals who would like to work outside a 9am - 5pm Eastern Time (ET) schedule must work with their managers to establish core hours of availability. Modifications for different time zones will be considered for team collaboration.

Please apply by submitting a resume and answering the 2 qualifying questions in lieu of a cover letter. Answers to the qualifying questions should be succinct, please limit responses to approximately 250 characters. Questions about the position and COS are welcome and can be directed to [email protected].

For information on COS, including more information on employee benefits and our company culture, visit our website at https://www.cos.io/careers.

Please note, in order to be considered for this position you must be authorized to work in the United States and have a U.S. address and bank account. Remote workers must be located within the U.S.

This position will remain open for applications until September 20, 2024. Applications will be reviewed the week of September 30, 2024. 

COS is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also strongly encourage applications from members of groups underrepresented in science and technology industries.