[Hiring] Director of Community Partnerships and Talent @Lead For America

Role Description

The Director serves as the organization's strategic leader for community partnership growth and talent activation, ensuring Lead For America develops the relationships, systems, and talent pipelines necessary to expand its impact in communities nationwide.

This role reframes traditional recruitment into a two-sided, mission-driven system:

• Community partners (host sites) who define needs and co-invest in solutions
• Local talent (members) who bring lived experience and leadership

The Director is responsible for:

• Building and scaling a national portfolio of community-based host site partnerships
• Developing and implementing a place-based partnership strategy by analyzing current and recent cohorts to identify priority regions, technical sectors, and other considerations, enabling more focused and strategic recruitment and partnership efforts
• Designing place-based talent pipelines aligned with those partnerships for meaningful immediate-term, medium-term, and long-term outcomes
• Ensuring strong alignment between community-defined needs and talent placement
• Leading a team of Managers that deliver on both impact and sustainability goals
• Reporting to the COO, this role serves as a key strategic partner to senior leadership, funders, and cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible leadership experience in nonprofit, workforce development, higher education, economic development, public sector, community engagement, business development, talent acquisition, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success developing and managing strategic partnerships with nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, employers, philanthropic organizations, or other mission-aligned stakeholders.
• Experience designing and implementing outreach, partnership development, or talent acquisition strategies that achieve measurable growth and impact.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams, including coaching managers and fostering a collaborative, mission-driven culture.
• Strong strategic planning and project management skills with the ability to translate organizational priorities into actionable plans and measurable outcomes.
• Experience using CRM and project management systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Workable, Asana, Airtable, or similar) to manage pipelines, relationships, forecasting, and reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data, identify trends, and use insights to inform strategy, improve performance, and communicate results.
• Exceptional relationship-building, facilitation, presentation, and communication skills with the ability to engage audiences ranging from community organizations to executive leadership and funders.
• Experience working across multiple departments and balancing competing priorities in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Commitment to Lead For America's mission and a passion for strengthening communities through place-based leadership and locally rooted talent.

Requirements

• Lead a mission-aligned approach to identifying, engaging, and securing host site partnerships.
• Develop and implement a national partnership strategy aligned with programmatic, geographic, and funding priorities.
• Build and manage a robust pipeline of host site partners across nonprofits, government, and local institutions.
• Lead a consultative, relationship-centered approach to partnership development (not transactional sales).
• Identify priority regions and sectors in collaboration with Programs, Development, and Government Relations teams.
• Represent LFA at conferences, convenings, and community events to expand partnerships.
• Design and refine outreach strategies (campaigns, webinars, referrals, ecosystem partnerships).
• Ensure partnership models support both community impact and financial sustainability.

Benefits

• Starting salary is dependent on role and experience level.
• Salaries are expected to rise over time with increased experience, inflation, and the growth of the organization.
• For most roles, there is ample opportunity for promotion.