Community Manager (Open-Source AI)

About the roleMozilla.org is a mission-driven organization dedicated to keeping the internet open, accessible, and secure. Through a diverse portfolio of products, subsidiaries, and investments, Mozilla.org advances internet technologies, privacy-first solutions, and responsible AI.Mozilla is looking for a contract-based Community Manager to help build and activate a global community of developers working on open source AI. This is a fixed-term, project-based engagement for someone who knows how to identify the right builders, bring them together in ways that are genuinely useful, and create the partnerships and programs that help a community take root and grow.The work is not about managing a broad, standing corporate community function. It is about helping Mozilla stand up a specific body of community and ecosystem work in open source AI: events, hackathons, online engagement, partnership development, and community signal-gathering that can inform Mozilla's broader efforts in this space.The contractor in this engagement will work closely with senior Mozilla leaders and cross-functional collaborators to help shape community programs that are credible to developers and supported by the right external relationships.What you'll do — in briefOwn the builder pipeline: the developers, tinkerers, and AI engineers who want to build on open AI infrastructure. You'll help them find each other, find Mozilla, and find reasons to stay engaged. But you'll also help build the external relationships — with companies, projects, and organizations across the ecosystem — that give those programs real weight and staying power.What you'll do — in detailEvents and in-person communityHelp design and run a program of in-person events in cities where open AI builders are already gathering — not just the major hubsWork with ecosystem partners to co-produce events that feel native to the communities they're inOwn the logistics, the run-of-show, and the follow-through that turns a one-time event into a recurring thingIdentify the right culminating moments — venues and formats that give the community a chance to show what it's builtPartnerships and sponsorshipsIdentify and cultivate relationships with companies, projects, and organizations who want to build alongside the open AI community — not just sponsor a logo on a bannerDevelop and pitch partnership and sponsorship opportunities that are genuine fits: technical collaborators, ecosystem investors, and organizations with shared valuesStructure partnerships that create real value for builders — access to tools, compute, datasets, mentorship, or distribution — not just fundingHelp Mozilla become the kind of partner that other organizations want to work with: trusted, well-networked, and worth the relationshipOnline community and ecosystem engagementBe present in the online spaces where open-source AI developers actually live: GitHub, Discord, Reddit, Hacker News, and wherever else the conversation is happeningBuild relationships with builders — not just follower countsKnow who the respected people in the ecosystem are, and help Mozilla become someone they trustSurface what the community actually needs — the friction, the gaps, the things nobody's built yet — and feed that back into Mozilla's workHackathons and builder programsHelp design and run hackathons focused on open AI infrastructure — from format to prizes to what happens after the event endsWork with internal teams and external partners to make programs feel genuinely useful to builders, not just promotionalThink about what it means to build with the community, not just for it — and design programs accordinglyHelp turn one-off events into a program with continuity, a clear identity, and the external support to sustain itCross-functional coordinationWork closely with the newsletter, social media, and communications team to make sure what's happening in the community shows up in Mozilla's public voice — and vice versaHelp turn community moments into content: a great demo, a surprising deployment, a hard-won lessonBe the connective tissue between the builders, the partners, and the rest of the CTO team's workWho you areYou've built or managed a technical community before — developer relations, open-source, or something adjacentYou know the difference between a community and an audience, and you've built the formerYou've worked with sponsors or partners before and know how to structure relationships that create real value on both sides — not just transactional onesYou're comfortable with ambiguity and can operate in early-stage programs where the playbook doesn't exist yetYou understand how developers think, what they care about, and what makes them roll their eyesYou're genuinely excited about open-source AI — not as a trend, but as something worth fighting forYou can hold two things at once: the community's trust, and the organizational relationships that make the programs possibleYou might come from developer relations, open-source community management, technical event production, or ecosystem partnership work. Titles matter less than instinct, range, and the ability to build things that outlast you.What success looks likeA growing, engaged community of developers building on open AI infrastructure — with Mozilla as the connective tissueA regular drumbeat of events, online and in-person, that people actually show up to and come back toPartnerships and sponsorships that bring real resources and credibility to the program — and that partners are proud to be part ofRelationships with builders, organizers, and ecosystem partners that give Mozilla real signal about what's working and what's broken in the open AI stackA community that becomes the first audience for Mozilla's research, tools, and public work on open source AIEngagement modelFixed-term contractor engagementFlexible, outcome-oriented working modelScope centered on community-building, program development, and ecosystem partnership deliverablesThis opportunity is project-based and should not be read as a permanent employee roleBudget for this opportunity: $128,000–$243,500 annualized equivalent .This is a fixed-term contract opportunity, not a permanent employee role. Final contract terms — including scope, weekly hours, duration, and payment structure — will be determined based on the needs of the engagement and the selected contractor's experience. This posting reflects Mozilla's good-faith budgeted range for the work at the time of posting.Applicant Privacy Notice