Program Manager, AI + Society Initiative

Type: NR4 – Research Coordinator

Duration: Full-time (35h per week) 

Start date: Flexible, as soon as possible

Salary range: $50,927–64,836, plus benefits (commensurate with qualifications and experience)

Reports to: Scientific Director, AI + Society Initiative

 

 

Position Description

The University of Ottawa has announced the launch of a new AI + Society Initiative and is seeking an inspiring Program Manager to support its development.

The Program Manager will primarily be responsible for supporting the Scientific Director in the ongoing management, progress evaluation, and knowledge dissemination relating to the research projects. The Program Manager will also coordinate research projects and teams. 

The Project Manager will monitor budgets and cash flow in order to assist in strategic financial planning and accurate reporting. The Project Manager must also track the Initiative’s progress against ambitious milestones, and lead the drafting of narrative and technical reports to our funders and stakeholders. Ensuring effective communications among collaborators within the Initiative, and with general and specialized external audiences, are an essential aspects of the Project Manager’s position. They will help to support the network’s student training and mentoring activities. There are also opportunities for the Project Manager to engage in substantive research activities. The Project Manager might be called to travel in Canada, and abroad.

Reporting to Dr. Martin-Bariteau, the Program Manager will join the dynamic community of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society, Canada’s leading research group in technology law, ethics and policy, and will be located within the Centre’s workspace at 100 Thomas Moore.

 

About the Initiative

The University of Ottawa has positioned itself as a leader in transdisciplinary research and training for responsible AI for the benefit of Canada and the world. The Program Manager will help further this vision by supporting the development of the new AI + Society Initiative, leading to a better understanding and framing of the ethical, legal and societal implications of AI research and its uses, as well as leveraging a transdisciplinary approach to advancing AI methods and tools, with a focus on their responsible applications.

The AI + Society Initiative will include many important communities within our landscape. AI and Inclusion work will serve women, youth, seniors, Indigenous People, LGBTQ2S, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and linguistic minorities (such as French and Indigenous Languages). We will promote a research agenda around developing effective inclusive and participatory ethical design/engineering frameworks for AI systems, with a specific focus on avoiding the amplification of global digital injustices through AI for those communities and those at the intersection of these identities.

While being grounded in rigorous evidence-based academic research, most outreach (public lectures, training, tools, white papers, reports, etc.) will be developed with the general public in mind, and in plain language for them to be able to take ownership of the tools and implement them to have a transformative impact within their communities.

 

For more information:

• Announcement
• Presentation of the AI + Society Initiative

 

Tasks and Duties

Project management and administration

• Assists with welcoming, training, guiding, and supervising students and research staff;
• Develops, implements and maintains physical and electronic filing systems, especially for data management;
• Carries out general project administration and communication duties as required by the project;
• Plans and arranges meetings with research subjects, focus groups, teleconferences and other research activities; takes and prepares minutes;
• Prepares financial claims, human resources requests, tracks expenses (e.g. reimbursements), maintains financial records, and provides accounting updates.
• Tracks projects’ operational supplies, requesting or acquiring necessary equipment or supplies.
• Assists in the procurement of goods and services for the Initiative’s activities, including preparing purchase orders for approval, and enters information into purchasing databases.
• Assists with any other duties required by the research projects or for the management of the initiative.

 

Knowledge Mobilization

• Collates and organizes, material for research papers, manuscripts, interim progress or final reports, articles or other documents for publication, presentations or submissions to funding agencies, steering groups, etc.;
• Plans and arranges meetings, teleconferences and other research related dissemination events;
• Assists investigators and project staff with authoring relevant sections of manuscripts, and facilitates submission of study results, conference abstracts and preparation of posters and oral presentations, and journal articles for publications;
• Assists in the organization and implementation of research dissemination events including conferences, seminars and workshops;
• Assists in the organization of, development of material for, and implements research coordination events including conferences, seminars and workshops amongst project investigators and stakeholders;
• Attends and contributes to relevant research and research dissemination meetings;
• Prepares tables, graphs, fact sheets, and written reports summarizing research results.
• Assists with the preparation, writing, translation (English and French), of key documents including ethics applications, project reports, manuscripts for publication, abstracts, scientific posters and presentations by providing technical content in support of such documents.

 

Conduct and Coordination of Research

• Performs on-site field research at local, regional and international levels;
• Undertakes day to day research activity within the overall agreed research program by preparing, setting up, conducting and recording the outcomes of data and information gathering activities, experiments and fieldwork;
• Conducts information and data retrieval searches using electronic databases;  Conducts case-based analysis research, including work with detailed primary documents;
• Conducts document analysis research (e.g. searching, reading and analyzing company reports and financial statements);
• Conducts internet-based and library research;
• Extracts and links data from different databases for analysis;
• Assists with reviewing, assembling, and synthesizing existing research literature within the field;
• Develops online digital resources, including databases and corpuses;
• Ensures compliance with University and sponsor regulations;
• Ensures compliance with ethics approvals;
• Processes, organizes and summarizes data, reporting experiment results using a variety of scientific, word processing, spreadsheet or statistical software applications or program platforms.
• Prepares detailed documentation files.

 

Knowledge, skills, education and experience

• Undergraduate degree related discipline; graduate degree (notably in a field related to the research program) is an asset.
• One to two years’ experience in coordination or research positions (or related involved with advocacy or research activities).
• Strong computer proficiency using Office 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive), Google Apps, Slack, and electronic scheduling software.
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks, to work under pressure, to effectively manage overlapping duties and to meet deadlines.
• Ability to attend to detail and display resourcefulness.
• Strong organisational, time management, coordination and facilitation skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills as well as the ability to work in a team environment.
• Advanced written and verbal skills in English or French. Bilingualism, spoken and written, is preferred.

Additionally, we would really like our program manager to have:

• Demonstrated commitment to and belief in equity, inclusion and diversity.
• A global perspective, with significant experience living or working internationally, or experience with a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural or international team.
• Cross-cultural communication skills, sensitivity and awareness, excellent interpersonal and networking skills among diverse stakeholder groups.

 

How to apply

Please send a cover letter and a résumé to fmb@uottawa.ca before March 1st (please state the title of the position in the subject line of your email).

The cover letter shall indicate the level of proficiency in English and French.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those under consideration for the role will be contacted.

The University of Ottawa is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

In keeping with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada requirements, all qualified persons are invited to apply; however, preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The cover letter should confirm the immigration status of the candidate.

In keeping with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, the University of Ottawa will provide accommodations upon request during the recruitment, selection and assessment process for candidates with a disability.

The University of Ottawa is proud of its over 160-year tradition of bilingualism. Through its Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, the University provides staff members and their spouses the means to become bilingual.