Community Engagement Lead

Aligned Data Centers

11d

About The Position

The Community Engagement Lead plays a key role in advancing Aligned's development lifecycle by cultivating deep-rooted local partnerships, fostering alignment with local communities as well as internal stakeholders, and creating pathways for a smooth project execution. This role provides leadership and strategic direction for the Community Engagement Liaison team, setting the vision, standards, and operating approach that enables Aligned to successfully expand into new markets through strong community partnership. Operating at a senior level, the Community Engagement Lead bridges regional site priorities with Aligned’s broader business objectives, helping foster trusted community relationships while reinforcing Aligned’s reputation as a responsible, long-term neighbor across the industry and its host communities. Key performance indicators include a positive impact on sentiment across all Aligned host communities, mitigating risks to project timelines and success.

Requirements

• 5–10+ years in public affairs, community relations, or government affairs, with at least 5 years in a leadership or people-management capacity.
• Experience in the data center, energy, or large-scale infrastructure sectors is required.
• Experience navigating political environments and building consensus among diverse stakeholder groups.
• The ability to take disparate data points from various regions and synthesize them into a cohesive national strategy that advances Aligned’s long-term development pipeline.
• Experience building scalable systems (such as CRMs or sentiment tracking workflows) to manage community engagement data across a growing regional or national portfolio.
• Maintains a calm, steady presence in complex environments, with a proven ability to guide teams through sensitive public discussions and build consensus among diverse community groups.

Responsibilities

• Assist in designing and overseeing the execution of Aligned’s national community engagement strategy, helping to define the standard for how the company enters, develops, and integrates within its host communities.
• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of regional Liaisons, providing the strategic leadership and resources necessary for them to succeed in local environments.
• Serve as the senior advisor for sensitive political and reputational issues from Community Liaisons.
• Monitor macro-sentiment across all markets to identify risks and improvements to Aligned’s operations; Leverage this data and insights gleaned from Community Engagement Liaisons to provide cross-functional teams with actionable insights, developing strategies to increase effectiveness at both the corporate and site levels.
• Partner with cross functional development, energy, government / public affairs, communications, and operations teams to ensure that community feedback directly influences capital investment and project design decisions.
• Standardize, scale and continuously refine Aligned’s community engagement playbook and digital workflow, ensuring a consistent, high-quality engagement model across all geographies.
• Represent Aligned alongside Community Engagement Liaisons in high-level engagements with community members and major NGO partners, and at critical industry conferences to shape the narrative of data centers as vital infrastructure.
• Direct the strategy for Aligned’s community investment initiatives; work with internal teams and Community Engagement Liaisons to ensure they materialize successfully.
• In partnership with the Communications team, design and execute a proactive outreach strategy to shape the project narrative, while leading the response framework for addressing public concerns and mitigating project risks.
• Partner with Aligned’s Sales and Finance/Investment teams to provide data-driven insights and messaging related to Aligned’s community engagement health and social impact to fortify customer and investor confidence.
• Partner with customer and communications teams to architect and execute high-impact, collaborative community engagement programs that align with shared corporate social responsibility goals.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts: HSA with employer contribution for eligible participants. FSA's offered for health and dependent care to increase tax savings.
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Paid Time Off and Holiday Pay
• Company-Sponsored Insurance: Short-Term Disability, Life Insurance, and Long-Term Disability (with medical election)
• Optional Benefits: Voluntary life, critical illness, legal, and additional disability coverage
• Wellness Programs: Employee assistance program (EAP), Wellhub gym membership, and other wellness initiatives

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed