Senior Manager of Community Development

Senior Manager of Community Development

 

Position Summary

The Senior Manager of Community Development is responsible for leading strategic initiatives that expand Omni Fiber's residential footprint, strengthen community partnerships, and support sustainable customer and revenue growth. This position identifies, develops, negotiates, and manages relationships with multi-dwelling unit owners, residential developers, builders, homeowners' associations, municipal stakeholders, permitting authorities, and other community partners.

The Senior Manager provides leadership and strategic direction for community development activities across assigned markets. This role works closely with Construction, Engineering, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and other internal stakeholders to evaluate opportunities, establish market priorities, coordinate deployment schedules, remove barriers to expansion, and support the timely delivery of broadband services.

The successful candidate will combine strong business development capabilities with telecommunications knowledge, financial acumen, relationship-management expertise, and the ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Market Development

• Develop and execute a comprehensive community development strategy aligned with the Company's growth, revenue, and market-expansion objectives.
• Identify and prioritize residential growth opportunities within existing and prospective markets.
• Establish goals, performance expectations, and operating priorities for community development activities.
• Evaluate prospective partnerships based on strategic value, financial viability, construction feasibility, customer opportunity, and long-term growth potential.
• Monitor housing development, municipal activity, competitive expansion, demographic changes, and other market conditions that may affect the Company's growth strategy.
• Provide recommendations to senior leadership regarding market opportunities, partnership strategies, resource needs, and potential business risks.
• Represent community development interests in market-planning and expansion discussions.

Business Development and Partnership Management

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with multi-dwelling unit owners, property management companies, residential developers, builders, homeowners' associations, municipalities, zoning boards, permitting authorities, and other community stakeholders.
• Identify and secure new residential service opportunities through strategic partnerships and community relationships.
• Lead the negotiation of utility access agreements, service provider partnership agreements, rights-of-entry arrangements, and other business agreements within the scope of assigned authority.
• Coordinate with Legal and other applicable stakeholders to ensure agreements are properly reviewed, approved, documented, and executed.
• Serve as a senior point of contact for key community partners and support the resolution of escalated relationship or implementation concerns.
• Develop long-term engagement strategies that strengthen the Company's presence and reputation within the communities it serves.
• Participate in community meetings, association meetings, municipal discussions, industry events, and other external engagements as needed.

The original manager-level description specifically assigned responsibility for residential sales opportunities, MDU and homeowners' association relationships, utility access and service-provider agreements, zoning and permitting relationships, community events, and homes-passed growth.

Cross-Functional Planning and Execution

• Partner with Construction, Engineering, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and other departments to coordinate community development initiatives.
• Facilitate the transition of approved opportunities from business development through planning, construction, service activation, marketing, and sales execution.
• Establish clear ownership, timelines, milestones, and communication protocols for strategic partnerships and development projects.
• Work with operational teams to develop realistic schedules that support the efficient delivery of services to customers and community partners.
• Identify project dependencies, implementation barriers, and emerging risks, and escalate matters requiring additional resources or leadership intervention.
• Promote consistent communication and coordination across departments to support successful project completion.
• Ensure commitments made to external partners are documented, communicated internally, and appropriately tracked.

The existing role description emphasizes coordination with Operations to maintain delivery timelines and collaboration with Finance and Marketing on financial evaluations. It also identifies cross-functional work with Construction, Sales, Engineering, and Operations as a minimum qualification.

Financial Analysis and Performance Management

• Partner with Finance, Marketing, Sales, and Operations to evaluate the financial and operational feasibility of new opportunities.
• Support the development and review of business cases, breakeven analyses, customer-acquisition cost models, payback analyses, and other financial evaluations.
• Maintain an accurate pipeline of active prospects, negotiations, agreements, implementation activities, projected serviceable locations, and anticipated business outcomes.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators for community development initiatives.
• Analyze pipeline health, conversion activity, project status, potential risks, and results against established goals.
• Prepare regular forecasts, performance reports, business reviews, and executive-level updates.
• Use available data to recommend changes to market priorities, partnership strategies, or internal processes.
• Promote consistent use of the Company's customer relationship management and reporting systems.

The source position required a weekly sales pipeline and financial modeling involving breakeven analysis, cost per acquisition, and payback analysis. [Omni Fiber...r Mar 2023 | Word]

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach, and develop assigned community development employees, as applicable.
• Establish clear expectations, priorities, performance measures, and accountability standards.
• Provide ongoing coaching, feedback, training, and professional-development support.
• Promote consistent practices for opportunity qualification, pipeline management, negotiation, agreement tracking, partner communication, and internal handoffs.
• Assist with workforce planning, recruiting, onboarding, and succession planning for the community development function.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, ethical, and results-oriented work environment.
• Ensure team members represent the Company professionally and consistently in all community and business interactions.

Competitive and Community Intelligence

• Monitor competitor activity, pricing strategies, service offerings, construction activity, partnership arrangements, and other developments that may affect assigned markets.
• Communicate material competitive threats, market changes, and community concerns to appropriate Company leadership.
• Gather and share feedback from municipalities, developers, property owners, associations, and residents.
• Recommend strategies to improve the Company's market position, community engagement, and partnership effectiveness.
• Maintain awareness of local requirements, development activity, permitting considerations, and community-specific conditions that may affect broadband deployment.

Competitive threat identification and reporting to Sales and Marketing leadership were included in the original manager-level responsibilities. [Omni Fiber...r Mar 2023 | Word]

Compliance and Professional Standards

• Conduct business in accordance with Company policies, approval requirements, ethical standards, and applicable laws and regulations.
• Protect confidential, proprietary, employee, customer, and partner information.
• Ensure business commitments and agreements are not finalized outside established authorization levels.
• Maintain accurate, complete, and timely records of negotiations, approvals, agreements, partner communications, and project status.
• Exercise sound judgment when representing the Company before external organizations and public entities.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Public Administration, Real Estate, Telecommunications, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience in business development, community development, strategic partnerships, telecommunications, sales, account management, real estate development, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex business-development opportunities, strategic partnerships, or market-expansion initiatives.
• Prior leadership, supervisory, project-leadership, or cross-functional team leadership experience.
• Strong understanding of the telecommunications, broadband, cable, internet service provider, or direct-to-consumer service environment.
• Experience negotiating business agreements with property owners, developers, associations, municipalities, or similar external stakeholders.
• Ability to communicate clearly and professionally with senior executives, business partners, public officials, community representatives, and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated financial and analytical skills, including experience evaluating business opportunities and reviewing financial models.
• Strong project-management, organizational, prioritization, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple complex initiatives while maintaining accuracy, appropriate documentation, and confidentiality.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Proficiency with Salesforce or another customer relationship management or pipeline-management platform.
• Valid driver's license and driving record that meets Company requirements.
• Ability to travel within assigned markets and work outside normal business hours when community meetings, project requirements, or business needs require it.

The prior description called for at least five years of related experience, broadband-industry knowledge, executive-level communication skills, cross-functional experience, confidentiality, relationship-building ability, Microsoft Office proficiency, schedule flexibility, and a valid driver's license. The seven-year expectation and leadership requirements above are recommended enhancements for the senior-level position. [Omni Fiber...r Mar 2023 | Word]

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working for an internet service provider, fiber broadband company, telecommunications provider, cable operator, utility, residential developer, or related organization.
• Experience with multi-dwelling units, homeowners' associations, residential construction, municipal partnerships, permitting authorities, zoning boards, or right-of-entry and access agreements.
• Experience leading employees across multiple markets or geographic territories.
• Experience preparing and presenting strategic recommendations and business-performance information to executive leadership.
• Advanced experience using Salesforce, reporting tools, mapping platforms, or business-intelligence systems.
• Knowledge of broadband construction, network expansion, service activation, customer acquisition, and market-launch processes.

Core Competencies

• Strategic thinking and business judgment
• Leadership and employee development
• Business development and negotiation
• Community and stakeholder engagement
• Executive communication and presentation
• Financial and commercial acumen
• Cross-functional leadership
• Project and pipeline management
• Problem-solving and decision-making
• Accountability and results orientation
• Confidentiality and professional judgment
• Adaptability in a fast-paced environment

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements

• This position requires frequent travel throughout assigned markets.
• Work may be performed in an office, remote-work setting, community venue, construction-related environment, partner location, or other business setting.
• Evening, weekend, and occasional holiday availability may be required based on community meetings, events, travel, or business needs.
• The employee must be able to operate standard office equipment and communicate effectively in person, by telephone, through virtual platforms, and in writing.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Omni Fiber is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to qualified applicants and employees. Employment decisions are made without unlawful discrimination and in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.