About the Position

The Community Infrastructure Center (CIC), an initiative of the Milken Institute, is a platform designed to scale up equitable capital deployment and accelerate infrastructure projects in historically undercapitalized and underserved communities.

The CIC offers free connections to technical assistance for community-based project sponsors, project advancement tools, and links to a wide range of sources, including impact and institutional investors, federal and state grants, philanthropy, and project development expertise.

CIC is working toward three goals:

1. Help catalyze $3.5 billion in community infrastructure deals, through both direct transactions and secondary market transactions.
2. Leverage technology to support 10,000 communities across the United States that are advancing projects in energy, housing preservation and new construction, water, resilience, community development, commercial corridor development, and other asset classes.
3. Use research and convenings to support infrastructure market development at a regional and national level.

Since its launch, the CIC has grown into a national community of practice. The platform today supports more than 800 community infrastructure projects across 62 states, territories, and tribal nations, with over 3,000 members representing nearly 1,000 unique communities. The CIC convenes four standing forums, including the Community of Practice, the Community Power Forum, the Community Corridor Forum, and the Community Resilience Forum, alongside cross-forum working groups on predevelopment triage, capitalization, secondary markets and recapitalization, and data and AI.

The Director will lead community-building and the cultivation of projects seeking support on CIC and with its trusted partners. The successful candidate thrives in rooms with people (planners, city staff, community leaders, and funders) and builds relationships both digitally and in person. The Director is accountable for supporting communities and projects, and for ensuring that CIC's forums and convenings produce not only discussion but also project pipeline, productive partnerships, and progress on research that helps the field move forward.

The Director will be passionate about helping fill America's infrastructure gap and knowledgeable about a variety of assets and activities, such as renewable energy, battery storage, building decarbonization, broadband, commercial corridors, and water, with an interest in learning the ins and outs of delivering community-scale infrastructure projects and building the capital stacks that get them paid for.

Responsibilities

The Director will be responsible for the following activities:

Drive Deal Pipeline

• Cultivating and coordinating assistance to a pipeline of projects from predevelopment through construction. Building relationships across markets to identify and triage potential projects; using the platform of the CIC and, in collaboration with technical assistance partners, guiding project triage and coordinating handoffs to move projects through pre-development stages toward construction-readiness and financing; and identifying opportunities for warm handoffs and connections between communities, funders, and partner organizations
• Building and managing case management tracking systems at CIC. Working in collaboration with the existing tech team to refine and build out existing technology and AI tools to efficiently track projects in the pipeline; tracking pipeline progress against CIC's targets and flagging where projects are stalling, so the team can intervene and provide assistance

Extend CIC's Reach Toward 10,000 Communities

• Managing CIC's collaborative forums. Owning and growing the working groups and forums that CIC has cultivated, including place-based regional efforts as well as thematic efforts (e.g., "community solar and storage" and "commercial corridors"); keeping forums active and productive by preparing materials for periodic meetings, hosting and facilitating biweekly and monthly calls, and sharing and posting relevant information, tools, and updates for forums that have an online web channel component; and actively growing forum membership by sharing opportunities to join with project owners in the pipeline and other stakeholders in the markets CIC touches
• Supporting place-based engagements. Serving as CIC's on-the-ground presence at events in priority markets and representing the organization in local and regional conversations, spending significant time in the field building and sustaining relationships in the communities CIC serves
• Informing tool development and community-informed tech innovation. Helping translate what is learned in the field into inputs for the technology and tools the team is building, so those tools actually reflect what communities need

Support Market Development Through Research and Convening

• Representing CIC at national convenings, positioning the organization as a collaborative partner and connector rather than a competitor to existing players
• Contributing to research. Contributing to research and publications that support market development, drive innovation in predevelopment and construction assistance and finance, and cement CIC as a "big tent" network that connects disparate actors to advance community projects
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Experience as a former or current "planner" with a generalist's knowledge of infrastructure, including energy, housing, broadband, water, and related asset classes. Deep expertise in every single type of project is not required, but the successful candidate will be comfortable navigating community development, planning, or place-based real estate development in urban, suburban, and rural communities
• Organized and process-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple relationships and pipeline stages at once and familiarity with using
• Personable and relationship-driven, with boots-on-the-ground experience working in communities that require technical assistance to deliver complex infrastructure projects
• Analytical, creative, and rigorous thinkers: We are seeking a detail-oriented and flexible problem solver who can synthesize diverse streams of information and switch comfortably between academic and real-world thinking
• Roll-up-your-sleeves executers and adaptive thinkers: MI leaders are comfortable engaging in ambitious projects and with refinement and adaptation along the way to reach key metrics
• Team players: MI leaders collaborate well with multidisciplinary teams across the Institute, comfortably taking leadership when necessary as well as following directions
• Bachelor's degree required, Minimum 8 years experience in a relevant field.

Working Conditions & Travel Requirements

This position will work in a professional office environment on a hybrid schedule consisting of three (3) days per week reporting in-person to your respective office location (Tuesday - Thursday), with the remaining two (2) days working remotely. Please understand, this schedule is subject to change at the Institute's sole discretion.

This person will also be required to travel occasionally to other offices and/or venues to assist with events as needed, requiring occasional work outside of traditional hours. Domestic travel is possible. Additionally, this position requires interacting virtually on a regular basis with Milken Institute staff based in other locations in the United States and around the world.

Note

The statements herein are intended to describe the overall nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.

We are interested in qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States. Please note, we are not sponsoring visas at this time, being authorized to work in the U.S. is a precondition of employment.

Please submit resume and cover letter illustrating how your experience and skills will contribute to the department and any unique qualities you bring to the position. If applying via Indeed, please upload your resume and any supporting documentation as one attachment. Any application that does not include both a resume and cover letter will be rejected. If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact our Human Resources department to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.

Benefits

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan - 403b (5% match)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Paid Time Off (Personal, Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Family Leave (Maternity & Paternity)
• Fertility Support
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Flexible Spending Account (FSAs)
• Pet Insurance Discount
• Training & Development:
• LinkedIn Learning - over 15,000 self-guided classes offered
• Annual Mentor Program
• Wellness Resources:
• Employee Assistance Program
• CALM app membership