Director, Community Initiatives

Position Overview

The U.S. Program and Policy (USPP) team advances the mission of The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) by partnering with communities, policymakers, employers, and other stakeholders to expand economic opportunity and improve outcomes for people across the United States. Through strategic grantmaking, partnerships, and place-based initiatives, the team develops and scales innovative solutions that strengthen workforce systems, increase access to quality jobs, and build more resilient communities.

Work Schedule: This role is based in the Foundation's New York Office and is required to be in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Hiring Range: $190,000 - $216,000. This represents the present low and high ends of the Foundation’s pay range for this position. Actual pay will vary based on various factors, including but not limited to experience.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the design and execution of special initiatives and cross-cutting projects in the Foundation’s highest-priority jurisdictions, mobilizing partners, capital, and internal teams to move from strategy to measurable results.
• Own sector-specific grantmaking for the US Program team under the direction of the Managing Director of Community Strategy, aligning investments to USPP priorities and ensuring a clear connection between sector strategies and community-level outcomes.
• Identify, assess, and partner with community-based organizations, intermediaries, employers, and public agencies positioned to deliver job outcomes and system improvements.
• Translate national and Foundation-wide sector priorities into actionable, community-based interventions that reflect local conditions, constraints, and opportunities, while remaining aligned to shared hypotheses and system-level goals.
• Ensure place-based investments strengthen underlying community systems, including institutional capacity, workforce infrastructure, cross-sector coordination, and capital readiness, rather than funding stand-alone programs.
• Manage relationships with community partners as a strategic thought partner, supporting implementation while maintaining accountability for outcomes and alignment to strategy.
• Support the U.S. Program’s measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) agenda by defining success metrics and building the routines and systems needed to track progress and surface insights across the portfolio.
• Collaborate across USPP and RF teams—including sector, policy, civic innovation, AI, and catalytic finance colleagues—to align investments and advance integrated system change.
• Contribute to shared learning agendas, helping distinguish context-specific approaches from those with potential for replication or scale. 

Education, Experience, and Skills

• Generally expected to have 10+ years of relevant experience in philanthropy, public sector, or mission-driven organizations, with demonstrated expertise in sectoral strategies, workforce systems, or place-based economic development.
• Bachelor’s degree; Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience designing and managing grant portfolios or programmatic investments, ideally across one or more priority sectors.
• Strong track record of working with community-based organizations, intermediaries, and cross-sector stakeholders.
• Practical understanding of how sector strategies translate into implementation within diverse community contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to operate with sound judgment in complex, ambiguous environments while maintaining alignment to strategic priorities and evolving responsibility over time.
• Demonstrated experience leading measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and/or complex special initiatives, including defining success metrics and translating evidence into strategy and action.
• Ability to travel as required.

Competencies

• Action Oriented: Takes on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm.
• Collaborates: Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Manages Complexity: Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.
• Nimble Learning: Learns through experimentation when tackling new problems, using both successes and failures as learning fodder. 
• Strategic Mindset: Sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into breakthrough strategies.
• Develops Talent: Develops people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity in food, health, energy, and finance, including through our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.

The Rockefeller Foundation offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package that includes health insurance programs, tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment, a generous 401K, parental leave, and various forms of paid time off, all to help our employees feel energized, cared for, and engaged.

As an organization, we focus on six values to advance our culture and continue our success. We are dedicated to being Transparent, Optimistic, Accountable, Collaborative, Trusted, and Equitable. We expect all employees at the Foundation to contribute by developing their unique perspectives and talent, challenging conventional wisdom through evidence and reason, and amplifying marginalized voices.

The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and compliance with all federal, state, and local laws concerning employment discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. To this end, the Foundation ensures equal opportunity to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, lawful alien status, physical, mental, and medical disability, veteran status, liability for service in the United States Armed Forces, or any other protected status. 

The Rockefeller Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer.