Digital Hub Project Manager (Independent Contractor Position)

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, the LA County Cultural Climate Commons is a multi-agency community archiving initiative responding to the need for cultural preservation, meaning-making, and social connection arising from the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles County. The project demonstrates models of creative recovery and resilience in response to climate change. Project partners include the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Los Angeles County Library, Altadena Library District, Los Angeles Public Library, and their respective library foundations.

As a core component of this initiative, the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is developing a collaboratively owned, climate-resilience-focused digital hub for Los Angeles County residents. This digital hub will serve as a centralized navigation tool to integrate digital archives, oral histories, and cultural projects responding to climate change and climate-related disasters in the greater Los Angeles region, starting with the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires.

ROLE OVERVIEW:

The Digital Hub Project Manager will lead the strategy, technical design, development, and implementation of this new digital hub. The Project Manager will curate existing regional programs and build partnerships to ensure diverse climate resilience efforts are visible and accessible from one unified platform.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the strategy, technical design, prototyping, and user experience of a climate resilience digital hub that acts as a central navigation tool to link viewers to contributors' work and third-party sites.
• Identify and establish partnerships with cultural institutions, community groups, and local practitioners to curate and amplify existing climate resilience programs, archives, and regional efforts into a single platform.
• Establish and facilitate a paid 8-member Community Advisory Group (composed of workshop participants, artists, storytellers, and community leaders) to co-design the hub’s purpose, priorities, and user experience.
• Provide coordination and content-curation services for audiences to discover third-party resources, contributor content, and regional resilience initiatives that help elevate climate equity and preserve cultural narratives.
• Develop a comprehensive curation and storytelling framework, establishing ethical guidelines around consent, representation, and content ownership for all aggregated resources and community submissions.
• Develop strategies for the collaborative management, long-term governance, and sustainability of the hub.
• Collect evaluative analytics to assess performance and document workflows for use by the project team and partner library systems.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Must qualify for and maintain independent contractor status in compliance with applicable California laws and regulations throughout the term of the engagement.
• 3+ years in digital project management, digital humanities, community archiving, or managing public-facing web/digital repository projects.
• Familiarity with digital archiving systems (e.g., CONTENTdm, BiblioBoard), oral history platforms (e.g., TheirStory), metadata standards, and web accessibility (WCAG).
• Demonstrated experience working with diverse or disaster-impacted communities, participatory co-design frameworks, and establishing ethical guidelines around content ownership and trauma-informed representation.
• Strong facilitation skills to liaise across multi-agency partners (LAPL, LA County Library, Altadena Library, LA County Department of Arts and Culture) and lead a Community Advisory Group.

PROJECT TEAM & SUPPORT

The Project Manager will operate with a cross-agency project team and will have access to the following project support and resources:

• Technical Support: Guided by LAPL’s Digitization and Special Collections division, with technical backup and consultation from LAPL’s Digital Content Team.
• Dedicated Metadata Support: Supported by a contracted Digital Hub Metadata Specialist (joining January – May 2028) who will handle cataloging, metadata tagging, and search optimization prior to launch.
• Operational Budget: Access to a dedicated project materials and supplies budget ($12,000) for community meetings, testing, advisory group stipends, and stakeholder engagement.

CONTRACT TERMS & COMPENSATION

• Contract Term: November 1, 2026 – June 30, 2028 (or upon successful completion of all project deliverables).
• Compensation: $120,000 fixed-fee contract for services provided during the term of the agreement. Payment will be made according to a schedule established by the parties and documented in the contract.
• Classification: This is a grant-funded 1099 Independent Contractor engagement administered by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles (LFLA).

TO APPLY: Submit a CV/Resume (5 pages max) and Cover Letter (2 pages max). You may also share 2-3 relevant project examples (optional). Past project examples should include the project name, date, your role, a link (if publicly accessible), and a brief (one-paragraph) description.

This is a fee-for-service independent contractor engagement and does not include employee benefits.

Demonstrated proficiency in written and spoken English, with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively across a range of formats, including professional correspondence, content development, presentations, stakeholder meetings, and group facilitation. Must be able to engage diverse audiences, synthesize information, and facilitate productive discussions.