Vice President, Market Strategy and Partnerships

IFF•Grand Rapids, MI

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Market Strategy and Partnerships is a senior leader within IFF’s Regional and Market leadership function, responsible for setting and advancing strategy across Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. Reporting to the Chief Regional and Markets Officer, the VP brings a comprehensive understanding of the region – its communities, institutions, policy environment, key stakeholders and emerging opportunities – to inform IFF’s priorities and approach. As both a regional strategist and enterprise integrator, the VP maintains strong external relationships and market visibility while connecting regional priorities to IFF’s broader capabilities. Working across Regional and Market Leadership and with enterprise and local line of business leaders, the VP helps align the relationships, expertise, and resources needed to advance IFF’s mission. The Vice President is responsible for building and managing strategic relationships with local and regional stakeholders, including cities, counties, universities, and community and economic development partners. Operating in partnership with External Affairs, Capital Raise, and Business Unit functions, the role advances organizational priorities through stakeholder engagement not otherwise assigned to customer-facing teams or state and federal government relations functions. The role requires sound judgment in determining how and where IFF engages - through direct leadership, strategic partnership, or coordinated enterprise action. IFF is looking for candidates with a commitment to the work we do who can demonstrate their creativity, diligence, enthusiasm, growth-mindset, thoughtfulness, and passion to make meaningful change in the areas of economic and racial justice. The Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky region encompasses markets at different stages of maturity and requires both consistent enterprise practices and nuanced market understanding. As IFF continues to standardize core approaches across the organization, the VP will be responsible for ensuring that regional strategy remains responsive to the distinct conditions, relationships, and opportunities within each market. Michigan is an established market with offices in Detroit and Grand Rapids. Detroit is a mature market characterized by deep philanthropic and institutional relationships and a significant IFF presence in early childhood education; Grand Rapids is a newer market and home to IFF’s pilot Michigan Affordable Housing Fund. Ohio is a growth market with meaningful opportunity to expand IFF’s relationships, visibility, and impact building on the strong momentum in IFF’s Cleveland office and strong partnerships with the Cincinnati Development Fund. Kentucky, as well as portions of Ohio, will be advanced through a more partnership-oriented strategy, leveraging relationships with other CDFIs and institutional partners. The VP will be expected to apply IFF’s enterprise frameworks consistently while exercising the judgment necessary to adapt strategy and engagement to the realities of each market. Being that the Regional and Market Leadership function itself is at varying stages of maturity across markets and organizational relationships. The Vice President will help establish greater consistency and clarity while ensuring the function remains responsive to local market conditions and evolving enterprise priorities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree required in business, finance, urban planning, economic or community development OR equivalent experience in similar position
Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in community or economic development, lending, philanthropy, nonprofit leadership or a related field, including senior leadership responsibility.
Experience leading through organizational change, building new functions or initiatives, developing operating practices, or working effectively in evolving organizational environments preferred.
Regular travel throughout the Midwest region; occasional early start or extended hours and evening or weekend work.
Commitment to the work we do who can demonstrate their creativity, diligence, enthusiasm, growth-mindset, thoughtfulness, and passion to make meaningful change in the areas of economic and racial justice.
Demonstrates a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Promotes an environment of empathy and respect, ensures the inclusion of all team members, and will actively engage in EDI events and learning opportunities.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading through organizational change, building new functions or initiatives, developing operating practices, or working effectively in evolving organizational environments.

Responsibilities

Set and advance an integrated strategy for the region that reflects IFF’s enterprise priorities and the distinct conditions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky.
Establish clear market relationship priorities and recommend the appropriate level and form of IFF engagement based on the type of opportunity, organizational capacity, relationships, and potential for impact.
Maintain a forward-looking view of economic, community, institutional, policy, and capital trends and translate those insights into strategic implications for IFF.
Assess IFF’s positioning across the region and identify opportunities to deepen existing markets, build growth markets, and strengthen partnership-driven approaches.
Provide the CRMO and other senior leaders with clear regional perspective, recommendations, and intelligence to support enterprise decision-making.
Connect regional priorities, market intelligence, and emerging opportunities to the appropriate IFF capabilities, helping shape enterprise responses with the greatest potential for impact.
Utilize emerging tools for assessment of potential opportunities then, when necessary, work with the CRMO to convene engage Executive Leadership partners around significant opportunities to clarify IFF’s role, align resources, and establish a path to execution.
Maintain a two-way learning loop, through regular touchpoints and activation of IFF’s tools, with the CDFI, capital, policy, and other enterprise functions so that market insight informs strategy and regional leadership benefits from enterprise learning.
Partner with the Chief Capital Architect and Chief Ecosystems Officer to apply lessons from the Michigan Affordable Housing Fund and other emerging initiatives, identifying implications for future market strategy, partnerships, and opportunities across IFF’s footprint.
Contribute to the continued development and institutionalization of Regional and Market Leadership tools, frameworks, and processes that support consistent opportunity assessment, prioritization, and enterprise collaboration across markets.
Represent IFF with key philanthropic, public-sector, nonprofit, civic, financial, and community leaders across the region.
Build and steward priority relationships that advance IFF’s regional strategy, visibility, and influence.
Maintain awareness of key stakeholder priorities and external dynamics and use that insight to inform IFF’s strategy and engagement.
Coordinate with enterprise leaders to ensure clear ownership and stewardship of significant institutional relationships.
Provide insights into integrated market conditions, policy, capital, institutional capacity, and community priorities into regional relationship development and outreach strategy in conjunction with leadership
Partner with External Affairs leaders to connect regional insight with IFF’s policy agenda and external positioning and two-way learning sharing insights from the national context.
Bring insights to support the framing for and activation of cross functional expertise to identify capital gaps, ecosystem needs, structural barriers, and resource opportunities that may require new partnerships or enterprise responses.
Surface opportunities for IFF to influence broader community development conditions beyond individual transactions or projects staying curious and informed about the work with a higher-level focus on IFF as a go-to systems partner.
Lead Regional & Market Leadership staff across the region, establishing clear priorities, expectations, and accountability.
Develop leaders with strong market judgment, relationship-management skills, productive cross functional relationships, and an enterprise perspective.
Balance consistent operating practices and time commitments with responsiveness to local market conditions.
Strengthen collaboration across functions and contribute to the continued development of RML practices and ways of working.
Model sound judgment, curiosity, solutions orientation, accountability, and collaborative leadership.
Demonstrates a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Promotes an environment of empathy and respect, ensures the inclusion of all team members, and will actively engage in EDI events and learning opportunities.