Managing Director of External Affairs & Engagement

City Year; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401K

Paid vacation

Job summary

City Year Chicago is seeking a Managing Director of External Affairs & Engagement to expand visibility, influence, and partnerships. You will oversee communications, branding, government affairs, and signature events while serving on the Executive Leadership Team and acting as the organization’s ambassador to civic and corporate leaders.

The role requires a Bachelor's degree with 7–10 years in external affairs or nonprofit leadership, plus exceptional writing, speaking, and relationship-building

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree strongly preferred.
• 7-10 years of professional experience in external affairs, communications, public affairs, community engagement, marketing, partnerships, event management, or nonprofit leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage relationships with elected officials, civic leaders, media, philanthropic partners, and corporate stakeholders.
• Strong writing, public speaking, and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a comprehensive external affairs strategy to advance visibility, influence, and stakeholder engagement.
• Lead communications, marketing, and brand management across channels; oversee media relations and external storytelling.
• Oversee government and community affairs; monitor policy developments and advise leadership.
• Direct signature events and cross‑functional stakeholder engagement to strengthen relationships.
• Collaborate with the Executive Leadership Team to align external affairs with organizational priorities.

Skills

External affairs leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic communications

Public speaking

Event management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Job description

Number of positions: 1 Work Location: 100% On-Site

Position Overview

Reporting to the Senior Vice President & Executive Director, the Managing Director of External Affairs & Engagement is responsible for advancing City Year Chicago's visibility, influence, strategic partnerships, and stakeholder engagement efforts. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, this leader will oversee external affairs functions including communications, marketing, media relations, government affairs, strategic partnerships, and signature events. The Managing Director serves as a primary ambassador for City Year Chicago, building meaningful relationships with civic, business, community, philanthropic, and government leaders while elevating awareness of the organization's impact. This role is responsible for expanding City Year Chicago's presence, strengthening engagement with key stakeholders, and leveraging external relationships to advance organizational priorities and mission outcomes. -Starting salary range for this role is $135K to $145K . -Anticipated start date for this role is fall2026. -This is a primarily in-person role with flexibility to periodically work remotely.

External Affairs Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement

Develop and execute a comprehensive external affairs strategy that advances City Year Chicago's visibility, influence, and stakeholder engagement. Build and maintain strategic relationships with civic, business, education, community, philanthropic, and government leaders. Serve as a primary spokesperson and ambassador for City Year Chicago across external audiences. Represent the organization at key convenings, coalitions, and community events. Partner with the Executive Director and Executive Leadership Team to advance organizational priorities through strategic external engagement.

Communications, Marketing & Brand Management

Lead City Year Chicago's communications, marketing, and brand strategy to ensure consistent messaging across all channels. Oversee media relations, social media, website content, digital communications, and external storytelling efforts. Develop messaging, presentations, talking points, reports, and communications for internal and external stakeholders. Ensure organizational communications effectively elevate impact, drive engagement, and strengthen brand awareness. Serve as the primary liaison with City Year Headquarters on communications and brand initiatives.

Government & Community Affairs

Lead engagement with elected officials, government agencies, and public affairs stakeholders. Monitor policy developments and advise leadership on issues impacting City Year Chicago's work and priorities. Cultivate partnerships with community organizations and civic leaders that advance educational equity and organizational impact. Support the organization's advocacy, public engagement, and civic visibility strategies.

Signature Events & Strategic Engagement

Serve as the strategic and operational lead for the annual Ripples of Hope Gala and other key external engagement events. Partner closely with the Managing Director of Development to align event execution with sponsorship and donor engagement objectives. Lead cross-functional planning, stakeholder experience, communications, and event operations to ensure successful execution. Develop strategies that leverage organizational events to strengthen relationships, elevate visibility, and deepen community engagement.

Organizational Leadership

Serve as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and contribute to the development and implementation of City Year Chicago's strategic priorities. Partner across departments to align external affairs initiatives with organizational goals. Represent and model City Year's culture and values internally and externally. Support site-wide initiatives, events, and cross-functional projects as needed.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree strongly preferred. Minimum of 7-10 years of professional experience in external affairs, communications, public affairs, community engagement, marketing, partnerships, event management, or nonprofit leadership. Demonstrated experience building and managing relationships with elected officials, civic leaders, community organizations, media, philanthropic partners, and corporate stakeholders. Strong communications, writing, public speaking, and presentation skills. Experience leading marketing, communications, public relations, or brand management initiatives. Demonstrated success managing complex stakeholder engagement efforts and high-profile events. Strong project management, organizational, and strategic planning skills. Ability to analyze information, navigate complex environments, and translate organizational priorities into action. Knowledge of Chicago's civic, educational, philanthropic, business, and political landscape. Ability to work collaboratively across teams and manage multiple priorities simultaneously. Flexibility to attend evening and weekend events as needed. Deep understanding of and commitment to City Year's values.

Required Documents

A cover letter and resume must be submitted to be considered for thisposition. Preferred resume formats will depict not only a candidate’sresponsibilities and job functions in previous work, but will include specific, quantitative results whereapplicable. Additionalquantitative context around specific budget sizes, team sizes, or other work environment information will help City Year compare the scale of your work environment with our operations.

Compensation and Benefits

Full time employees are entitled to compensation commensurate with experience. Benefits for full time employees include health insurance with Flexible Spending Account, paid vacation, holidays, parental leave, 401K, and more.

City Year is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a diverse workforce.

Benefits Full-time employees will be eligible for all benefits including vacation, sick days and organization holidays. You may participate in all benefit programs that City Year establishes and makes available to eligible employees, under (and subject to all provisions of) the plan documents that govern those programs. Currently, City Year offers medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability coverage, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), and other benefits including 401(k) plan(s) pursuant to the terms and conditions of company policy and the 401(k) plan document.

Employment at City Year is at-will. City Year does not sponsor work authorization visas. City Year’s dual mission is to expand educational opportunity for all students and develop the next generation of leaders through national service. Trained teams of City Year AmeriCorps members provide support to students, classrooms and the whole school. Schools that partner with City Year are up to two to three times more likely to improve in English and math assessments, and the more time students spend with AmeriCorps members, the more they improve on academic, cognitive and interpersonal skills— skills that help students thrive in school, college and career.

City Year’s 900 staff and 2,000+ AmeriCorps members work and serve in 29 communities across the U.S., including Boston (where City Year was founded in 1988 and is headquartered), Baton Rouge, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbia, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Providence, Sacramento, San Antonio, San José/Silicon Valley, Seattle/King County, Tulsa and Washington, D.C. City Year also has international affiliates in the U.K. and South Africa. A proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network, City Year is supported by AmeriCorps, local school districts and private philanthropy. City Year has been designated a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator since 2003, putting City Year in the top 1% of non-profits nationwide for accountability, transparency and responsible fiscal management, and among the most trustworthy nonprofits in America.

At City Year, we sometimes say we work not only “at” City Year, but also “on” City Year, recognizing that the organization, like our world, is constantly evolving and changing. Two things that have never changed: our steadfast belief in the power of young people to change our world for the better; and our aspiration to create positive school and work environments where everyone feels a sense of connection, is supported to do their best work, and is able to learn, contribute, lead and create to their fullest potential.

As an equal opportunity employer, City Year is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. Fair Labor Standards Act Family and Medical Leave Act Learn more at www.cityyear.org, City Year’s Facebook page, on X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.