Chief of Staff for the Office of Development

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees housing standards across all 3.7 million homes in New York City.

As the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, HPD is responsible for building and preserving affordable housing, protecting tenants from harassment and displacement, and holding landlords accountable across the five boroughs. Under Commissioner Dina Levy and the Mamdani Administration, HPD is pursuing an ambitious housing agenda focused on the needs of New York’s tenants. With a broad set of tools including standards enforcement, tenant resources, and the creation of new affordable housing, HPD is committed to making New York City a more affordable place for renters and homeowners alike.

The Office of Development’s overall strategy is to support the Mayor’s Housing Plan to create and preserve 300,000 affordable homes by 2026, in close collaboration with other HPD offices, as well as other city, state and federal agencies. The Office of Development administers a broad range of programs and is comprised of nine divisions that administer or support a range of programs. These include:

• Executive Office of Operations and Policy
• New Construction Finance
• Special Needs Housing
• Building and Land Development Services (BLDS)
• Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation
• Preservation Finance
• Portfolio Management and Conversions
• Housing Incentives
• Compliance and Enforcement

Reporting to the Deputy Commissioner of Development, the Chief of Staff will play a key role in developing policy and coordinating the implementation of agency priorities. This position will include broad contact with Development senior staff, the Office of the Commissioner and other internal and external partners.

The Chief of Staff will serve as a development liaison in the following ways:

Establish and promote a culture of problem-solving, trust and collaboration across and within development teams and leadership.

Facilitate annual budget planning process in coordination with Capital Planning and development production programs to ensure targets and available resources are available and aligned.

Roll out new policies and priorities in coordination with Office of Development leadership.

Advance the priorities of the Deputy Commissioner of Development which may include representing the Office at external meetings, including those with City Hall leadership, and conveying Deputy Commissioner priorities and needs to other key agency leadership. Additional tasks in support of the Deputy Commissioner may include preparing material such as memos, presentations and emails in support of their priorities.

Support interagency initiatives that impact development work and priorities and identifying subject matter experts to support related initiatives on behalf of HPD and the Office of Development.

Delegate critical workloads, analyses and input across relevant development teams to ensure expertise is utilized and development feedback and perspective is targeted and considered.

Support and communicate three roles that report directly to the Chief of Staff, including an Executive Assistant, Policy Analyst and the Deputy Chief of Staff. Ensure direct reports are supported with clear portfolio and expectations as well as opportunities for feedback.

Ensure Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner priorities are communicated to development leadership and staff, and key staff feedback is reviewed and considered by leadership.

Respond to time sensitive data requests and exercises related to development’s portfolio, pulling in development staff as needed.

Communicate critical production targets and milestones with partners within and outside of the agency.

Model new programs and policies to ensure they work with business teams and existing resources.

Work closely with the Office’s Executive Operations and Policy team in support of a broad portfolio of workstreams including staff training and support, hiring and civil service, fiscal management and coordination, strategic process redesign, data and analytics, technology and coordination across the Directors of Operations.

Coordinate regularly with the following HPD offices and teams outside of development:

• Office of Neighborhood Strategies (ONS), ensuring alignment between housing production programs and ONS’s neighborhood planning initiatives and pre-development efforts, especially around the Requests for Proposals drafting, review, and selection process.
• Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), especially related to assisting the OLA with Dept. of Investigation requests and coordinating with the Deputy General Counsel for Real Estate Transactions on projected development closing pipeline.
• Communications and Intergovernmental Relations teams, ensuring timely responses to inquiries from these offices; direct contact for event planning and press requests concerning Office of Development projects and policies.
• Capital Planning team, to ensure budgetary needs are communicated at a high level, and projections ensure resources will be available to meet various production-related targets.

• Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:
• Manage three direct reports including the Executive Assistant for the Deputy Commissioner, the Deputy Chief of Staff and a Policy Analyst.
• Represent the Deputy Commissioner at meetings as needed.
• Facilitate policy and program design to support the Mayor’s Housing Plan.
• Other duties as required to assist operations in Development.
• The Department of Housing Preservation & Development and the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer.

• Candidates should have excellent analytical, writing, interpersonal, and organizational skills and a demonstrated ability to be both a team player and a team leader, as situations merit.
• Comfort and proven ability to delegate tasks and responsibilities.
• Familiarity with financial modeling and business process analysis is a plus.
• Familiarity with human resources and operations management is a plus.
• Candidates should have strong organizational skills and the ability to collaborate with existing expertise. In addition, candidate should be able to perform complex tasks with limited supervision and have a demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects in a timely manner.
• Candidates must be comfortable representing the Deputy Commissioner in meetings with senior agency staff.
• Significant experience in affordable housing development, community development, planning or public administration, or a related area is strongly preferred.
• Prior government agency experience is preferred, as is an advanced degree.

ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS PROMOT - 1000C

1. A master’s degree from an accredited college or university with a major in business administration, public administration, urban planning, economics, urban affairs, marketing research, finance, or political science and three years of satisfactory full-time professional experience handling business promotion related to capital projects, urban planning, economic development, or financial development at least two years of which must have been in a managerial or executive capacity; or

2. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and five years of satisfactory full-time professional experience as described in "1" above, including two years of managerial or executive experience described in "1" above; or

3. A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience equivalent to "1" or "2" above. Thirty (30) graduate semester credits from an accredited college or university will be considered equivalent to one year of the required experience. However, all candidates must have two years of managerial or executive experience as described in "1" above and a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent.

Experience in a managerial capacity must include, but is not limited to, responsibilities such as: strategic planning for an office/division; creating and implementing policies; setting standards and best practices defining and documenting project scope; root cause analysis with recommendations; collaborating with other managers and executives to define future state of a program; and/or forecasting.

Experience in an executive capacity must include, but is not limited to, responsibilities such as managing multiple bureaus, areas and/or divisions; formulating the organizational strategy/governance; formulating the organization's architectural strategy; developing, setting and enforcing the organization's policies; developing partnerships; and/or developing the organization's budget, cost savings, and revenue generation.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.