Community Engagement Specialist, Harvard Innovation Labs

Job Summary:

The Community Specialist owns the relationship with our students in the Harvard Innovation Labs ecosystem. The Community Specialist acts as a community communications strategist, creating systems and campaigns that engage members, build community, and create responsive and customized experiences for students. The role is responsible for cultivating a strong sense of engagement and participation among all Harvard Innovation Labs (HIL) members and offers support by performing a variety of complex administrative and support duties to enhance the HIL programs and resources. This includes building and managing the day-to-day experience of participants using i-lab resources, coordinating communications across different channels, and developing and executing community-related programming.  The role reports to  the Assistant Director, Programming and Member Experience. 

Please see innovationlabs.harvard.edu for more information about the Harvard Innovation Labs. 

Job-Specific Responsibilities:

Student Community & Program Management:  

• Responsible for the development and management of the student I-lab community and its 3000+ active members, including application cycle promotion, a weekly newsletter, i-lab member Slack workspaces, events planning, and customer service for program participants in collaboration with Operations and front desk teams.  

• Ensures that student members are connected, supports collaboration across Harvard Schools, and develops programming and systems to ensure that participants can communicate and collaborate with each other.  

• Manages inquiry processes from prospective student members, develops communications to convert applicants into members, and guides students through the application/membership funnel.  

• Fosters a positive and collaborative community through daily engagement with students. Monitors news, happenings, feedback, struggles, and wins. Oversees development and synthesizes data from customer surveys, feedback, focus groups, and other data sources to provide insights, support decision-making, and inform program improvements and strategy. Designs and executes regular “pulse checks” of the community (e.g., short surveys, quick interviews) and translates qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable recommendations for the team. Constantly seeks opportunities to serve students better and streamline administrative operations. 

• Plans and executes community-related programming such as welcome events, end of term events, sub-community sessions, lunches, dinners, and other programming that brings the community together. In total, supports ~30-40 events throughout the academic year in close collaboration with the Events and Operations teams, who lead event production and logistics. 

• Designs, launches, and manages student-facing initiatives that bridge the gap between HIL and the broader student community, such as a Student Ambassador program. Recruits, onboards, and supports student ambassadors and other student leaders to extend the reach of i-lab programs across campus. 

• Manages and supports the administration and execution of new programs/ community engagement opportunities: cross-university innovation mixers, collaborations with Harvard stakeholders (student clubs), and external partners (AWS NextGen). 

• Manages and oversees the Ingenuity Award program as part of the President’s Innovation Challenge, including timeline, application process, venture evaluation process, and supporting programming such as pitch practice. 

Marketing, Communication, and Operations for Student Membership Community:  

• Develops and executes strategy to effectively communicate opportunities, events, resources, and applications to students while managing the overall editorial calendar for Student i-lab Member communications (in partnership with HIL marketing + communications team). Gathers useful information and resources for students, synthesizes and writes clear outputs that drive information and attendance, such as newsletters, event promotions, engagement tracking and RSVPs.  

• Serves as the primary liaison for the student track of the President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC) and Ingenuity Award finalists. Manages direct communications with the student finalist teams to gather promotional materials and share detailed workshops and schedules. Plans Ingenuity Award-specific programming (pitch sessions, orientation, finalist announcement, etc.). 

• Tracks engagement in student workshops and events: event registrations, attendance, and student surveys.  

• Supports the creation and execution of marketing collateral from the student perspective and makes recommendations for content based on student feedback (handouts, guides, videos, decks and presentations) 

Other: 

• Represents HIL at internal and external events; leads or moderates founder panels, club meetings, attends ecosystem gathering across Harvard and Boston as a representative of the student i-lab. 

• Builds and nurtures close collaborations with teams across HIL, including Advising, Network Engagement, Marketing + Creative, Technology, Operations, and ensures that community initiatives are aligned and coordinated on objectives. Implement repeatable processes that work well for all involved. Supports additional HIL projects, operations, and events as needed. 

• May manage and prioritize the workload, performance management, and professional development of interns. 

• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents.

• Other duties as assigned.