Construction Liaison & Design Manager

City of Somerville; Somerville (MA); On-site; USD 75,000 - 78,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance through GIC

Vacation: 4 weeks

Dental coverage

Vision care

Life insurance

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Free Blue Bikes membership

Job summary

City of Somerville is seeking a Construction Liaison and Design Manager to coordinate design coordination, community engagement, and impact mitigation for public infrastructure projects in Somerville. The role supports inclusive public participation and engages diverse stakeholders throughout the planning and building process.

Responsibilities include leading meetings, communicating technical information accessibly, and maintaining records while supporting project managers on contracted work and

Qualifications

• Strong interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience with database administration or data management is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Create and implement inclusive community engagement strategies for infrastructure projects.
• Coordinate and facilitate meetings (virtual, hybrid and in-person) with diverse communities and stakeholders.
• Communicate complex technical information to broad audiences.
• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders and partners.
• Identify and adopt new outreach practices.
• Maintain organized records including meeting notes and contacts.
• Coordinate interpretation/translation services for public meetings.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Written communication

Oral communication

Database administration

Job description

Statement of Duties:

The employee is responsible for providing design coordination, community engagement and impact mitigation services for public infrastructure improvement projects in the public right of way and in City buildings. The Construction Liaison and Design Manager supports the Infrastructure Department’s community engagement planning to ensure broad, diverse, and timely stakeholder engagement in Somerville’s efforts to rebuild its aging utility, street and building infrastructure. The position will create and enhance opportunities for participatory, collaborative, and meaningful community engagement.

Essential Functions:

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

• Create and implement comprehensive and inclusive community engagement strategies to expand public participation in the planning and design of infrastructure improvement projects including streetscape, water, sewer, stormwater, municipal building and school building improvements.
• Coordinate and facilitate virtual, hybrid and in-person community meetings with residential communities, abutting businesses, and other special interest citizen groups. Meetings are intended to inform constituents, obtain design input, and develop construction impact mitigation strategies. Such meetings may include planning, design, preconstruction, neighborhood, tree management, school educational visits, and others.
• Communicate complex technical information in a variety of mediums inclusively to a broad audience.
• Support developing robust relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and maintaining a network of new and existing allies and community partners for specific planning and design projects.
• Identify and implement new and emerging practices in outreach.
• Maintain organized and accurate records, including contact information and meeting notes for community engagement activities and events.
• Coordinate interpretation and translation services for public meetings
• Work to ensure that engagement opportunities are socially just and accessible, and help constituents and stakeholders feel they have a voice in their community’s future.
• Support Project Managers with additional oversight over contracted work while being part of the planning and execution of Infrastructure Department projects.
• Prepare planning and design project status updates for internal distribution and assist other city departments in correctly routing constituent calls and emails.
• Provide project information to the Communications and Community Engagement Department and collaborate/assist as needed in the development and distribution of information and updates to the community.
• Engage constituents to identify and prioritize issues, and coordinate with the Engineering, Capital Projects, and Communications Departments on the development of strategies for direct and/or on-site communications with residents and businesses as necessary throughout project schedule.
• Prepare technical responses to citizen requests, comments and concerns submitted via 311 Q-Alert system in coordination with Engineering, Capital Projects, and Communications staff.

Recommended Minimum Qualifications:

Education & Experience: Two to five (2-5) years of experience in infrastructure improvement administration support and/or community engagement. A background in urban planning, community organizing, customer service communications, or marketing is preferred. Applications demonstrating lived experience with proper knowledge of community engagement instead of education are strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Abilities, and Skills:
Knowledge: A working knowledge of infrastructure design and construction management.

Ability: Ability to handle problems and emergencies effectively; ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing; ability to operate a personal computer; ability to maintain confidential information; ability to maintain, manage, and organize records; ability to deal appropriately with City employees, City officials, and members of the general public.

Skill: Strong interpersonal skills; excellent communication skills both oral and written; database administration skills.

Work Environment

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements. Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant. Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical and Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills
Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing. May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30lbs.). Site visits to properties in construction anticipated.

Motor Skills
Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing, and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills
Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Hours:Full-Time
Salary:$75,000-$78,000 annualized, plus benefits.
Union:Non-Union
FLSA:Exempt
Date Posted:October 14th, 2026

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The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request. Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact the ADA Coordinator at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or [e-mail].

Pre-Employment Requirements for All Employees:

• MA Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) clearance
• Completion of Conflict-of-Interest Law Education training for municipal employees

Overview of Total Rewards:

• 4 weeks annual vacation for non-union positions. Union positions vary by contract. Please note, police officers are members of the SPEA union. Public Health Nurses are part of Union A (SMEA).
• Medical insurance through the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) - 80% of premium costs paid by City
• Dental coverage low and high plans through Delta Dental
• Vision care through Vision Service Plan (VSP)
• Long term disability through Sun Life
• Group and voluntary life insurance through Boston Mutual
• Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending through Benefit Strategies
• Deferred compensation plans through a choice of three vendors
• Free, confidential services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provided by E4Health
• Annual cancer screening & wellness release
• Somerville Retirement Pension System
• Tuition reimbursement
• MBTA pass program
• FREE Blue Bikes membership
• Eligible employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)

Benefits listed are for benefits-eligible positions and the above information is meant to be a general overview of the benefit programs offered by the City of Somerville and not a binding contract.