Policy Director
City of AtlantaPosting expires: 2/28/026
Salary commensurate experience
General Description and Classification Standards:
The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office seeks an experienced senior policy analyst and strategic leader with a background in strategic partnerships, strategic initiatives, medium- and large-scale project management, urban philanthropy, and social impact and innovation. The successful candidate will support the development, management, execution, and evaluation of the administration’s strategic partnerships strategy and ongoing partner management. The successful candidate will also design and operationalize outcome-driven frameworks, metrics and models of best practice to advance the Mayor’s highest priorities. Additionally, the successful candidate will implement mayoral strategic initiatives and projects on an ongoing basis. Housed within the Office of the Chief Policy Officer, this position reports directly to the Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives.
POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office seeks an experienced senior policy analyst and project manager with a background in strategic partnerships, strategic initiatives, medium- and large-scale project management, urban philanthropy, and social impact and innovation. The successful candidate will support the development, management, execution, and evaluation of the administration’s strategic partnerships strategy and ongoing partner management. The successful candidate will also design and operationalize outcome-driven frameworks, metrics and models of best practice to advance the Mayor’s highest priorities. Additionally, the position will coordinate relationships across philanthropic, nonprofit, corporate, faith-based, and other community-based partners, ensuring alignment between external partners, mayoral initiatives, and internal project teams. The successful candidate will implement mayoral strategic initiatives and projects on an ongoing basis. Housed within the Office of the Chief Policy Officer, this position reports directly to the Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives.
Housed within the Mayor’s Office and reporting to the City’s Chief Policy Officer, the Office of the Chief Policy Officer is charged with driving meaningful progress and tangible results on the Administration’s top priorities, in partnership with City departments and external partners. Mayor Andre Dickens announced the creation of a new team early in his first term to lead implementation of the Mayor’s policy agenda under the leadership of Senior Advisor to the Mayor and Chief Policy Officer, Courtney English. This team will utilize its unique position within City government to address Atlanta’s most pressing challenges swiftly, strategically, and proactively. The Office includes teams focused on affordable housing, youth development and education, neighborhood empowerment and place-based revitalization, and strategic partnerships and strategic initiatives.
As a Senior Policy Analyst within this Office’s Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives team, you will be working on both short- and long-term, high-impact projects, programs, and partnerships that address the Mayor’s highest priority initiatives. You will partner with staff from across the City of Atlanta as well as external stakeholders to identify and assess challenges and opportunities, design strategic partnership opportunities and implementation plans, and manage for results. Assignments typically will involve developing external partnerships and collective action opportunities, implementing best-in-class strategic partnerships in municipal systems, policy, and program development, and leading the implementation of mayoral strategic initiatives. You will also assist in developing frameworks and tools for strategic alignment, co-designing social innovation pilots, and defining models of success through evaluation plans and performance metrics. The successful candidate will be instrumental in ensuring strategic initiatives achieve scalable, replicable, and community-centered results. Examples of past ad hoc initiatives include revitalization of the urban core, Community Town Halls for 1,000+ participants, convenings for interfaith leaders, and peacebuilding campaigns (Peace Week ATL). Members of the Chief Policy Officer’s team often are called upon to work with colleagues to implement time-constrained, ad hoc strategic projects as well.
The successful candidate will have demonstrated, extensive experience in project management, partnerships management, strategic planning, and social innovation. They are team players willing to roll their sleeves up and dig in at a moment’s notice. The successful candidate will operate with excellence and swiftness in high-stakes, high-pressure environments.
Supervision Received:
General supervision
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
These are typical responsibilities for this position and should not be construed as exclusive or all inclusive.
Under the supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor for Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, the Senior Policy Analyst’s key responsibilities will include:
Strategic Partnerships Management: Develop, manage, implement, and evaluate strategic partnerships between the City of Atlanta and external partners from the nonprofit, philanthropic, and corporate sectors. Initial activities and assignments may include:
Identify and develop high-potential strategic partnerships.
Develop and implement additive cross-sector partnerships and relationships.
Create data-informed frameworks and measurable models of partnership impact.
Work with partners within assigned communities, sectors, or topics to design and implement program initiatives and special projects that build upon the Mayor’s priorities and address immediate community needs, including but not limited to trainings, joint communications, community engagement strategies, research projects, joint grant initiatives, etc.
Liaise with external and internal stakeholders as assigned, ensuring timely and effective communications and project development.
Develop and implement strategic tools for partners (e.g., partner dashboards, progress trackers, impact scorecards).
Monitor and prioritize incoming strategic partnership requests.
Research, recommend, and implement best-in-class policies, practices, and procedures for the effective management of strategic partnerships by cities.
Partner with and guide departments in assessing strategic partnership needs, identifying appropriate opportunities, and developing clear and appropriate implementation plans to deliver results on all initiatives in the priority areas.
Perform activities necessary to the effective management of grant opportunities, potentially including legislative processes, grant writing, grant monitoring, and grant evaluation.
Project Management: Effectively and efficiently manage a variety of strategic projects and initiatives. Critical responsibilities will include:
Utilize proven, effective, and efficient project management tools and strategies to build and execute multiple, simultaneous high-priority strategic projects. Projects may be long- or short-term and could focus on a variety of topics, including affordable housing, economic mobility, racial equity, place-based change, systems change, youth development and education, team development, operational excellence, and more.
In some instances, leador co-lead the project from project conception through delivery, actively managing large-scale projects, including leading project meetings, facilitating project team interaction, managing scope, managing deadlines, managing project budgets, and ensuring on-time delivery of solutions.
Serve as project manager or leader to existing project teams led by the Senior Policy Advisors by helping assess project needs, building timelines, work plans and models to define short and long-term outcomes through project delivery.
Plan, manage, and follow through to ensure the smooth flow of activities that deliver project results and anticipate obstacles or gaps that would impact project success.
Integrate equity, innovation, and resilience into all initiatives
Impact Evaluation and Operational Excellence: Support the team’s senior-level leadership in developing policies, practices, and procedures that ensure operational excellence and effective organizational management. Key activities could include:
Partnering with key internal stakeholders to ensure effective office business management procedures, supporting budget and fiscal management, supporting procurement processes, recommending operational procedures and practices for the developing office, and supporting operational management of the new team.
Developing tools, indicators and/or evaluation plans to assess initiative effectiveness and inform continuous improvement.
Document models of success to inform future programming and scale replicable solutions.
Strengthen internal capacity for strategic planning, performance management and learning.
May perform other duties as assigned.
The above statements reflect the general duties, responsibilities and competencies considered necessary to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job and should not be considered as a detailed description of all the work requirements of the position. COA may change the specific job duties with or without prior notice based on the needs of the organization.
Knowledge Skills and Abilities:
This is a partial listing of necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the job successfully, it is not an exhaustive list.
The ideal candidate is ready to work in a high-energy, openly collaborative, and team-oriented work environment. The successful candidate will have demonstrated, extensive experience in project management, partnerships development and management, strategic planning, and social innovation. You may be a good fit for this role if you fit some combination of the following characteristics.
You have shown that you can manage and deliver both medium and large-scale projects on time and within budget.
You have previous work experience in the successful management and implementation of major strategic projects, strategic partnerships across all sectors and a variety of types of organizations, philanthropic initiatives, and high-visibility political, government, public, or community events.
You are an adept project manager, able to motivate and hold accountable diverse, cross-functional teams.
You have strong grounding in outcome-based planning, collective impact models, or systems-change frameworks.
You have in-depth, preexisting knowledge of and relationships with major institutional and community stakeholders, both in Atlanta and on a national and international stage. (Successful candidates will be required to reside in Atlanta, but extended tenure in Atlanta is not required.)
You are a values-driven leader who shares our commitment to equity, resilience, and to serving the most vulnerable among us.
You know how to read and work with people, facilitating large, diverse groups to reach creative solutions that work for everyone.
You are extraordinarily organized and detail-oriented, with a proven track record of moving projects successfully from vision to fruition.
You enjoy building creative, engaging opportunities to communities and stakeholders to engage with leaders and with one another through world-class events, meetings, and workshops.
You are a dedicated, creative, detail-oriented, empathic, and adaptive leader accustomed to delivering big results on time, under budget, and with minimal conflict, often in high-pressure and resource-constrained environments.
Additionally, the ideal candidate brings experience and expertise in any combination of the following to the role:
Cross-sector strategic partnerships development, management, and evaluation
Cross-functional strategic initiatives development, management, and evaluation
Public-private partnerships
Relationships management
Urban philanthropy
Urban resilience
Social innovation and social impact, especially collective action frameworks
Medium- to large-scale project management
Events planning and production
Organizational development and operations
Issue-oriented, public, or political campaigns
Stakeholder or community engagement
Minimum Qualifications:
Undergraduate and/or master’s degree or equivalent experience in Public Administration, Public Policy, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Innovation or Impact, Business Management or another related field.
Approximately 5-8 years or more of strategic partnerships development and management, project management, nonprofit management, government management, or strategic planning and consulting experience in a fast-paced, demanding environment; experience in philanthropic or cross-sector partnerships is preferred.
Experience delivering medium- to large-scale projects or major events on time and within budget.
Exceptional problem-solving skills with an ability to anticipate challenges and develop solutions on deadline.
Strong attention to detail.
Ability to lead transformational initiatives that involve multiple stakeholders, constituencies, and/or agencies.
Enterprising, resourceful results-oriented approach to work.
Ability to prioritize among competing needs and opportunities and manage multiple projects or work streams at the same time.
Ability to thoughtfully communicate, both verbally and in writing, with and respectfully engage diverse stakeholders around a shared vision.
Work Environment:
In-office/Hybrid
Lifting Requirements:
Sedentary work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body.
It is the policy of the City of Atlanta (“COA”) that qualified individuals with disabilities are not discriminated against because of their disabilities regarding job application procedures, hiring, and other terms and conditions of employment. It is further the policy of the COA to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in all aspects of the employment process. The COA is prepared to modify or adjust the job application process or the job or work environment to make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of the applicant or employee to enable the applicant or employee to be considered for the position he or she desires, to perform the essential functions of the position in question, or to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment as are enjoyed by other similarly situated employees without disabilities, unless the accommodation will impose an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact the Human Resources Director for your department.
The City of Atlanta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, ender identity, marital status, veteran’s status or national origin, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. We value and encourage diversity in our workforce.