Digital Asset Specialist

Title: Digital Asset Specialist

Location: Chicago

Job Description:

We have ambitious plans, and we know the most critical step is building an incredible team that reflects the diverse fabric of our nation and embodies our values. Our team is made up of people who are equal parts dreamers and doers. We are people who care as much about how we achieve our goals as we do about the goals themselves. Our values drive our team and are instilled in the work this Foundation does every day. We are also committed to creating an anti-racist organization in order to do our part to help combat racism and inequity in all forms, in communities across our nation and around the world. Read our full statement on anti-racism and equity here.

 

Purpose of Role

 

The Digital Asset Specialist supports organization-wide digital asset management best practices for the Obama Foundation’s Digital Asset Hub and reports to the Digital Asset Manager. You will contribute to establishing and operationalizing workflows, documentation and usage guides, ingesting assets with appropriate metadata, and supporting staff’s use and understanding of the Digital Asset Hub to enable self-service to the greatest extent possible while maintaining quality control. You will work with our Metadata and Digital Discovery Strategist staff to ensure digital asset records conform to metadata and tagging guidelines upon ingest and through metadata remediation activities. As a member of the Product and Technology team, you will also work closely with Content Operations to ensure digital asset usage is properly tracked across our website, digital marketing, and interactive experiences at the future Obama Presidential Center. This role is key in providing care and stewardship of our digital assets as the Foundation forges innovative digital experiences for both online audiences and in-person visitors of the Obama Presidential Center.

 

 

Core Job Responsibilities

• Working closely with the Digital Asset Manager, execute general digital asset management activities and administration of the Digital Asset Hub DAMS (powered by Orange Logic’s OrangeDAM, aka Cortex)

• Facilitate project based ingest of Foundation assets and external partners, including the National Archives and external agencies; provide quality control for these operations, including metadata and file integrity

• Work with our Content Operations, Exhibits, and Creative teams to improve and optimize workflows/processes ensuring assets flow smoothly from creation and editing to ingest, description, publication, and display

• Partner with metadata management staff to ensure assets are properly tagged, described, and archived

• In partnership with the Digital Asset Manager and Digital Products Operations Manager, coordinate with and provide support to colleagues across the Foundation and outside partners to help increase use and knowledge of the DAMS, CMS, and/or integrated systems

• Participate in the planning, creation, and delivery of training and onboarding sessions for new users to the DAMS

• Augment, create, and manage DAMS internal and user-facing documentation

• Test integrations with related systems and internal publishing workflows between the DAMS and the Foundation’s various content management instances

 

Key Deliverables/Outcomes

• Facilitating DAMS use, documentation, user satisfaction, and lifecycle management of digital assets through inventory, ingest, cataloging, quality control, training, and user support

• Verifying correct application of metadata for assets (e.g. alternate text) and working with our metadata team to affect corrections where needed

• Understanding DAMS integrations with the CMS and other systems, and participating in refining workflows between systems

• Assisting with user workflow design and training for both the CMS and DAMS, and other integrated systems

 

Required Qualifications 

• Experience supporting users and workflows of digital asset management systems handling multiple terabytes of data; past experience with Orange Logic’s OrangeDAM (aka Cortex) a plus

• Demonstrated success coordinating, managing, or manipulating digital files and metadata in a digital asset management, library, museum, archiving, or preservation context; working knowledge of APIs and familiarity with command-line tools a plus

• General understanding of file formats across content types and associated metadata, such as documents, images, audiovisual media, brand/marketing materials, creative assets, artifacts, and cultural heritage materials

• General understanding of metadata standards such as IPTC and Dublin Core, and their use in descriptive, technical, and administrative applications; familiarity with rights/reproductions a plus

• Fluency in digital content management tools and other similar systems; past experience with Contentful a plus

• Familiarity with work/project management systems, such as Asana or Jira

• Ability to work independently and manage project tasks to align with the team’s roadmap and timelines

• Strong communications skills and ability to be flexible and solutions-oriented when navigating ambiguity in a collaborative team environment

The salary range for this role is between $68,685 and $85,871. 

This is a hybrid role based at our Chicago office in Hyde Park.

Foundation Values

The Foundation Values are Courage, Empathy, Integrity, Accountability, Community, Inclusivity, Pragmatism, Resilience, Imagination, and Hope.

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Studies have shown that marginalized communities - such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color - are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. The Obama Foundation is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply.