Makerspace Technician, Forge Makerspace and Foundry Friday

About the job

The Forge Makerspace in Founders Hall 140–150 is run by three full-time shop managers and fifteen student leads. Technicians are the step below lead: you keep the digital fabrication area moving so the leads can teach. We are hiring two.

Each technician also works the Friday afternoon shift at the Foundry, the makerspace café in Founders Union, where Foundry Friday opens tools and printers to any student with an idea and no particular plan. Since last spring that has meant managing a sign-up sheet for the two newest printers, because students were camping out at 1 p.m.

What you’ll do

• Run the print queue for the 24-printer farm: check files, load filament and resin, clear jams, and post finished parts.
• Supervise Green-badge users during staffed hours and use the stop-work authority anyone in the shop has.
• Feed failed prints through the student-run filament recycling line.
• At the Foundry on Fridays, help students fix other people’s CAD files, slice models, and decide whether a project needs the full shop in Founders Hall.
• Keep the supply-store counter stocked and log consumables.

What we’re looking for

• General Safety Orientation plus the digital fabrication badge, or both completed within your first four weeks (paid time). See makerspace access.
• Experience with at least one CAD or slicing program; any major.
• The patience to explain support material to the same person twice.
• Preferred: a second shop badge (electronics or wood).

Schedule and pay

Every technician works Friday 1–5 p.m. at the Foundry, plus one or two weekday shifts in Founders Hall between 3 and 11 p.m. Technicians with a full year and 50 logged shop hours can be nominated for a student lead opening, which pays the Tier 3 rate.

Campus jobs are capped at 20 hours a week combined while classes are in session and 40 over breaks (see hour limits); for F-1 students the 20 is firm. Pay is biweekly by direct deposit; log every shift in the payroll system so your supervisor can approve it before the cutoff.

How to apply

Apply in PorterConnect, the student employment portal in MyPorter, under job number SJ-26-1126. Upload a résumé and up to three photos of something you designed or built, with one sentence each on what went wrong. The interview includes ten minutes at a printer, where you will be handed a failed print and asked what happened.

Apply by October 28, 2026. Questions about the job go to Imogen Hartwell, Shop Manager, The Forge Makerspace, at hartwelli@uwporterfalls.edu or (715) 555–0177. Once hired, you complete an I-9 in person and a W-4 before your first shift; plan on a pay period or two before the first check arrives.