Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Office of Neighborhood Strategies

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the citys housing and diversity and strength in the citys neighborhoods because every New Yorker deserves a safe affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love.
We maintain building and resident safety and health.
We create opportunities for New Yorkers through housing affordability.
We engage New Yorkers to build and sustain neighborhood strength and diversity.
HPD is entrusted with fulfilling these objectives through the goals and strategies of Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness Mayor Adams comprehensive housing framework. To support this important work the administration has committed $5 billion in new capital funding bringing the 10year planned investment in housing to $22 billion the largest in the citys history. This investment coupled with a commitment to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers is a multipronged strategy to tackle New York Citys complex housing crisis by addressing homelessness and housing instability promoting economic stability and mobility increasing homeownership opportunities improving health and safety and increasing opportunities for equitable growth.

Your Team:

The Office of Neighborhood Strategies (ONS) is charged with ensuring that HPDs development and preservation efforts are guided by meaningful community engagement and coordinated with public investments in infrastructure and services as put forth in the Mayors Housing Plan.
ONS is composed of two divisions and a crossdivisional unit reporting to the Associate Commissioner:
The Division of Planning & Predevelopment (P&P) is central to developing and managing HPDs housing production pipeline from project proposal phases through the land use review and entitlement process to ensure that HPDs investments contribute to building strong healthy resilient neighborhoods in all five boroughs.
The Division of Neighborhood Development & Stabilization (ND&S) leads the agencys commitment to neighborhood planning and strategic preservation through engagement with tenants landlords community leaders and neighborhood stakeholders as we work to enable strong and healthy neighborhoods anchored by affordable housing.
The Strategic Initiatives Unit leads special ONS initiatives and provides essential technical planning and policy support to staff and the Associate Commissioner of Neighborhood Strategies. The Director of Strategic Initiatives leads this team.

Your Impact:

As the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Office of Neighborhood Strategies you will lead a talented group of professionals and experts in important planning policy and operational efforts to meet the agencys goals and vision. You will play a leading role in groundbreaking initiatives related to innovation in housing models; use of Cityowned land; equitable neighborhood growth; and support for tenants homeowners and communitybased organizations helping ONS to achieve the greatest impact possible.

Your Role:

Your role as Director of Strategic Initiatives will be to oversee complex policy and planning initiatives including managing timelines processes and relationships with stakeholders across the agency City government and nongovernmental partners. You will also work closely with both ONS divisions to provide analytical logistical and operations support to help ONS and HPD advance strategic goals and improve and streamline Officewide operations.

Your Responsibilities:

Under the supervision of the ONS Chief of Staff the Director of Strategic Initiatives will be responsible for supervising a team of two energetic thoughtful and engaged staff to:
Coordinate and support strategy development and project implementation for various housing policy initiatives (e.g. Shared Housing Roadmap and other initiatives as outlined in the Administrations housing plan) including supporting the development of work plans delegating to relevant units briefing leadership and coordinating with other relevant HPD divisions and City agencies
Develop operational standards and procedures that will enhance the quality efficiency and coordination of ONSs work
Ensure consistency in technical analytical and planning approaches (e.g. sitebased vs. neighborhoodbased planning; project managing tracking and reporting milestones etc.) across ONS teams and between ONS and other relevant HPD divisions
Act as a liaison with other HPD divisions to ensure their programs tools and guidelines serve ONS priorities and vice versa
Seed new projects in collaboration with multiple teams that advance the mission of ONS
Provide technical support on special projects that are assigned to ONS from the Commissioners Office
Troubleshoot and resolve issues that arise on complex and/or highpriority planning projects and initiatives across teams including technical issues related to zoning and land use approvals financial feasibility design neighborhoodwide rezoning and procurement for human services contracts

Preferred Skills
1.Subjectmatter expertise: Knowledge of New York City government affordable housing and urban planning issues; a minimum of six years of professional experience in a related field; candidates with masters degrees in urban planning urban studies public policy or real estate are strongly preferred.
2.Exceptional project management including ability to execute: Proven ability to manage complex projects with multiple internal and external stakeholders; to receive direction and anticipate next steps; to think through communicate document organize and execute on project goals and keep other team members on schedule. Ability to manage up down and across teams. Attentive to details organized and has the ability to follow through.
3.Effective people management: Experience managing teams and an interest in building staff development and coaching skills.
4.Superior problemsolving capabilities: The ability to combine analytic abilities with empathy and persuasion to break complex challenges into manageable tasks generate consensus on contentious issues and influence both subjectmatter experts and seniorlevel decisionmakers.
5.Outstanding communication skills: Extremely strong written verbal and presentation skills. Proven ability to produce highquality materials in a variety of formats for internal and external audiences.
6.Strong analytical skills: Ability to work with understand analyze and communicate qualitative quantitative and geospatial information in a variety of formats.
7.Good judgment: Ability analyze a situation understand what is needed understand when additional input is needed flag or resolve issues as necessary and escalate when appropriate.
8.Collaborative and creative spirit: Excited to be part of a team to work with others to solve problems creatively and get quality work done. Ability to hear take and give feedback effectively and productively and to motivate peers to get the job done.

Qualifications :

1.A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and three years of fulltime satisfactory professional experience in the development appraisal financing negotiation or disposition of real estate or in real estate law or in urban planning or analytical or coordination work related to housing programs; or

2. A four year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a States Department of Education or a recognized accrediting organization and seven years of fulltime satisfactory experience as described in 1 above; or

3.A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience which is equivalent to 1 or 2 above. Graduate study in the field of urban studies city planning business or public administration finance architecture engineering or other related fields may be substituted for up to one year of the required experience on the basis of 30 credits equaling one year of experience. Graduation from an accredited law school may be substituted for one year of the required experience. However all candidates must have at least two years of experience as described above.

Additional Information :

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic including but not limited to an individuals sex race color ethnicity national origin age religion disability sexual orientation veteran status gender identity or pregnancy.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Fulltime