Permitting & Entitlements Manager

Manna; Tulsa (OK); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Manna operates a drone delivery network across the United States, and the Tulsa role owns permitting and entitlements for multiple markets. You will lead zoning and approvals processes, coordinate with planning departments, and guide market entry timelines with engineering and architectural teams.

The position is national in scope, with oversight from Tulsa, Dallas–Fort Worth and future markets, requiring strong relationships, political navigation, and travel availability to support rapid

Qualifications

• Substantial experience securing land use, ordinance-based and construction approvals across multiple jurisdictions.
• Credible with planning staff and technical reviewers.
• Experience reading site plans and working with architects and engineers.
• Experience managing a large pipeline of concurrent approvals.
• US-based, Central or Mountain time essential.
• Travel up to 75% during active market entry.

Responsibilities

• Entitlements and approvals. Zoning clearance, use determinations, variances, special and conditional use approvals, through to decision.
• Pre-application meetings, technical negotiation with planning staff, and presenting Manna's case at planning commission and hearings alongside corporate affairs where the engagement is political.
• Working relationships with planning departments. Building and holding the relationships that get sites approved, across the jurisdictions we operate in and those we are assessing.
• Permitting assessment of new markets. Reviewing prospective cities and regions: how the jurisdiction works, its zoning and land use position, the approval route, realistic timelines and any constraints that would affect us.
• Design alignment with local requirements. Working with our architects and engineers so submissions are shaped around each jurisdiction's requirements from the outset, and feeding those constraints back into our standard site design.
• Consultant selection and management. Choosing and directing zoning consultants, entitlement specialists and planning advisors in each market, and holding them to a consistent standard
• Permitting intelligence in our tools. Owning the permitting and zoning criteria that sites are rated against in our site

Skills

Land use approvals

Zoning expertise

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Travel readiness

Job description

About Manna

At Manna,we’rechanging how the world receives things — by taking delivery to the skies.

Our mission is simple but ambitious: to make high-speed delivery affordable, green, and safe. We design and build our own aviation-grade drones that deliver food, coffee, groceries, and more directly from local stores and vendors to people’s doors in just a few minutes.

We’rea team that Drives with Impact, is Safety Focused, and knows that the best ideas come from Team Players who show up as their Authentic Selves. We move fast, we are passionate about what we do, andwe’realways pushing a growth mindset to be better in everything we do.

AsweexpandouroperationsintheUnitedStates,we’relookingforaPermitting&EntitlementsManagertojoinourteaminTulsa,Oklahoma.

Welcome to Manna — where we deliver the future.

Role Purpose

Manna operates a drone delivery network in the United States. Every site we build needs municipal approval first, and the pace we can grow at is set by how well that is run.

This role owns permitting and entitlements across all of our US markets. It is a national role covering Tulsa, Dallas Fort Worth and the markets we enter after them.

WhatYou’llBe Responsible For

• Entitlements and approvals. Zoning clearance, use determinations, variances, special and conditional use approvals, through to decision. Pre-application meetings, technical negotiation with planning staff, and presenting Manna's case at planning commission and hearings alongside corporate affairs where the engagement is political.
• Working relationships with planning departments. Building and holding the relationships that get sites approved, across the jurisdictions we operate in and those we are assessing.
• Permitting assessment of new markets. Reviewing prospective cities and regions: how the jurisdiction works, its zoning and land use position, the approval route, realistic timelines and any constraints that would affect us. Your assessment feeds the decision on where we operate next.
• Design alignment with local requirements. Working with our architects and engineers so submissions are shaped around each jurisdiction's requirements from the outset, and feeding those constraints back into our standard site design.
• Consultant selection and management. Choosing and directing zoning consultants, entitlement specialists and planning advisors in each market, and holding them to a consistent standard
• Permitting intelligence in our tools. Owning the permitting and zoning criteria that sites are rated against in our site

Who you would work with

• Operations, who identify and evaluate sites and run them once live.
• Commercial, who negotiate and close the leases. You confirm viability before signature.
• Corporate affairs,who lead engagement with councils, elected members and local stakeholders as we enter new cities. You support them with the planning and permitting substance, and they lead where the conversation is political.
• Site Delivery,who take the approved site and build it. You hand over a site with its approvals in place.

• Substantial experience securing land use, ordinance-based and construction approvals across multiple jurisdictions, with a track record of scaling a permitting programme rather than running individual applications.
• Credible with planning staff and technical reviewers. You understand how planning processes work, who decides, and how to build a case that gets approved. Experience as a city planner or in an entitlements consultancy is directly relevant.
• The ability to read site plans and construction drawings and to work substantively with architects and engineers.
• Experience managing a large pipeline of concurrent approvals through structured project systems.
• US-based, Central or Mountain time essential
• Travel up to 75% during active market entry.

Why this role

Drone-delivery infrastructure is new to most US jurisdictions, creating a genuine opportunity to shape how it is understood and approved. As approvals determine the pace of Manna’s US growth, this role will own and drive that process.