At  Underline, we are driven by a singular mission: to ensure the vibrancy of our nation through building intelligent community infrastructure. We work with communities across the United States to design, finance, and construct open access community fiber  networks. We believe these networks are the essential foundation for ultra-fast access to information, a competitive market for content and services, job formation and reskilling for workers, distributed healthcare services, new wireless solutions, and resilient modern infrastructure including responsible energy creation. 

As the Director of Community Partnerships, you’ll lead Underline’s efforts with communities, elected officials, and local leaders across the country, evangelizing communities and driving public policy at the national and state level.

• Expertise in developing relationships with senior-level city officials, community organizations, political entities, or executives  
• Experience developing policy initiatives and driving policy consensus including among think tanks and/or the academic/research community 
• You have a consistent track record of building a team internally and/or external growth through partnerships and business development
• You are detail-oriented and able to juggle and execute on multiple tasks and projects in sometimes a nebulous and fluid work environment
• You are a strategic thinker who can also double as a day-to-day executor and balance short- and long-term challenges
• You have an entrepreneurial spirit—you have no problem getting your hands dirty and have an intense ability to learn quickly and from others
• You are a true believer in the social, economic, and environmental benefits of bringing intelligent infrastructure to communities across the country

• Work closely with data science, industry partnerships, and marketing teams to prioritize community opportunities, serve as the leading edge of Underline community evangelism efforts, opening doors and engaging business dev and revenue colleagues once community interest is developed
• Engage advocacy groups, elected officials, and legislators, acting as both an advocate and an expert, to build beneficial partnerships and unlock more opportunities to build networks
• Position Underline and open access infrastructure as the ideal solution for a community’s needs
• Serve as the policy lead for Underline, driving thought leadership across the policy, government and academic communities
• Be the initial point-of-contact for city officials, local businesses, and other community stakeholders
• Work directly with the Director of Communications and Marketing on marketing initiatives, events, local campaigns, written materials (blog posts, fact sheets, etc), and customer service
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams including biz dev, product, marketing, communications, networks, and decision science
• Collaborate on localized strategies, launch plans, and budgets for each market to operationalize demand aggregation and community engagement efforts 
• Create and iterate on launch playbooks to help scale our efforts across communities
• Systematically monitor industry developments and standards in the telecom space, identifying and analyzing key issues, and sharing action-oriented analysis
• Represent Underline at conferences, local events, speaking engagements, press opportunities, and through thought leadership
• Influence peers and stakeholders in a cross-functional capacity through the organization by surfacing local issues and suggesting solutions
• Drive operational rigor and efficiency to improve internal intelligence and process improvement, including but not limited to: CRM platform, database development, and other workflow tools (Asana, Google Drive, etc)

• At least 5-7  years experience and an outstanding track record in partnerships, business development, or community engagement, preferably in fast-paced environments
• Experience in politics, government, or policy realms
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. This may manifest through product presentations, written proposals, speaking engagements, or customer relationships. You understand how to strike the right tone and you’re able to communicate clearly and persuasively 
• Demonstrated ability to influence both internally and externally, and across levels
• Exceptional analytical skills, both quantitative and qualitative 
• Extensive experience building consensus across a broad set of stakeholders
• Must be willing to travel potentially 30-50% +  of the time

• Experience in local regional politics and/or a high-growth startup engaging governments is a plus
• Master’s level academic work at intersection of policy and economics/business strongly preferred