Welcome Rob Kaufman, Hyrax and Hyku Technology Coordinator for 2026
Heather Greer Klein
We’re excited to welcome Rob to the new role of Technical Coordinator for the Hyrax and Hyku platforms!
This role combines the previous volunteer roles of Hyrax Tech Lead and Hyku Tech Lead, and provides essential technical leadership and coordination at a moment when many institutions are facing funding constraints and reliance on Hyrax and Hyku infrastructure continues to grow.
Read on for full details about the priorities of this contracted shared staffing role and how those priorities will provide immediate value to Hyku and Hyrax implementer institutions.
About Rob
Rob brings more than 22 years of development experience and a proven leadership track record. He is the former head of Notch8 and prior to this role served as the Hyku Technical Lead. His deep knowledge of Samvera’s ecosystem, combined with long-standing relationships across the community, uniquely positions him to help us strengthen technical continuity today while building sustainable processes for the future.
What Technical Coordination Will Do for Hyku and Hyrax
Hyrax and Hyku are critical infrastructure for many institutions. They support repositories, preservation, access, and discovery services that our organizations depend on every day. At the same time, institutional funding cuts have reduced the capacity of individual teams to carry coordination, maintenance, and strategic alignment on their own.
The Technical Coordinator role is contracted for 20 hours per month and designed to multiply community capacity by providing high-impact coordination, shared visibility, and continuity across projects so that no single institution has to carry this work alone.
Technical Coordinator Priorities & their Value to Hyrax and Hyku Institutions
Technical Triage & Support - 6 hours/month
Bi-weekly "office hours" for technical questions from current and potential implementers
Rapid routing of community technical questions to knowledgeable community members
Maintained knowledge base of common issues and solutions
Direct technical communication channel for developers
Value to institutions: Your teams get expert guidance without hiring additional staff. Questions are answered more quickly, reducing blockers during implementation and upgrades.
Maintenance Coordination - 5 hours/month
Documented, sustainable maintenance schedule across projects based on shared dependencies
Identification of efficient cross-project maintenance opportunities
Tracking of critical security updates and dependency vulnerabilities
Coordination of volunteer efforts for high-priority maintenance tasks
Review and completion support for maintenance work
Value to institutions: Proactive coordination helps prevent crisis situations. Shared planning reduces duplicated effort and makes better use of limited developer time across institutions.
Community Process & Communication - 4 hours/month
Active participation in weekly tech calls as the connecting voice between projects
Streamlined GitHub processes with reduced developer confusion
Clear communication channels between Hyrax and Hyku development efforts
Documented and improved contribution workflows to lower barriers
Identification and resolution of community process gaps
Value to institutions: Developers spend less time navigating processes and more time doing productive work. New contributors and staff onboard faster and more confidently.
Strategic Planning & Alignment - 3 hours/month
Quarterly roadmap alignment sessions between Hyrax and Hyku
Brief quarterly technical status updates for stakeholder communication
Tightly aligned technical roadmap across projects
Documented single points of failure in community expertise
Prioritized community developer time allocation
Strategic direction for Hyku community developer work, including mentorship and pairing
Value to institutions: You gain clearer insight into where the community is headed and how to align your local roadmap with shared priorities.
Documentation & Reporting - 2 hours/month
Living technical health dashboard for both projects
Annual comprehensive technical report (achievements, challenges, priorities)
Updated critical technical documentation based on community feedback
Value to institutions: Improved visibility into project health supports long-term planning and helps justify continued institutional investment.
What This Role Cannot Do (Given Current Constraints)
This role is scoped at 20 hours per month, and it does not include:
Extensive hands-on development work
Comprehensive documentation or training creation
Detailed accessibility testing
Ongoing community website maintenance beyond critical fixes
Large-scale mentorship programs
These are all areas where the community could grow as funding for this support grows. The current focus is on high-impact coordination work that multiplies the effectiveness of community contributions.
Funding Shared Staffing for our Shared Responsibilities
This role exists because the Samvera Community recognizes that shared infrastructure requires shared staffing.
To sustain this position beyond 2026 and to further expand it to incorporate priorities like training and documentation, everyone who relies on Hyrax and Hyku for critical infrastructure must contribute what they can to Samvera. No single institution can carry this work alone. Shared funding enables shared leadership, reduces burnout, and protects the long-term health of the software we all depend on.
Supporting Samvera is not just an investment in code but in people, coordination, and continuity. We’ll have more information available in the coming weeks about how to support Samvera through annual financial contribution or by becoming a Samvera Partner.
We are grateful to Rob for stepping into this role. Please join us in welcoming Rob as Samvera’s Technical Coordinator, and in committing together to the shared responsibility that makes this work possible.