Please note that references provided at the time of application for staff positions will not be contacted until the applicant has been offered the position.
Description
This is a temporary, full-time, one-year position. The anticipated hiring range is $24.97–$26.85 per hour, depending on education, experience, and internal equity.
The Visiting Creative Technologist and Makerspace Manager is a visiting position for candidates with a clear vision for engaging the Berea College campus community in multi-disciplinary technology-driven exploration and creative expression. This position includes managing the Dr. Ann Evans Hon. ’23 and Carl Evans Fd. ’62 Makerspace in the brand new CMIT Building, supporting student maker communities on campus, and collaborating with faculty and staff on innovative technology-integrated curricular enrichment. As an interim makerspace manager, this person is responsible for the daily operations of the makerspace and ensuring a safe, inclusive, accessible, and student-centered environment. The BC Makerspace is a large multi-function studio space, with a rand of desktop fabrication equipment and materials such as 3D printers, laser engraver, vinyl cutters, and sewing machines; as well as a project space for the “Ratfight” FIRST robotics team. The Creative Technologist and Makerspace Manager also acts as a key collaboratior with faculty and staff in Experiential Learning initiatives on campus by supporting curricular and scholarly projects, offering regular equipment workshops, and introducing unique possibilities based on the candidate’s expertise and interests. The role involves undergraduate student supervision within the labor program, guiding 3-4 part-time student workers in a technical peer support, project advising, and maintaining lab procedures and safety protocols. Ideal candidates are excited to work in a dynamic learning environment and motivated by student success. Learn more about Berea’s experiential initiatives here: https://magazine.berea.edu/uncategorized/learning-here-there-and-everywhere/
Following long-standing tradition and practice at Berea College, this position includes responsibility for supervising, mentoring, and developing students in the College's integrated Work College Program. This supports student learning, career readiness, and the program's learning goals and outcomes. The Work College Program provides a developmental framework that guides student learning while creating a structured mentorship opportunity, with role-specific training that equips faculty and staff mentors to support student development. Faculty and staff mentors play an essential part in helping students connect their work-learning-service experiences with broader academic, professional, and personal development. For faculty, this aligns with Berea's tenure and promotion criteria.
Your Key Responsibilities
Managerial

• Directly oversee and train makerspace users on the safe use of tools and equipment
• Organize and maintain physical materials supply and digital inventory
• Efficiently operate, debug, repair, and maintain existing desktop fabrication equipment
• Communicate and coordinate effectively with multiple space users, including student managers, staff, and faculty reserving the studio and classroom space
• Keep accurate records of makerspace space, equipment, and material usage
• Proactively identify emerging issues (technical, social, procedural) and work to resolve them in a timely and respectful manger
• Maintain student-centered working hours that enable safe access to the makerspace and adequate supervision of student workers
  

Project-oriented

• Identify or create opportunities for academic collaboration across campus
• Train, supervise, and mentor undergraduate student workers to gain confidence and competency
• Lead or collaborate on a multi-disciplinary creative technology project based on candidate expertise and interest
  

What You'll Bring
Education required to ensure success in this position:

• Bachelor’s degree in a computing, art/design, or engineering related disciplin
• Preferred: Master’s degree in Computing, Art/Design, or Engineering related discipline, or STEM pedagogy
  

Experience required to ensure success in this position:

• Minimum of three (3) years of directly related experience in makerspace management, digital fabrication, STEM/STEAM education, innovation lab management, or a related field
• Using and maintaining desktop fabrication and CNC equipment, especially 3D printers
• Developing relevant digital fabrication workshops or maker education curriculum enrichment (K-12 or adult)
• Working independently in proactive, service-oriented positions
• Collaborating on multi-disciplinary “STEAM” (science, technology, engineering, art, math) projects
• Supervising adults in a work setting
• Proficient in desktop and mobile computing, and familiar with classroom technologies (projector, document camera)
• Prior lab or studio management experience, especially in a makerspace
• Detailed inventory management, including organizing materials, tracking supply usage, and purchasing
  

Special skills, knowledge and abilities:

• Familiarity with makerspaces or student-driven innovation spaces, especially in academic (school/library) contexts
• CAD modeling and 3D design software (Inventor, Tinkercad, OnShape)
• FDM 3D printer operation (Bambu, Creality, Flashforge), including limitations and sustainable design
• 2D design or illustration software (e.g., Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, or Inkscape)
• Practical knowledge of programming languages (Arduino, Processing, Python, Javascript), hobby electronics (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, various sensors/actuators), and resources for digital and physical creative coding applications
• Understanding material and process selection for various fabrication needs and product design
• Flexibility to meet and support people at varying levels of experience and comfort to accomplish creative vision
• Project management, including scheduling, tracking personnel time & effort, and managing a budget
• Adept using multiple operating systems (Window, Mac OS, Linux), cloud storage solutions (Google Drive Box), and working in an enterprise network environment
• Additional art, design, craft, or technical skills to offer unique creative technology experience to students, staff, faculty
• Human-centered design, especially with focus in accessibility, culturally responsive pedagogy, or trauma-informed teaching, and sustainability
  

License, certification, or registration necessary:

• None necessary
• Willing to complete OSHA training
• Opportunity to study towards Green Belt certification
• Must be able to pass background check to work with minors
• Computing, engineering or design pedagogy credits or certificates
  

Physical requirements:

• Dexterity to manipulate fine pieces of equipment (in machine maintenance, repair, or training scenarios)
• Lifting light loads (10-30 lbs)
  

Environmental conditions:

• Indoors, may have some occasional high volume noice, high activity space
  

Ability to operate the following vehicles or equipment:

• Access to a personal vehicle or have a driver’s license
  

Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 46 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them with a no-tuition promise. Berea’s students excel in the College’s supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only ten federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students are expected to work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2025. Washington Monthly has named Berea College the #1 Best College in the nation in its 2025 College Guide. Berea College appears in their rankings as #1 College (overall): Best College for your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars, #1 Best-in Class College, #1 Liberal Arts College and #1 Best Bang for the Buck Southern College.
Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at www.berea.edu.
Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.
Berea College is always looking for talented, self-motivated individuals to join our team. If you think you are ready to be a part of an exciting team, then we encourage you to continue with this applicant friendly, online job application!
Berea College is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.
Our Benefits
Berea College offers a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees and their families including health care, dental, vision, retirement, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability and an Employee Assistance Program. The benefit package also includes access to the Child Development Laboratory for children of College Staff, ages 6 weeks to 6 years, Seabury Center Membership, Staff Development Funds and Tuition Reimbursement.
Eligible staff employees also receive paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave.
Part-time employees who work an average of twenty-four hours per week over the course of a year, receive benefits on a pro-rated basis.
To learn more details, visit our benefits page at https://www.berea.edu/human-resources/employee-benefits.
Our Unique Culture
Berea College strives to be a place where people with various Christian interpretations, different religious traditions, and no religious traditions work together in support of Berea's Great Commitments.
Over the past century, various leaders of the College have applied the College’s inclusive scriptural foundation and spirit to their expanding world and welcomed those whose beliefs were consistent with the Christian gospel of impartial love. Therefore, Berea College today affirms its inclusive Christian tradition even as it respects the traditions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, as well as other faiths, and those holding no religious beliefs. We strive not to ignore our differences, but rather seek to understand each other honestly and respectfully, and together create a climate where anyone can openly discuss what they believe without fear of sanction. To that end, all persons who are willing to share in the spirit and the work of the Great Commitments as shaped by its preamble are welcome to study, to teach, and to work at Berea
Labor Supervision
In support of Berea College’s great commitments, staff and faculty serve as labor supervisors. Our fourth great commitment, The Dignity of Labor, promotes learning and serving in community through the student Labor Program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done. Student Labor Supervision includes scheduling, assigning, and approving student work, developing students' workplace acumen, and providing tangible work experience. To learn more about the labor program office please see the following link Labor Program Office.