Senior Manager, Community Engagement
About Waterfront Alliance
Waterfront Alliance is a civic organization that brings together a diverse alliance of more than 1,100 partner organizations dedicated to creating thriving and resilient waterfronts, shorelines, and coastlines. Through community-led planning, policy advocacy, education, and collaborative action, Waterfront Alliance works to advance climate resilience, equitable waterfront access, environmental justice, and vibrant working waterfronts throughout the New York-New Jersey region.
We believe the people most impacted by climate change should play a central role in shaping solutions. Meaningful engagement and trusted community partnerships are essential to building resilient and equitable communities.
Position Overview
Waterfront Alliance seeks an experienced and entrepreneurial Senior Manager, Community Engagement to oversee and implement community engagement activities across the organization's growing portfolio of climate resilience, planning, education, and advocacy initiatives.
This is a senior programmatic role responsible for designing and leading community engagement strategies, facilitating workshops and public events, cultivating partnerships with community-based organizations, supporting coalition-building efforts, and ensuring community priorities are reflected in projects and policy recommendations.
The Senior Manager, Community Engagement will serve as one of Waterfront Alliance's primary ambassadors in the field. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable facilitating a neighborhood workshop, presenting before a community board, building relationships with local organizations, identifying emerging community needs, and translating community concerns into actionable programmatic and policy solutions.
The ideal candidate is a skilled relationship-builder and project manager who can operate independently, manage multiple initiatives simultaneously, and take ownership of complex community-facing projects. The candidate will also have experience managing and directing staff to execute a strategy.
Reports To: Vice President, Programs and Strategy
Classification: Full-Time, Exempt
Salary and Benefits: $70,000–$80,000, commensurate with experience. Waterfront Alliance offers a comprehensive benefits package, including employer paid medical, dental, and vision insurances; life insurance; 401K retirement plan with employer match; commuter and FSA benefits, paid time off, paid sabbatical after five years, professional development opportunities, and more.
Location: New York, NY (Hybrid). Waterfront Alliance has a hybrid work environment, currently requiring two days in the downtown Manhattan office.
Supervises: Climate Justice Fellow
Key Responsibilities
Community Engagement Strategy and Implementation
Lead engagement efforts for resilience planning, community development, climate adaptation, and waterfront-related initiatives throughout New York City, Long Island, and the broader NY-NJ Harbor region.
Design and implement engagement strategies that are inclusive, culturally responsive, and community-driven.
Organize and facilitate public meetings, workshops, charrettes, focus groups, listening sessions, webinars, and other engagement activities.
Represent Waterfront Alliance at community meetings, coalition gatherings, public forums, and stakeholder events.
Develop engagement plans that help ensure community priorities are integrated into planning and implementation processes.
Climate Informed Communities Program Leadership
Support implementation and growth of Waterfront Alliance's Climate Informed Communities initiatives, serving as a primary point of contact for community-based climate resilience, preparedness and engagement initiatives.
Cultivate and maintain relationships with community-based organizations, neighborhood leaders, advocacy groups, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, public agencies, and other community stakeholders.
Expand Waterfront Alliance's network of community partners, particularly in frontline and historically underserved communities.
Design and coordinate community workshops, preparedness events, and educational programming, office hours, listening sessions, and other community engagement activities.
Connect community organizations with resources, funding opportunities, technical assistance, peer networks, and resilience-focused tools while supporting local capacity-building efforts.
Develop strategies that help residents prepare for climate-related impacts including flooding, extreme heat, coastal storms, and other environmental hazards.
Identify gaps in community resources, resilience services, and preparedness efforts and work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to develop programmatic and advocacy responses.
Collect, document, and elevate community stories and lived experiences related to climate impacts, water, flooding, and resilience to inform programming, communications, and policy priorities.
Manage deliverables across multiple grants, contracts, and community resilience initiatives, ensuring activities are completed on schedule and aligned with project objectives.
Track participation, engagement metrics, and program outcomes to evaluate effectiveness and support continuous improvement.
Prepare reports, grant deliverables, presentations, and other materials for funders, partners, and stakeholders.
Coordinate closely with internal staff, consultants, funders, community partners, and public agencies to support successful project implementation and long-term program growth.
Advocacy and Community Planning Support
Work closely with the Director of Policy and Government Affairs to attend and monitor community board meetings, public hearings, and stakeholder engagement processes related to resilience, infrastructure, and waterfront projects.
Present project concepts and resilience initiatives to community stakeholders and local decision-makers.
Gather community input and synthesize findings into reports, recommendations, and advocacy priorities.
Support community-centered planning initiatives by ensuring meaningful resident participation and engagement throughout project lifecycles.
Communications and Storytelling
Work closely with the Director of Communications to develop community-facing content, social media materials, newsletters, toolkits, and preparedness resources.
Keep the team up to date on important news from the community that is relevant to brand awareness, brand reputation, and making programmatic connections
Contribute content and community perspectives for webinars, conferences, educational programs, and public events.
Elevate community successes, local leadership, and lived experiences through storytelling and outreach efforts including drafting email language, social media content, and writing or editing blog post content, creating flyers, and other communications materials.
Support creative and culturally relevant engagement approaches, including arts-based and community-driven communications strategies.
Required Qualifications
Minimum of 5+ years of experience in community engagement, stakeholder engagement, environmental justice, community development, planning, resilience, public outreach, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience designing and facilitating community engagement processes.
Strong public speaking, facilitation, and relationship-building skills.
Experience managing multiple projects simultaneously.
Experience managing, motivating, and leading a team.
Strong written communication and report-writing abilities.
Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across teams.
Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends to support community meetings and events.
Strong familiarity with New York City neighborhoods, community boards, and local stakeholder networks.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience working on climate resilience, environmental justice, adaptation planning, waterfront planning, infrastructure, sustainability, or community development initiatives.
Experience working with community-based organizations and public agencies.
Grant-funded project management experience.
Multilingual proficiency.
Familiarity with environmental justice and community-led planning frameworks.
Core Competencies
Community-Centered Leadership
Facilitation and Public Engagement
Partnership Development
Coalition Building
Strategic Communication
Program and Project Management
Equity and Environmental Justice
Independent Initiative and Problem Solving
How to Apply
Submit your resume and the answers to the prompted questions. Applicants must be legally authorized to work fulltime in the U.S. and should not require employment sponsorship now or in the future. Only complete applications will be considered. Position open until filled. No phone calls please.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Waterfront Alliance encourages applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, physical ability or any other legally protected basis.