Senior Associate, Centre for Experience Economy and Cities
About The Position
The Senior Associate, City Strategy and Ecosystem Engagement, sits within the Yes/Cities team and supports city-facing work across the Centre for Experience Economy and Cities. The role helps identify, assess and develop strategic opportunities with cities, connecting city priorities with relevant Forum programmes, industries, partners and initiatives while coordinating city engagement across the organization. Its scope includes infrastructure, the built environment, innovation, sports, travel and tourism, health, workforce and economic development, resilience and related priorities. The position reports to the Senior Manager, Yes/Cities, and works with the Centre for Regions, Trade, and Geopolitics, the Senior Associate, Global Network, regional ecosystem leads, Forum industries, Centres and initiatives, and account managers. Externally, it supports engagement with mayors, senior city leaders, government departments, local anchors, businesses, investors, innovators, civil-society organizations and other city stakeholders. Senior relationship ownership remains with the relevant senior or regional lead. This is a fixed-term role through 30 June 2027, based in the Forum’s New York or Geneva office, with three days of onsite work required per week. The annual salary for the role in New York is $100,000–$115,000.
Requirements
- At least 4 years of relevant experience in city strategy, government engagement, public-private partnerships, ecosystem development, consulting or a related field.
- Experience working with cities, governments, public institutions, economic development organizations or place-based partnerships.
- Strong understanding of how economic development, infrastructure, innovation, workforce, resilience and public-sector decision-making shape city priorities.
- Ability to assess cities and ecosystems and translate complex information into clear profiles, recommendations, opportunity briefs and business cases.
- Strong stakeholder-management and project-management skills, including experience coordinating across teams, organizations and sectors and managing multiple workstreams.
- Sound judgement and diplomacy, with the ability to connect local priorities with broader strategies, partnerships and investment opportunities in an international, matrixed organization.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
Responsibilities
- Establish and maintain a prioritized list of approximately 20–30 cities for potential Yes/Cities engagement, using agreed criteria and evidence such as city priorities, development plans, institutional structures, challenges and opportunities.
- Maintain visibility of city opportunities, owners, next steps and handovers across the Centre.
- Build relationships with mayors, senior city leaders and relevant government departments, and develop an understanding of local priorities, institutional structures and decision-making processes.
- Map existing Forum relationships and activities across priority cities.
- Connect city priorities to relevant Forum industries, Centres and initiatives, serving as a conduit as appropriate.
- Support partner proposals and business cases where city-level alignment is central to the value proposition.
- Feed city intelligence into the development of the Yes/Cities product offering, engagement model and business plan.
- Assess city readiness, government commitment, local leadership, partner presence, local anchor capacity and potential funding.
- Support the development of city qualification criteria and engagement standards.
- Prepare evidence-based recommendations for the Senior Manager, Yes/Cities and relevant regional leads on whether and how opportunities should progress.
- Coordinate transitions of cities suited to entry-point engagement with the Senior Associate, Yes/Cities responsible for the Global Network, documenting context, contacts, next steps and ownership.
- Coordinate with regional ecosystem leads to transition qualified opportunities into regional or city-level engagement, ensuring relevant materials and intelligence are complete.
- Maintain clarity on ownership, next steps and accountabilities for each priority city.
- Support connections between city priorities and global Forum programming, and identify opportunities for cross-city learning and replication.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
