Position Overview:
Community Solutions’ Built for Zero (BfZ) team works with over 100 communities across the US and around the world to build a movement to end homelessness. We seek an experienced, self-motivated project manager to join Built for Zero’s Team Excellence, a team dedicated to providing robust project management support to all portfolios within Built for Zero. Specifically, the Project Manager will provide our Data and Learning System/Evaluation portfolios with effective project management, content coordination, and process improvement for our internal data collection efforts, as well as very basic logistics support.
The candidate of our dreams is organized, but not rigid— a “get sh#& done” kind of person who can work out a plan of action quickly in the face of ambiguity and changing information (this environment offers a lot of both). We’re looking for the sort of person who finds problem solving and complex implementation fun and who prides themselves on seeing multiple paths to the same outcome. You should come to work everyday with a desire to serve and assist your teammates as they serve local change agents in communities around the world. You should also see your job as enabling results, not just hitting deadlines or budgetary targets. We have clear strategic plan aims, and project completion does not necessarily equal success if a project does not advance these aims.
Finally, you should be dedicated and clear-eyed about what it takes to make a difference for some of the most vulnerable people in our societies. This work is hard, and our team is relentlessly committed to rigor, measurement and provable impact. You’ll work long and hard like the rest of us, and every day, you’ll have the satisfaction of contributing to a meaningful outcome that is owned by our whole team.
About Community Solutions:
Community Solutions is a hardworking team of social problem solvers working to end homelessness and the conditions that create it. We see these challenges as systems design problems, not just resource issues. Our team helps communities use modern problem solving tools, like design thinking and quality improvement, to improve the design, coordination and delivery of lasting, root cause solutions.
Since 2011, we’ve helped US communities find homes for more than 175,000 homeless Americans at a taxpayer savings of more than $1.4 billion. Thirteen of those communities have ended either chronic or veteran homelessness outright. We are led by Macarthur Fellow and internationally recognized innovator, Rosanne Haggerty. Our work has been featured on 60 Minutes and recognized by the White House, the United Nations and the Smithsonian.
Community Solutions seeks leaders at every level: extraordinary, mission oriented people not satisfied with the status quo. We are a team of values driven problem solvers motivated by results. We eagerly seek and support diverse applicants. We provide generous benefits and opportunities for inspiring and transformational professional growth. We pride ourselves in developing an inclusive workplace culture that encourages staff to bring their whole selves to work every day.
Defining Success for this Position:
A successful Project Manager will:
Support the Data Solutions and Learning System/Evaluation portfolios in service of Team Excellence objectives, in order to:
- Ensure shared and up-to-date understanding of aims, projects, work plans, timelines + individual roles at all times (this position grows from the fact that these pieces change and move quickly as we learn. Ensuring clarity across the team at all times takes considerable skill and attention to project management.)
- Enable the clearest possible internal communication and flow of information within and across portfolios
- Ensure the skills staff need to succeed are properly identified in near time and that key training opportunities are properly scoped, budgeted, identified and executed
- Ensure key portfolio processes are co-designed, documented, and improved across the team, as the need arises
- See to proper tracking of staff capacity in near-time to ensure job sustainability, enable the most disciplined and cost-effective hiring decisions, and avoid staff burnout
- Ensure that internal data in Salesforce is up to date and that reporting and data collection processes are optimized for ease of staff use
A successful Project Manager will do this by:
- Ensuring that at all times, each project within the Data and Learning System/Evaluation portfolios has an actionable, accountable, achievable and up-to-date work plan that project teams can drive forward.
- Assuring project management infrastructure and information architecture, including Asana and supporting project documents, are well structured and designed for user success.
- Assuring project management infrastructure, including Asana and supporting project documents, is updated regularly so that all team members can see the status of each project and how all projects fit together against our strategic aims, and that Portfolio Team members can identify and avoid impending crises/train crashes related to timing, team resources, and/or staff capacity
- Assuring internal portfolio communications are clear, timely and streamlined and effective in keeping all team members on the same page and rowing in the same direction.
- Assuring external communications to communities and clients are clear, timely and streamlined and keep us on track against our commitments
- Ensuring that concierge-style access to BfZ team members, often sold to partners and clients in blocks of hours, is coordinated seamlessly and efficiently, and includes up to date content and learning.
Core Responsibilities:
Project Management (40%)
Responsible for implementing a project management process that spans from inception to completion, in support of Project Leads in the Data Team and Learning System/Evaluation portfolios:
- Supporting Project Teams by:
- Advising on the development of clear, actionable project timelines and project scopes at the beginning of each new portfolio project
- Estimating staff time and responsibilities and mapping task dependencies
- Assisting Project Leads in identifying required resources for each project
- Capturing project management decisions and building corresponding work plans in Asana
- Leading and documenting after-action reviews (post-project analysis) on all projects to evaluate project management practices and assumptions and improve team understanding of timing, staff capacity and resource needs for future projects
Team Excellence (Internal Project Management) Overarching Strategy (30%)
- Work alongside the Team Excellence leader to
- refine team-wide project management infrastructure and protocol over time
- collect qualitative and quantitative data on staff experience with tools and processes to inform internal product and solutions design
- develop infrastructure for tracking and analyzing project management analytics to improve project management policies and strategies over time
- define and iterate internal processes to improve user experience
- Jump in to help with additional tasks whenever all hands are needed on deck, especially around event support and logistics
- Assist in content development for various Team Excellence presentations.
- Other projects as needed.
Data and Learning System/Evaluation Coordination (30%)
- Supporting our Partnerships by:
- Providing real-time technical support on large partner convenings
- Managing external requests for info about Data and Learning System/EvaluationPortfolios
- Driving follow-up tasks from partnership calls
- Internal Team Coordination and Feedback Loops:
- Assist with scheduling of complex of internal and external calls only, such as cross-portfolio working group calls; large virtual convenings; calls with multiple partners
- Project manage improvement work around the execution of portfolio engagements (capture lessons learned, document and track improvement efforts through after action reviews)
- Manage logistics for internal evaluations, which may include creating links, sending emails, inserting links into docs, sharing results
- Manage user-facing (community) evaluations, which may include creating links, sending emails, inserting links into docs, sharing results
- Manage tracking of complex onsite travel logistics (not scheduling or booking)
- Managing project communications across portfolios
- Managing Partner and Community Relationships and Logistics
- Project manage basic logistics related to on-site community and partner meetings
- Field community requests, as needed
- Staffing and Hiring
- Project manage the hiring process for any new staff that may be hired as part of the Data Team or Learning System/Evaluation portfolios
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- High tolerance for ambiguity and moving projects forward in a shifting, often uncertain environment
- Able to see, and pivot between, multiple paths to the same goal
- Experience using Salesforce (developer knowledge is wholly unnecessary)
- Comfortable managing individuals without supervisory authority
- Skillful and respectful conflict resolution
- Works well under pressure and with tight deadlines
- Strong problem solving and project management skills
- Experience with Asana or other open-source project management platform
- Experience working with sets of data, drawing conclusions based on analysis, and creating basic visualizations
- Experience with complex project management in an environment in which you lacked specific content/subject matter expertise
- File and asset management
- Strong, organized multitasker
- Comfort giving and receiving in-the-moment, direct feedback — to/from peers and supervisors
- Zeal for continuous learning and improvement
Professional Experience and Qualifications:
- At least 3 years project management experience
- Strong critical thinking and the ability to work through complex challenges with lots of stakeholders
- Experience managing customer relationships
- Demonstrated understanding of structural racism and strategies for advancing equity and supporting people of color in the workplace
- Relevant work experience is required to apply for this role. A college degree may be helpful, but it is not required. If you think you have the right experience, but you’re worried we might not ‘get it,’ you could be right! Please use your resume and cover letter to make sure we understand your experience and why you’re qualified for this role.
- Non-traditional candidates are welcome. Community Solutions strives for representation and authentic inclusion of applicants and employees who have direct, first-hand experience with poverty, homelessness, and their root causes (including marginalization, discrimination, and inequity).
Software/Apps Used:
- Google Drive and business applications
- Salesforce
- Microsoft Office, in particular Microsoft Excel
- Asana
- Zoom Video Conferencing
- Slack
Salary Range:
The salary range for this position is $58,500 to $73,200, depending on experience, proficiency and qualifications. It is extremely rare and should not be expected that any applicant’s starting salary at Community Solutions would fall above the midpoint of the salary range for their position, barring exceptional experience and pre-qualifications.
To support pay equity, our compensation structure is fully transparent, rooted in clear scoring, and not subject to negotiation. All salary offers include a fully transparent explanation of how the applicant in question is scored against posted hiring criteria and how a final salary offer is calculated.
Annual recalculation ensures that salary advancement is attainable with increased tenure, improved performance, expanded independence and responsibility, and deepened embodiment of our organizational values over time.
Travel
This position requires about 2 to 5 days of travel every 3 months to attend semi-annual team retreats and other on-site trainings or convenings. Most travel is to major cities around the US, including current Built for Zero communities.
Work Environment:
The position may work remotely from anywhere in the US, but would ideally be based in a city in which our team has an office, which includes Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York.
Diversity and Inclusion:
We strive for inclusivity and diversity by attracting extraordinary people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. We seek to employ an all-star team of people who vary by their race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, age, culture, religion, veteran status, physical and mental abilities. We promote equal opportunity in the recruitment, selection, training, compensation, promotion, and benefits of all employees.
