Senior Projects Manager - Special Projects

Discover Durham & Durham Sports Commission•Durham, NC

1d•$75,000 - $85,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Durham Next is a nonprofit organization operated by Discover Durham and is a visionary community partnership for the sustainable advancement of Durham as the best place to live, work and visit. Durham Next aims to create a prosperous Durham for everyone by actively pursuing transformative projects, programs and other community-based opportunities that will attract visitors and newcomers and build a thriving environment for our residents. Discover Durham is Durham’s marketing and sales agency, generating economic impact by drawing 13 million leisure, business, and sports visitors to our vibrant community each year. Discover Durham also operates the Durham Sports Commission (DSC), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create economic and social impact by leading the community’s efforts to attract, support, and promote youth, amateur, collegiate, and professional sporting and recreational events. Durham Next is seeking a Special Projects Manager to serve as a key partner to the Executive Director and help translate organizational priorities into coordinated execution. The position manages a diverse portfolio of organizational and special projects while providing high-level support to the Executive Director, Board of Directors, Community Advisory Council, and Durham Next team. Working across staff, consultants, partners, and organizational leadership, the Special Projects Manager maintains an organization-wide view of priorities, projects, programs, and commitments; clarifies ownership and coordinates interdependent work; monitors progress and identifies gaps or barriers; and steps in to lead or support work that does not fall clearly within another team member’s responsibilities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Economic Development, Business Administration, Public Administration, Community Development, or related field.
Five years of increasingly responsible experience in the implementation of economic development, community development, or capital project construction initiatives.
Demonstrated success in managing complex projects and project teams.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Economic Development, Business Administration, Public Administration, Community Development, Urban/Regional Planning, or related field.
Experience in Asana or other project management software.
Strong political and cultural sensitivity; ability to work across diverse communities and build consensus.
Experience working with nonprofit organizations, boards and community stakeholders.
Excellent leadership, facilitation, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic and operational partner to the Executive Director, helping translate organizational priorities and decisions into clear next steps, assignments, timelines, and follow-through.
Anticipate and coordinate information, preparation, and follow-up needs for key meetings, decisions, initiatives, and stakeholder engagements, including briefing materials, presentations, correspondence, and other executive materials.
Coordinate meeting preparation, documentation, and follow-through for staff, project teams, and other priority meetings, including agendas, decisions, action items, and next steps.
Serve as a central coordination point for the Durham Next team, connecting individual workstreams to organizational priorities and ensuring responsibilities, handoffs, timelines, dependencies, and decisions are clear and addressed.
Establish and maintain systems for tracking organizational priorities, decisions, assignments, commitments, deadlines, and follow-up.
Coordinate the team’s operating cadence, including staff meetings, project reviews, planning sessions, retreats, and other internal working sessions.
Lead or support special assignments and emerging priorities on behalf of the Executive Director and handle sensitive or time-sensitive organizational matters with sound judgment and discretion.
Manage a portfolio of special projects, programs, and organizational priorities from planning through execution, including development of scopes, work plans, timelines, milestones, budgets, responsibilities, and tracking systems.
Maintain an organization-wide view of Durham Next’s portfolio of programs and projects, monitoring dependencies, decision points, resource needs, capacity constraints, competing priorities, and gaps in ownership and elevating risks or issues to the Executive Director.
Coordinate consultants, contractors, procurement, solicitations, and contracting processes associated with assigned projects and programs, including scopes of work, RFPs, deliverables, timelines, invoices, and related follow-up.
Establish and maintain systems for tracking organizational outcomes, benchmarks, and performance measures; coordinate data collection and prepare progress reports, dashboards, and other updates for leadership, the Board, funders, and partners.
Partner with the Executive Director to support effective operations of the Durham Next Board of Directors and its committees.
Support development and coordination of Board agendas, meeting materials, presentations, reports, dashboards, and supporting documentation in collaboration with the Executive Director and appropriate staff.
Track Board decisions, requests, commitments, and follow-up actions and ensure responsible parties are aware of deadlines and expectations.
Support Board recruitment, orientation, onboarding, engagement, and annual planning activities and maintain related governance records.
Support the ongoing management and coordination of the Community Advisory Council (CAC), including meeting cadence, agendas, member communications, participation tracking, and follow-through.
Coordinate with staff, consultants, and project partners to determine when and how projects should engage the CAC and ensure feedback, recommendations, and follow-up actions are communicated to appropriate project teams.
Support CAC member recruitment, onboarding, engagement, and retention and coordinate presenters, facilitation, materials, and meeting needs.
Coordinate and support relationships with government, community, business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and other partners connected to Durham Next priorities.
Participate in external meetings and working groups as assigned and coordinate resulting information, commitments, and follow-up.
Coordinate with Discover Durham’s marketing and communications team to support consistent and timely communication about Durham Next initiatives.