Director of Community Partnerships and Talent

About Lead For America

Lead For America (LFA) creates place-based service opportunities that connect local people with mission-driven organizations, helping them pursue solutions shaped by community knowledge and local context. Its American Connection Corps (ACC), started in 2021, is an AmeriCorps program focused on reducing the digital divide in communities with limited connectivity. The program is backed by a wide network of partners, including AmeriCorps and large corporations, and now places members in more than 30 states.

Team Context

The Community Partnerships & Talent team is responsible for setting and executing the strategy for how LFA engages local talent and develops community partnerships. This group works closely with the rest of the organization so that community priorities, program delivery, and growth plans stay aligned.

The team partners with Programs to maintain an ongoing feedback cycle that keeps partnership building and talent strategy connected to ACC and future program needs. It also works with Marketing and Communications on messaging and value proposition, with Development on grant alignment and funding strategy, and with Government Relations on public-sector partnership and expansion opportunities.

This function sits at the intersection of community and host site needs, local talent development, and mission-aligned partnerships. It is designed to help build a place-based ecosystem where host organizations co-create impact, community members are recruited from within their own communities, and talent supply is matched to community demand.

Role Overview

The Director will lead LFA’s community partnership growth and talent activation strategy, building the relationships, systems, and pipelines needed to expand the organization’s reach across the country.

This position moves beyond traditional recruitment and instead manages a two-sided model: community host sites that define their needs and invest in solutions, and local talent who contribute lived experience and leadership.

Reporting to the COO, the Director is a senior strategic partner to leadership, funders, and cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and scale a national portfolio of community-based host site partnerships.
• Create and execute a place-based partnership strategy by reviewing current and recent cohorts to identify priority regions, sectors, and other strategic factors.
• Build talent pipelines that are aligned to these partnerships and support immediate, medium-term, and long-term outcomes.
• Ensure that community needs and talent placement stay closely matched.
• Lead managers responsible for impact and sustainability outcomes.
• Strengthen partnerships with nonprofits, government agencies, and local institutions through a consultative, relationship-driven approach rather than transactional selling.
• Design and refine outreach channels such as campaigns, webinars, referrals, and ecosystem partnerships.
• Represent LFA at conferences, convenings, and community events to grow the partnership network.
• Build systems for partner onboarding, engagement, retention, and long-term stewardship.
• Create training, tools, and ongoing support that help host sites succeed.
• Partner with Program teams to ensure host sites can support members effectively.
• Use feedback loops to improve the overall partner experience.
• Lead a place-based member recruitment strategy aligned with host site demand and community needs.
• Prioritize locally rooted and diverse candidates who reflect the communities served.
• Build candidate pipelines in local markets and strengthen relationships with associations, workforce groups, and community organizations.
• Align recruitment messaging with the mission and community impact story.
• Work with host sites to define role profiles and ideal candidate traits.
• Develop integrated systems that support both partnership and talent pipelines.
• Oversee CRM practices and maintain high data quality across partnership and talent workflows.
• Monitor partnership health, talent pipeline metrics, conversion rates, and retention.
• Use data to guide strategy, forecasting, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure systems such as CRM tools, project management platforms, and related workflows work together effectively.
• Create forecasting models that connect host site acquisition to member placement.
• Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing mission-driven team, including managers.
• Support staff development in relationship management, community-centered engagement, and data-informed decision-making.
• Set and track KPIs across both partnership and talent functions.
• Collaborate with Programs, Finance, Grants, Marketing/Communications, and Government Relations to support aligned execution.
• Contribute to organizational strategy and senior leadership planning.

What Success Looks Like

• A larger and more diverse portfolio of community-based host site partners guided by a clear strategy.
• Better alignment between host site needs and member placements.
• Higher partner retention and satisfaction.
• A strong, mission-aligned pipeline of members.
• Clear visibility into data and forecasts across both sides of the model.
• A department recognized as a major driver of community impact and organizational sustainability.

Required Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent mix of education and relevant professional experience.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in nonprofit, workforce development, higher education, economic development, public sector, community engagement, business development, talent acquisition, or a similar area.
• Proven ability to build and manage strategic partnerships with nonprofits, government bodies, schools, employers, funders, or comparable mission-aligned stakeholders.
• Experience designing outreach, partnership development, or talent acquisition strategies that deliver measurable growth and impact.
• Background leading high-performing teams, including coaching managers and building a collaborative, mission-focused culture.
• Strong planning and project management skills with the ability to turn priorities into action and measurable results.
• Experience using CRM and project management platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Workable, Asana, Airtable, or similar tools for pipeline management, relationship tracking, forecasting, and reporting.
• Ability to analyze data, spot patterns, and apply insights to improve strategy and performance.
• Excellent relationship-building, facilitation, presentation, and communication skills with audiences ranging from community groups to executives and funders.
• Experience working across multiple teams while managing competing priorities in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Commitment to LFA’s mission and enthusiasm for strengthening communities through place-based leadership and locally rooted talent.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in or alongside national service programs, AmeriCorps, community development organizations, rural initiatives, workforce development, or community-based nonprofits.
• Understanding of place-based development, collective impact, talent pipeline development, or community leadership models.
• Experience securing, managing, or maintaining partnerships that involve financial commitments, sponsorships, grants, or cost-sharing.
• Experience designing regional or national partnership strategies across multiple states or geographic markets.
• Experience contributing to organizational growth through ecosystem building, community engagement, or cross-sector collaboration.
• Familiarity with grant-funded programs and with aligning operations to grant requirements and outcomes.
• Experience representing an organization at conferences, public events, and stakeholder meetings.

Benefits and Salary

The posting states that the organization is sharing the anticipated minimum and maximum salary range available at the time of posting. The starting salary will depend on the role and the candidate’s experience level. The range may change substantially based on those factors, and compensation is expected to increase over time with experience, inflation, and organizational growth. There is also stated to be significant room for promotion in most roles.