Job Description

Extra Help - Program Coordinator (Digital Accessibility Community Manager) - Technology Solutions

This Position is temporary and limited to 900 hours.

Hiring Department Technology Solutions

Location Chicago, IL USA

Requisition ID 1041743

Hours per Week 35

# of Positions 1

Workplace Type Hybrid

Posting Close Date Friday, July 17, 2026

Salary: The range of pay for this position is $40.00–$48.00 per hour

About the University of Illinois Chicago

UIC is among the nation’s preeminent urban public research universities, a Carnegie RU/VH research institution, and the largest university in Chicago. UIC serves over 34,000 students, comprising one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation and is designated as a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPSI) and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Through its 16 colleges, UIC produces nationally and internationally recognized multidisciplinary academic programs in concert with civic, corporate and community partners worldwide, including a full complement of health sciences colleges. By emphasizing cutting-edge and transformational research along with a commitment to the success of all students, UIC embodies the dynamic, vibrant and engaged urban university. Recent “Best Colleges” rankings published by U.S. News & World Report, found UIC climbed up in its rankings among top public schools in the nation and among all national universities. UIC has over 300,000 alumni, and is one of the largest employers in the city of Chicago.

This position is not eligible for benefits.

The University of Illinois Chicago Digital Accessibility Engineering team seeks an Extra Help Program Coordinator (Digital Accessibility Community Manager) to grow and steward the contributor community around Equalify, UIC's Open Source web accessibility platform. The role exists to do one thing: convert outside developers into sustained contributors so that UIC's accessibility engineering work scales beyond internal staff capacity. The core outcome is to drive external contributions to 10% of all Equalify project contributions every six months, compounding over time.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Own the contribution rate. Drive external contributions to 10% every six months by building and continuously improving the funnel that moves developers from first awareness to first PR to sustained participation.
• Remove onboarding friction. Maintain documentation, good first issues, contribution guides, and fast code review responsiveness so new contributors can land a first contribution quickly and return for more.
• Report ROI. Track and report the community's return on investment to UIC leadership, quantifying external engineering capacity delivered against the cost of the role, alongside metrics like PRs merged, issues resolved, code reviews completed, contributor retention, and time to first contribution.
• First responder. Serve as the primary point of contact for community inquiries, triaging contributor questions, feature requests, and bugs, and routing deeper technical issues to UIC engineers to protect engineering time.
• Grow community leaders. Identify and nurture regular contributors, equipping them to onboard and mentor others so the pipeline becomes self-sustaining and load on UIC staff decreases as the community grows.
• Produce contributor content. Create the contributor-facing content that feeds the funnel, including contribution guides, release notes, blog posts, technical talks, and a community newsletter.
• Recruit and represent. Build UIC's reach by representing Equalify at Open Source conferences, accessibility events, and academic venues, and by building relationships with aligned projects, standards bodies, and partner institutions.
• Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

1. Bachelor’s degree.
2. A total of one (1) year (12 months) in education, training and/or work experience in the area of specialization inherent to the position. (Note: Master’s Degree in an area consistent with the duties of the position may be substituted for one (1) year of work experience.)
3. Based on position requirements, additional education, training, and/or work experience in the area of specialization inherent to the position, may be required.
   
   Additional education, training and/or work experience in the area of specialization:

• Community experience. You have managed or grown a community of developers or contributors, or done developer relations or advocacy, ideally in Open Source.
• Open Source fluency. You know how contributions work, including Git, pull requests, issue tracking, and code review, well enough to sort and route incoming questions.
• Clear writing. You can produce documentation, contribution guides, and content that makes it easy for people to get involved.
• Metrics and reporting. You can set goals, track numbers, and explain results to leadership in terms of impact and ROI.
• Direct engagement. You are comfortable talking with developers in forums, issue trackers, chat, and in person.
• Self-direction. You can work independently and focus on what actually grows contributions.
• Accessibility knowledge. You know standards like WCAG and assistive technology, or you can pick them up fast.
• Early community growth. You have grown an Open Source community early on and increased outside contributions.
• Mission-driven background. You have worked in higher education, civic tech, or mission-driven Open Source.
• Relevant tech stack. You have worked with the WordPress ecosystem, or with PHP and JavaScript like Equalify's.
• Visibility and network. You have spoken at events and have connections in Open Source or accessibility circles.
• Grant-funded work. You understand the reporting that institutionally sponsored Open Source involves.

The University of Illinois System is an equal opportunity employer, including but not limited to disability and/or veteran status, and complies with all applicable state and federal employment mandates. Please visit Required Employment Notices and Posters to view our non-discrimination statement and find additional information about required background checks, sexual harassment/misconduct disclosures, and employment eligibility review through E-Verify.

The university provides accommodations to applicants and employees. Request an Accommodation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools may be used in some portions of the candidate review process for this position, however, all employment decisions will be made by a person.