Managing Director

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces; San Leandro (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) seeks a Managing Director to lead our real‑estate and architecture verticals, reporting to the Executive Director. This cross‑sectional role requires a strategic, relational leader with deep expertise in architecture and community development, ready to build sustainable growth with mission alignment.

You will guide a multidisciplinary team, partner on fundraising, and steward strategy, culture, and operational excellence across coasts while remaining

Qualifications

• 15+ years across architecture and real‑estate development with community management.
• 10+ years in organizational leadership with cross‑disciplinary team growth.
• Ability to lead across disciplines and connect dots between fields.
• Experience in hybrid nonprofit/fee‑for‑service models.

Responsibilities

• Own day‑to‑day leadership of real‑estate and architecture verticals; ensure resources and KPIs are aligned.
• Direct Studio Director, Director of Real Estate Development (West & East Coast), and Director of Business Development, with growth expectations.
• Lead project selection and drive opportunities while maintaining governance and alignment with mission.
• Contribute to proposals, pitches, and client relationships with the Executive Director and sector leads.
• Ensure the way we work reflects community, care, and rigor.

Skills

Leadership across architecture & real‑

Architecture & real‑estate development

Community management

Owner‑side project leadership

Organizational leadership

People management

Cross‑disciplinary collaboration

Nonprofit / fee‑for‑service model

Relational leadership

Complex problem solving

Bay Area relocation willingness

Education

MBA or equivalent graduate training

Licensed architect

Job description

Our Work

We are an architecture and real estate development social enterprise creating spaces that embody justice, healing, and self-determination. By designing with communities most impacted by incarceration and disinvestment, we build infrastructure that supports community ownership, redistributes power, and lays the foundation for a world rooted in care, not punishment.

To achieve this mission our team is composed of architects, designers, real estate developers and community members working together to create solutionary spaces and places that bring dignity, well-being and care to the communities we serve.

The Role

• Oakland, CA
• Hybrid: 3 days in office
• $200,000 – $225,000
• Reports to Executive Director

The Managing Director is a pivotal executive leadership role at DJDS — a steady, strategic presence who holds the interior so the Executive Director can focus externally. This is a cross‑sectional role for someone who can lead a multidisciplinary team with both rigor and heart, and who understands that building a sustainable, mission‑driven organization is itself an act of transformation.

We're looking for someone whose career began in architecture or real estate development and grew beyond it — into community development, into the relationship‑rich, trust‑dependent work of designing and building with communities, and into the adaptive, solutionary leadership it takes to guide a complex organization through a rapidly changing world. The path could have started anywhere on that spectrum — what matters is the curiosity and conviction that shaped the journey.

This is not a role for someone drawn to the traditional practice model. It's a role for someone whose technical foundation gave them a language for the built environment, and whose career since has been driven by a deeper question: what can that environment do for communities who have long been the architects of their own resilience — and deserve infrastructure that reflects it.

You will own the day‑to‑day leadership of our real‑estate and architecture verticals — work that is deeply intersecting with fundraising and day‑to‑day operations. You will be second to the Executive Director, partnering closely with her to steward strategy, culture, and growth.

What You’ll Lead

Operations & Team Leadership

• Serve as the internal anchor for the organization’s professional services work — keeping teams resourced, coordinated, and moving toward shared impact
• Directly manage the Studio Director, Director of Real Estate Development (West Coast and East Coast), and Director of Business Development—with the expectation that the team will grow.
• Set goals, work plans, and KPIs across verticals; hold high standards with care and consistency
• Build systems that support clarity, collaboration, and efficiency — without sacrificing the relational culture that makes this work possible
• Support the COO/CFO and Executive Director on organizational operations, financial sustainability, and strategic planning

Strategy & Project Decisions

• Lead the process of project selection based on strategic alignment, mission fit, capacity, and impact potential
• You’ll own the day‑to‑day leadership of our real‑estate and architecture verticals — work that is deeply intersecting with fundraising and day‑to‑day operations. You will be second to the Executive Director, partnering closely with her to steward strategy, culture, and growth.
• Shape and execute long‑term growth strategy in partnership with the Executive Director and sector leaders
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, efficiencies, and earned income across architecture and development verticals

Business Development & External Relationships

• Partner with the Executive Director and Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships to support national business development — identifying mission‑aligned opportunities, pitching, and securing new work
• Engage with external partners, funders, and community stakeholders to raise awareness of DJDS’s mission and support fundraising
• Participate in community engagement and design processes with genuine curiosity and care for the communities we serve

Project Level Work

• Lead at least one project in the portfolio at all times — this is a working leadership role with direct billability expectations, not a purely supervisory one
• Bring a practiced eye to project selection—helping evaluate which opportunities to pursue, which to decline, and why
• Support business development by contributing to proposals, pitches, and client relationships alongside the Executive Director and sector leaders
• Ensure that the way we work on projects reflects how we believe the world should work — with community, with care, and with rigor

Who You Are

Your career has taken you across disciplines and into leadership that most people can’t easily categorize — and that’s exactly the point. You’ve been front‑facing on large, complex projects — whether as an owner’s representative, a project manager on the architecture side, or in a community‑facing leadership role where the stakes were high and the stakeholders were many. You understand how buildings get made and you’re equally interested in what they mean to the people who use them. We know no single person will arrive with all of this — what matters most is the combination of experience, curiosity, and values you bring to the role.

• You have 15+ years of experience across architecture and real‑estate development, with significant time in community management or owner‑side project leadership
• You have 10+ years in organizational leadership, with a track record of growing teams and managing across disciplines
• You bring expertise in at least one field and the curiosity to work fluidly across many others — connecting dots between disciplines, bringing unexpected perspectives to complex problems, and getting energized by collaboration across silos rather than within them
• You understand the hybrid nonprofit/fee‑for‑service model — how mission and earned income coexist — and you’re energized by both sides of that equation
• You are a strong people manager — someone who builds trust, holds accountability with care, and actively coaches, mentors, and develops the people around them
• You bring high curiosity and worldly exposure — you’ve worked with diverse communities and bring genuine humility and attentiveness to that work
• You’re a strong personality who can challenge leadership and disagree constructively — we want a thought partner, not a yes‑person
• You lead relationally — culture, trust, and care are not soft add‑ons for you, they’re how good work gets done
• You can hold complexity and create clarity for others — especially in ambiguous, resource‑constrained environments
• You are based in the Bay Area, or willing to relocate here — with ongoing bicoastal work as a standing part of the role given our presence across coasts

Experience That’s Helpful but Not Required

• Experience with affordable housing, supportive housing, or community‑serving real‑estate development
• Nonprofit operations, fundraising, or evaluation experience
• Familiarity with abolitionist frameworks and community‑engaged or trauma‑informed design
• An MBA or equivalent graduate training
• Licensed architect

Benefits

• Full‑time, salaried, hybrid role — in‑person collaboration is central to our culture, with real flexibility built in
• 100 % employer‑covered medical, dental, and vision for employees and their children under 26; optional coverage for domestic partners, long‑term disability, and life insurance
• Generous PTO: tiered vacation by tenure, sick leave, bereavement, jury duty, and 16 total holidays (12 standard + 4 flexible personal days)
• Up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, supported by California state benefits and DJDS supplemental pay
• Sabbatical eligibility after 7 years: 12 weeks paid leave plus a reduced‑load continuation period

How to Apply

To apply, please submit a resume and a cover letter speaking to your experience, your vision for this role, and why DJDS’s mission resonates with you.

DJDS is an equal opportunity employer. As an organization committed to hearing diverse voices and perspectives, we consider the broadest and most diverse talent possible — with a deeply inclusive approach and lens. We strongly encourage applications from people with lived experience of the issues we work on.

Ready to Apply?

If this role resonates with you, we encourage you to apply—even if your experience doesn’t match every requirement. We value curiosity, lived experience, and a deep commitment to community.

We’re building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, and we’re excited to learn more about what you bring to the work.