Senior Director, Market Development

Gilder Search Group; Los Angeles, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 118,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

FUSE is seeking an entrepreneurial Senior Director, Market Development to lead Los Angeles market strategy, partnerships, and funding, advancing executive fellowship opportunities across government and philanthropy. You will build multi-year roadmaps, mobilize cross-sector teams, and shape sustained engagement with LA and select Western markets.

Reporting to the VP of Strategic Partnerships, you will oversee strategy development, funding pathways, and strategic partnerships, guiding contracts

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in partnership development, strategy, business development, or related leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing multi-year market or partnership plans that align multiple institutions, funding sources, and initiatives around a shared agenda.
• Demonstrated experience assembling resources from multiple sources to move initiatives from concept to funded implementation.
• Demonstrated experience convening senior cross-sector stakeholders and translating engagement into commitments, funding approaches, or multi-year plans.

Responsibilities

• Market Development, Funding & Partnership Roadmaps — Own the development and execution of a multi-year partnership and funding roadmap for Los Angeles, connecting community priorities, potential fellowship opportunities, institutional partners, and diverse funding pathways.
• Market Development, Funding & Partnership Roadmaps — Build sustained alignment across government, philanthropy, civic institutions, and community partners around shared priorities and necessary investments.
• Market Development, Funding & Partnership Roadmaps — Create deliberate funding plans drawing on municipal resources, grants, local philanthropy, and others to sustain engagement.
• Market Development, Funding & Partnership Roadmaps — Establish relationships, funding pathways, and partnerships to sustain a multi-year pipeline of opportunities.
• Opportunity Development — Convert the roadmap into a pipeline of executive fellowship opportunities and pursue opportunities outside the roadmap.
• Opportunity Development — Lead executive-level government and strategic partner relationships focusing on Los Angeles and select Western markets.
• Opportunity Development — Identify, scope, advance, negotiate, and contract executive fellowship opportunities with Operations staff support.
• Opportunity Development — Steward relationships toward recurring, multi-year engagement rather than one-time projects.
• Practice Advancement — Partner with leadership to test and refine market development approaches and inform future investments.
• Leadership and Management — Hire, direct, and manage external contractors and consultants with clear scopes and accountability.
• Leadership and Management — Model entrepreneurial leadership through curiosity and continuous learning.
• Leadership and Management — Build flexible teams and mobilize resources to advance market priorities.

Skills

Executive leadership

Partnership development

Strategic planning

Public-sector relationships

Contracting & procurement

Job description

FUSE seeks an entrepreneurial leader who can help communities solve complex challenges by building long-term market strategies, mobilizing resources, and creating the conditions for high-impact executive fellowship opportunities.

Location

This position is based in Los Angeles, California. The employee in this role is required to live within 50 miles of downtown Los Angeles.

FUSE operates as a distributed organization, but this role carries a residency requirement because its core responsibilities are presence-dependent. The Senior Director builds sustained, face-to-face relationships with government, philanthropic, and community leaders and maintains partnerships requiring regular on-site engagement with Los Angeles City and County agencies.

Los Angeles is the primary and most intensive market for this role because of its scale of opportunity, FUSE’s established relationships and contracting history, and its potential to serve as a proving ground for market development practices FUSE can adapt elsewhere. The Senior Director will also be responsible for a small number of select Western U.S. markets, applying established FUSE approaches to cultivate relationships and develop executive fellowship opportunities through a more targeted, streamlined model.

Travel

This role requires frequent local travel throughout Greater Los Angeles. Approximately 20–25% travel outside the Los Angeles area is expected, including periodic travel to select Western markets for partnership and opportunity development and national travel for organizational meetings and conferences.

Annual Salary

This position offers a non-negotiable annual salary of $139,000 and robust benefits. More details can be provided upon request.

About FUSE

FUSE is a national nonprofit that increases the capacity of local governments to work more effectively for communities. We embed experienced private-sector executives in city and county agencies to lead high-priority projects spanning affordable housing, economic mobility, climate resilience, public safety, infrastructure, technology, and more. Since 2012, FUSE has led over 400 projects in 58 governments across 26 states, impacting a population equivalent to 1 in 10 Americans.

FUSE works with government partners and community stakeholders to design each fellowship around a high-priority local challenge, then conducts a national executive search for an experienced leader to spend one-two years embedded in the government agency. Executive Fellows bring at least 15 years of professional experience and lead complex work spanning strategy, operational improvement, coalition building, and implementation, with ongoing training, coaching, and support from FUSE.

Position Overview

FUSE’s long-term success depends on consistently generating high-impact executive fellowship opportunities in an increasingly complex funding environment. Government demand remains strong; the harder problem is helping communities identify viable pathways to fund and sustain that demand. The Senior Director, Market Development builds this capability by helping governments and community partners move ambitious ideas from vision to implementation.

Los Angeles will serve as the Senior Director’s primary and most intensive market, where they will be accountable for developing and advancing a multi-year partnership and funding roadmap connecting community priorities, potential fellowship opportunities, institutional partners, and diverse funding pathways—including municipal resources, state and federal grants, local philanthropy, and other sources. This work requires sustained, in-person engagement with government, philanthropic, civic, and community leaders.

Across Los Angeles and a small number of select Western markets, the Senior Director leads strategic partner relationships from opportunity identification through contracting and long-term stewardship. In Los Angeles, this work supports a broader mandate: creating the alignment, relationships, funding pathways, institutional partnerships, and other conditions needed to sustain a pipeline of FUSE opportunities over multiple years. Work in other Western markets will follow a more targeted, streamlined model.

The role also serves as a proving ground for FUSE’s broader market development practice. The Senior Director will test new approaches, identify what works, and surface insights and practices that can strengthen FUSE’s work in other markets.

Success requires exceptional individual leadership and the ability to mobilize others. The Senior Director will draw on FUSE colleagues and a flexible network of contractors, alumni, volunteers, and subject-matter experts to assemble the capacity, expertise, intelligence, and relationships needed to advance market priorities.

This position reports to the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and is part of FUSE’s Partnerships Team.

Position Responsibilities

Market Development, Funding & Partnership Roadmaps

• Own the development and execution of a multi-year partnership and funding roadmap for Los Angeles, connecting community priorities, potential fellowship opportunities, institutional partners, and diverse funding pathways.
• Build sustained alignment across government, philanthropy, civic institutions, and community partners around shared priorities and the roles, resources, and investments needed to advance them.
• Develop a deliberate funding plan drawing on multiple potential sources—including municipal resources, state and federal grants, local philanthropy, and others—to support sustained FUSE engagement rather than relying on individual agencies to fund projects one at a time.
• Create the relationships, funding pathways, institutional partnerships, and other conditions needed to sustain a multi-year pipeline of FUSE opportunities, in close partnership with FUSE’s national Philanthropy team.

Opportunity Development

• Convert the multi-year partnership and funding roadmap into a pipeline of high-impact executive fellowship opportunities while also pursuing promising opportunities that emerge outside the roadmap.
• Lead executive-level government and strategic partner relationships, with a primary focus on Los Angeles and responsibility for a small number of select Western markets.
• Identify, scope, advance, negotiate, and contract executive fellowship opportunities in partnership with Operations staff, who provide project management and operational support throughout project development and implementation.
• Steward relationships toward recurring, multi-year engagement rather than one-time projects wherever conditions allow.

Practice Advancement

• Partner with the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and other colleagues to test and refine new approaches to market development and inform future investments in priority markets.
• Identify what works in the field and distill the key insights and practices that should be captured and applied in other markets.

Leadership and Management

• Operate with exceptional strategic independence and serve as a strategic thought partner and coach to Partnership Directors.
• Build and deploy flexible teams of colleagues, contractors, alumni, volunteers, consultants, and subject-matter experts to provide the capacity, networks, and expertise needed to advance market priorities.
• Hire, direct, and manage external contractors and consultants, establishing clear scopes, outcomes, and accountability.
• Begin with a primary focus on individual leadership and practice-building, with responsibility for formal management of direct report(s) as the role and Strategic Partnerships function evolve.
• Model entrepreneurial leadership through curiosity, sound judgment, experimentation, and continuous learning.

Required Skills and Experience

Experience and Track Record

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in partnership development, strategy, business development, or related leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing multi-year market or partnership plans that aligned multiple institutions, funding sources, and initiatives around a shared agenda, as distinct from managing a pipeline or developing individual opportunities within an established funding model.
• Demonstrated experience assembling resources from multiple sources—such as municipal resources, state or federal grants, local philanthropy, or anchor institutions—to move initiatives from concept to funded implementation.
• Demonstrated experience convening senior cross-sector stakeholders and converting that engagement into shared priorities, concrete commitments, funding approaches, or multi-year plans for action.
• Demonstrated experience testing new approaches, identifying what works, and translating field-based learning into insights and practices that can be applied by others.
• Demonstrated experience managing and developing professionals and directing consultants, contractors, or subject-matter experts.
• Demonstrated success building executive-level public-sector relationships and navigating government contracting or procurement.

Capabilities and Approach

• Exceptional strategic thinking, judgment, and problem-solving, with a record of operating independently at an executive level.
• Ability to see beyond individual opportunities to identify and develop the relationships, funding pathways, institutional partnerships, and other conditions needed to sustain a market over time.
• Ability to achieve ambitious outcomes by mobilizing colleagues and external resources and determining where personal leadership is essential versus where work can be delegated.
• Outstanding written, facilitation, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Collaborative, entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for learning and continuous improvement.
• Passion for civic innovation and a belief that local government can improve people’s lives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Existing relationships across Los Angeles City and County government, Southern California philanthropy, or regional anchor institutions.
• Experience working within a national organization operating across multiple local markets.

FUSE is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this position.