Director of Procurement for the Office of Neighborhood Strategies

About the role

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the city’s housing and diversity and strength in the city’s neighborhoods because every New Yorker deserves a safe, affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love. The Office of Neighborhood Strategies (ONS) collaborates with nonprofits, community stakeholders, and elected officials to empower tenants and homeowners and to plan for neighborhood change, including the redevelopment of public land for affordable housing. The Office of Neighborhood Strategies is composed of two divisions and a cross-divisional unit reporting to the Associate Commissioner:

• Division of Planning and Predevelopment (P&P): manages HPD’s predevelopment and land use pipeline on City-owned land, as well as the agency’s land use and resiliency policy.
• Division of Neighborhood Development and Stabilization (NDS): conducts community engagement and outreach through neighborhood plans, tenant and owner support programs, education programs, and partnerships with community-based organizations.
• Strategic Initiatives Unit (SIU): leads special planning and policy initiatives and provides essential technical, planning, and policy support to staff and the Associate Commissioner of Neighborhood Strategies.

Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the ONS Chief of Staff, the Director of Procurement will:

• Manage the full contract lifecycle for ONS programs and consultants, including developing budgets and scopes of work, conducting contract registration activities, and leading contract management and oversight.
• Serve as the primary liaison between ONS and HPD Budget, Fiscal, Procurement, and Contracting divisions.
• Manage and track ONS budget and procurement activities, including budget projections, expenditures, and beginning and end-of-year fiscal activities (encumbrances, de-encumbrances, accruals, budget modifications, etc.).
• Work with program teams to troubleshoot budget, procurement, and fiscal issues.
• Assist the Chief of Staff with budget- and fiscal-related activities and policies, such as new needs requests, preparations for budget negotiations, and budget hearings.
• As resources become available, hire, train, and manage an Operations Analyst, including assigning and managing workload, evaluating work, communicating priorities, and providing coaching.

Preferred Skills

• Subject-matter expertise: Knowledge of New York City government budget, procurement, and contract management (particularly for human services contracts) and administrative/operational functions. A minimum of six years of professional experience in a related field. Experience in housing programs a plus but not required.
• Technical expertise: Proficiency with FMS3, PASSPort, HHS Accelerator, Microsoft Office Suite. Demonstrated experience with reporting, tracking, and developing and maintaining operational procedures.
• Exceptional project management: Proven ability to manage complex projects or contracts with multiple internal and external stakeholders; to receive direction and anticipate next steps; to think through, communicate, document, organize, and execute on priorities. Ability to manage up, down, and across teams.
• Superior problem-solving capabilities: The ability to combine analytic abilities with empathy and persuasion to break complex challenges into manageable tasks, generate consensus on contentious issues, and influence subject-matter experts.
• Effective people management: Experience managing teams or cross-team initiatives and an interest in building staff development and coaching skills.
• Outstanding communication skills: Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills. Proven ability to produce high-quality materials in a variety of formats.
• Strong analytical skills: Ability to work with, understand, analyze, and communicate qualitative and quantitative information in a variety of formats.
• Good judgment: Ability to analyze a situation, understand what is needed and when additional input is needed, flag or resolve issues as necessary, and escalate when appropriate.
• Collaborative and creative spirit: Excited to be part of a team, to work with others to solve problems creatively, and get quality work done. Ability to hear, take, and give feedback effectively and productively and to motivate peers to get the job done.

Minimum Qualifications

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and six months of satisfactory full-time professional experience in procurement of goods, services, construction or construction-related services, or professional, technical or administrative experience in contract negotiation/management; or
• An associate degree or completion of 60 semester credits from an accredited college, and 18 months of satisfactory, full-time professional experience as described above; or
• A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and two and one-half years of satisfactory full-time professional experience as described above; or
• A combination of education and/or experience equivalent to the above. College education may be substituted for professional experience at the rate of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for 6 months of experience. However, all candidates must have at least a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and 6 months of the experience described above.

Special Notes: To be eligible for placement in Assignment Level II, individuals must have, after meeting the minimum requirements, either one year served at Assignment Level I or one additional year of the experience described above. To be eligible for placement in Assignment Level III, individuals must have, after meeting the minimum requirements, either one year served at Assignment Level II or two additional years of the experience described above, at least one year of which must have been supervisory, or spent performing professional procurement duties equivalent to those performed at Assignment Level III.

This position is also open to qualified persons with a disability who are eligible for the 55-a Program. Please indicate at the top of your resume and cover letter that you would like to be considered for the position through the 55-a Program.