Director of Community Development

THE POSITION

The City of Sacramento, California, is seeking a visionary Director of Community Development to lead its Community Development Department, one of the City’s largest and multifaceted service areas. This position oversees five direct reports, up to 315 indirect staff, and a $60.7 million operating budget. The Director works closely with the City Manager’s Office, executive leadership, elected officials, business leaders, developers, and community stakeholders to advance major redevelopment initiatives, housing production, and process improvement efforts. This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of California’s capital city by balancing growth, regulatory integrity, equity, and neighborhood vitality. The ideal candidate is a politically astute, service-oriented leader who brings strong operational expertise, strategic vision, and the ability to deliver measurable results in a highly visible and dynamic public-sector environment. Drive strategic growth and create meaningful community impact in the City of Sacramento, apply today!

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate is a visionary and principled community development leader who can translate strategy into execution and consistently deliver measurable results in a complex, highly visible city environment. They bring expertise in planning, development services, building safety, and code compliance, with the ability to lead concept-to-completion initiatives that advance housing production, economic development, and neighborhood vitality. A skilled motivator, this leader builds cohesive, high-performing teams and fosters accountability, succession planning, and professional growth across a large and diverse organization. They effectively represent the Department and partner with the executive team, elected officials, business leaders, developers, and community stakeholders. The successful candidate demonstrates sound judgment and serves as a strategic problem-solver, proactively identifying and operationalizing opportunities for continuous improvement, while advancing growth and safeguarding equity, community infrastructure, and regulatory integrity. They exhibit a strong customer-service orientation, business awareness, and a clear sense of urgency, ensuring consistency with policy. Adaptable, fair, and forward-thinking, the Director applies innovative best practices, thinks comprehensively across immediate and long-term horizons, and confidently leads the Department while maintaining public trust and service excellence.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following core competencies...

• Political Acumen & Relationship Building: Navigates complex political dynamics with sound judgment and professionalism, building credibility and trust with the City Council, City Manager, executive leadership, business leaders, and community stakeholders while advancing policy priorities and minimizing organizational risk.
• External Public Awareness: Demonstrates awareness of community sentiment, development trends, and the broader economic and regulatory environment, balancing growth, equity, and neighborhood protection in a highly visible capital city setting.
• Team Player: Collaborates effectively across departments and with internal and external partners, fostering alignment, shared accountability, and coordinated service delivery within a large and diverse organization.
• Communication: Communicates complex planning, development, and regulatory matters clearly and confidently, ensuring transparency.

View the full recruitment brochure here: https://indd.adobe.com/view/055a2f9a-59ff-4ee5-82d9-63643bb4b59f

Under executive direction, the Director of Community Development serves as the principal administrator of the Department of Community Development; plans, organizes, and directs all the activities of the divisions that comprise the Department of Community Development; interfaces with City officials, division managers, City Council, and others on Community Development Services; provides professional and technical staff assistance; manages and supervises staff; serves as a member of the City's Executive Team.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS

This is a single-position executive-management classification. The Director of Community Development exercises management direction over the diverse major functions that comprise the Department of Community Development (Planning, Building, Fire Plan Check & Inspection, Environmental Services, Development Services/Special Districts, Downtown Redevelopment, Citywide Economic Development, Public Plan Review). The incumbent performs work that is of high complexity and often requires intense and exacting mental attention and ability to reason through and solve complex problems. The Director of Community Development operates from general directives or broadly defined missions as they relate to the Department's goals and objectives; creates and implements policies governing the department's function, and assists in policy decisions that may have citywide impact. The Director of Community Development is distinguished from the f Planning Director in that the latter provides administrative direction and oversight to the Planning Division and is responsible for the activities of the Planning Division of the Department of Community Development. The Director of Community Development is distinguished from the Director of Economic Development in that the latter is responsible to carry out the Citywide Economic Development Strategy.

SUPERVISION RECEIVED AND EXERCISED

Executive direction is provided by an Assistant City Manager or higher-level staff. The incumbent provides direct and indirect supervision to mid-level managers as well as other professional, technical, and clerical staff members. Management authority is delegated through direct report line managers that head up each of the major functions.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

TYPICAL DUTIES

- Plan, organize, manage, lead, and direct the overall operations of the Department of Community Development.
- Meet with deputy directors, division managers, and other key department staff to share information and discuss issues regarding projects, policies and programs, and to determine priorities and resource management issues, on a regular basis.
- Develops priorities, approach, and strategies regarding organizational development/ improvement initiatives; develops, plans, and implements Department goals and objectives in accordance with the core purpose, mission, vision, and values of the organization; develops, recommends, and administers policies and procedures; identifies, develops, and implements initiatives to improve service delivery with other city departments and public/regional agencies.
- Administers, directs, and recommends the Department budget; analyzes fiscal data to identify and project resource needs; obtains needed resources; monitors and approves budget expenditures.
- Reviews legislation and assures compliance with laws, regulations, statutes, and codes that impact Department operations.
- Selects, assigns, trains, directs, and evaluates subordinate staff, including subordinate managers, supervisors, professionals, and others; discusses, negotiates, and resolves personnel issues/conflicts with staff, unions, and labor relations.
- Provides consultation and oversight to citywide strategic planning efforts and participates in planning/design teams to develop direction, recommendations, and strategies for Executive Team development and citywide improvement initiatives; participates in Executive Team meetings.
- Negotiates, arbitrates, and resolves program, project, and policy issues/conflicts with City Council, City Manager, other departments, and community/business stakeholders.
- Attends City Council meetings; meets with City Managers office and City Council regarding new programs, project/program status, sensitive/controversial issues; coordinates assigned activities with City officials, other City departments, and outside agencies as appropriate; participates on committees and boards and in community activities as assigned; attends meetings, conferences, and workshops.
- Prepares complex statistical and narrative reports, correspondence, and other documents.
- Other related duties may also be performed; not all duties listed are necessarily performed by each individual.

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of:

- Organizational development, process development, systems thinking.
- Subdivision laws and public works financing.
- Principles and practices of engineering and administration as applied to the design and construction of public works facilities and technical inspection services.
- Principles and practices of modern office management.
- Principles of organization, administration, budget, and personnel management.
- Current trends, principles, practices, methods, and techniques of public works administration; current literature, laws, regulations, and developments, as well as various agencies that impact and/or govern public works-related services.
- Applicable Federal, state, and regional issues and regulations.

Skill in:

- Interest based negotiations and consensus building.
- Effective verbal and written communication skills with diverse groups.
- Coaching and mentoring.
- Use of computers, computer applications, and software.

Ability to:

- Think and act strategically, creatively, and critically.
- Create common understanding on issues through education with relevant/factual information
- Present complex technical and operational issues simply and logically to City managers, policy makers, and community.
- Be politically astute without being political.
- Create common understanding of organizational purpose and motivate staff to provide high quality services and customer satisfaction at a competitive cost.
- Be adaptable and innovative, decisive and diplomatic.
- Problem solve collaboratively and creatively.
- Establish and maintain effective working relationships with public officials, public/private agencies, and the general public.
- Prepare complex narrative and statistical reports, correspondence, and other documents.

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Any combination of education and experience that would provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the knowledge and abilities would be:

Experience:

A minimum of eight years of progressively responsible experience managing a broad range of municipal services including engineering/architectural design, traffic engineering, and/or street maintenance in a large public agency including a minimum of two years at a management level comparable to Division Manager or higher.

Education:

A Bachelor's degree in planning, civil engineering, public administration or business administration, or a related field from an accredited college or university.

Substitution:

A Master's Degree in a related field may substitute for one year of the required supervisory experience.

Additional qualifying experience may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis.

SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS

Certifications:

None

THE SELECTION PROCEDURE

HOW TO APPLY
For consideration, apply by April 15 at: https://wbcp.applicantpool.com/jobs/1289349-300215.html&nbsp ;

View the WBCP Job Board: https://wbcpinc.com/job-board/&nbsp ;

SAVE THE DATES
Round one virtual interviews will take place on May 8. Finalists will move forward to round two and round three in-person interviews on May 14 and May 15. Selected candidates must be available for all dates.

QUESTIONS?
Please contact your recruiter, Terri Maus-Nisich, with any inquiries:
• terri@wbcpinc.com
•541-664-0376 (direct)
•866-929-9227 (toll-free)

Bilingual Pay
Did you know that the City offers bilingual pay? That's right, most labor agreements offer the option of providing employees with bilingual pay if the department deems it to be operationally necessary.

Pension Reform Act
The City of Sacramento is covered by the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and as such, must adhere to the California Public Employee's Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) of 2013. Please note that the provisions within this act may affect or impact an applicant's eligibility and/or selection for open vacancies at the City of Sacramento.

Equal Opportunity Employer
The City of Sacramento is an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation.

Additional Information

Civil Service Rules: https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/hr/documentlibrary/CivilServiceBoardRules62012.pdf

Union Contracts: https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/HR/labor-agreements.html

Salary Schedule: https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/hr/documentlibrary/SalarySchedule.pdf

Closing Date/Time: 4/15/2026 11:59 PM Pacific

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• City of Sacramento

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