Manager, Community Programs

Location(s): Remote US

Why Thunderbird?

MZLA Technologies Corporation (MZLA) is a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation and the home of Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a global, free, and open-source email and productivity app, which has experienced significant growth in revenue, staff, and aspirations since its launch 20 years ago. Our revenue comes from our dedicated users around the world who generously fund our work. As we continue to expand our team and enhance our products and services, we remain dedicated to providing best-in-class productivity solutions independent of big tech. Operating as a small but dynamic team of 40 + staff across seven countries and time zones, we are part of the larger Mozilla family but maintain our distinct and independent identity from both the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation.

Our organizational culture is driven by our mission. We are committed to fostering openness and transparency as a member of the open-source community. We lean into collaboration, creativity, and diversity. We bring a hearty dose of scrappy grit and resilience to our lively and spirited team. Our operating principles leverage data informed decisions, ownership, speed and efficiencies to elevate our work and deliver innovative and impactful solutions to our users.

We work openly and this newly created Manager, Community Programs role is pivotal in advancing and strengthening our relationships with the open-source contributor community that helps power Thunderbird. It’s an incredible opportunity for an experienced community manager to help shape our community engagement activities and build a pipeline of active volunteers who support our varied product development and support initiatives.

The Opportunity:

Our community team is a dynamic and collaborative group dedicated to open-source excellence and innovation, working closely with a global network of volunteers and developers. In this role, you will manage the team and engage directly with our community, facilitating onboarding, communicating priorities, and providing clear direction. You’ll collaborate closely with our internal teams to identify opportunities for engagement (product development, QA, localization and user support) and you’ll organize all community initiatives, measuring and ensuring we see a meaningful return on investment from our engagement efforts.

The Manager, Community Program  will manage a small team and report directly to the Managing Director, Product.

This is a remote, full time position. We require strong written communication skills to facilitate effective work coordination across various virtual communication platforms such as email and video conferencing.

What you’ll do: 

• Develop and implement strategies for community growth, engagement, and retention, while ensuring alignment with the organization's vision and goals.
• Lead and mentor the Community team, fostering their growth through direct management, coaching and mentorship.
• With your team, manage programs to successfully onboard and move volunteers up the contribution curve and ensure they have opportunities to make meaningful contributions.
• Actively participate in community discussions and outreach activities across various channels, provide support and encouragement to members, and moderate interactions to maintain a positive and respectful environment.
• Collaborate with our internal teams (engineering, QA, design, product, support) to source problems and needs appropriate for working with the crowd. 
• Collaborate with marketing to support campaigns and activities to increase community activity and engagement, creating content as needed.
• Create a recognition program that increases and celebrates volunteer engagement and satisfaction.
• Manage the tools that measure community engagement, monitor and take action as needed.
• Serve as a bridge between internal teams and external contributors, listening to feedback and questions with empathy, and responding in kind and sharing feedback and insights so collaboration flows seamlessly.
• Plan and budget for annual outreach programs, such as conferences, online events and other