Senior Director of Local Innovation (title may adjust based on candidate qualifications)

Title: Senior Director of Local Innovation (title may adjust based on candidate qualifications)

Type: Full-time

Location: Front Range, CO or Remote

Industry: Bicycle Industry Nonprofit

Employment and Classification: “At will” employment status; full-time position

About PeopleForBikes

PeopleForBikes (PFB) unites millions of Americans, thousands of businesses and hundreds of communities to make every bike ride safer, more accessible and more fun. Our mission is to get more people on bikes more often and make biking better for everyone. Nationwide, PeopleForBikes represents 290 supplier members, more than 1,000 Ride Spot retailer members and nearly 1.4 million individual supporters. PeopleForBikes has a Coalition that is the U.S. bicycle industry’s trade association and a Foundation that supports and promotes bicycling’s benefits and backs crucial bike infrastructure projects and programs.

Job Summary

PeopleForBikes is looking for someone to plan and execute our nonprofit’s efforts to make the U.S. the best bicycling nation in the world by helping build better bike infrastructure in specific communities nationwide. The successful candidate will focus on the power of building connected bike networks, reducing barriers to bicycling and working within a larger mobility and active transportation context.

We’re looking for a leader that can join our team, audit our programs, collaborate with stakeholders and use their experience to help us create the next generation of impactful city programs. Our past successes include the Big Jump, Green Lane Project, Final Mile and City Ratings programs. All ideas for the future are on the table — incubators, pilot projects, startups, key initiatives or ballot campaigns, policy changes, training, etc.

This position is part of an elite team working to make America the best place to ride a bike while building on best practices learned from around the world. An entrepreneurial or start-up mentality is key to creating these exciting, new, and highly collaborative programs.

We are using this position and the hiring process to gain clarity around our local programming and leadership needs. Depending on the candidate’s experience and qualifications, the title and responsibilities may evolve to include providing strategic guidance, oversight and leadership for other existing local innovation programs including youth programming, Better Bike Share Partnership, and City Ratings. 

Job Responsibilities

• Do a deep dive into our current resources to identify new opportunities and create the next big infrastructure program that capitalizes on the last.
• Create and deliver valuable resources to local government, advocates, bike industry, funders and other community partners to help create better infrastructure and get more people riding bikes.
• Manage highly productive relationships and serve as a spokesperson for PeopleForBikes with the above stakeholders.
• Execute slated programs including a national advocacy gathering, study tours and other pieces from the Final Mile programs, such as helping cities significantly increase their city ratings scores.
• Collaborate with our policy, communications and local programming teams (namely the Better Bike Share Partnership and youth teams) to holistically plan and share great content.
• Work with our policy team to connect Local Innovation program partners with federal and state lobbying opportunities to move our infrastructure agenda forward
• Work with our VP of Philanthropy to identify sponsorship and grant opportunities.
• Develop and manage timetables, budgets, reports, consultant projects, documents and various events.
• Travel is necessary.
• Possible supervision, strategic oversight of programs, and other leadership duties as described in the job summary above.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• At least 10 years experience in transportation project development with experience working within or with public works or planning departments to put connected bike networks on the ground.
• Bachelor's or master’s degree in planning, urban design or related field; experience may be substituted for education on a year-by-year basis.
• Experience guiding government staff, advocacy leaders and business communities to adopt best practices for elevating active transportation and connected bike networks (knowing the differences between each audience).
• Knowledge of local government policies that support or hinder bicycling, especially in regards to sustainability, diversity and mobility justice.
• Already has (and is excited to build more) valuable relationships across the country with city staff, elected officials and multimodal local advocacy groups.
• Able to work collaboratively with a diverse workforce.
• Understands the power and best practices of authentic, inclusive community engagement; recognizes the need for equity and community engagement to be built into all Local Innovation work.
• Extremely organized, can measure progress with data, works independently to achieve deadlines, able to juggle multiple projects and works best in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to provide program direction for maximum efficacy and to manage scope creep.
• Excellent communication skills, comfortable with public speaking and politically savvy.
• Passionate about the power of the bike to make life great and a commitment to safe, healthy, reliable and affordable access to bicycling for all, especially those from underserved and marginalized communities.

Desired Qualifications

• Event coordination.
• Experience working on social justice issues.
• Experience in bike advocacy.
• Experience in local public process.
• Understanding of principles of bike facility design, construction and engineering.
• Budgeting skills.
• Experience building peer-to-peer networks.
• Experience with GIS.
• Competent and comfortable on a bike.
• Demonstrated experience in securing project funding from public and private sources.
• Spanish fluency

Compensation and Benefits

This “at-will” position offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience — a range of $85,000 - $140,000 — that will be determined depending on the final title and experience of the hire. PeopleForBikes offers an excellent and comprehensive benefits package. This includes paid health insurance for employees, a generous paid-time-off (PTO) policy including 22 days plus federal holidays, paid parental leave, a flexible work schedule including work from home options and optional participation in a deferred compensation retirement plan with immediate vesting of the competitive employer match. In addition, we provide long-term disability insurance, a cell phone plan and a laptop computer along with other benefits.

At PeopleForBikes, our agreed-upon set of team norms are what drives us to do our best every day that we show up to work. Our core purpose is to make life great, and our core values are to put others first, include everyone and it can always be better. We’ll talk more in the interview process about what these mean, but for now, know that we continually strive to build and strengthen our team, we work together effectively to serve our mission and we have fun. Beyond that, we’re casual, we work flexibly with some remote work allowed and we love dogs. You don’t have to be an amazing bike rider to work here — what matters to us is a desire to work alongside passionate people improving the world through bikes (and hopefully you love bikes too).

To Apply

• Interested applicants should submit a resume and cover letter in a single PDF file, via email, with “Local Innovation” in the subject line to PeopleForBikes’ chief of staff at jobs@peopleforbikes.org.
• The cover letter should not exceed one page and briefly explain the candidate’s applicable experience and make sure to explain your experience in inclusive community engagement with planning and efforts to work on mobility justice.

Due to volume, we will not respond to telephone or in-person inquiries. Incomplete applications will not be considered. The position is available immediately and will remain open until the position is filled. Interested applicants are encouraged to visit PeopleForBikes.org for general information and organizational background.

Equal Opportunity

Our work to create safer, more comfortable and accessible places to ride for everyone starts with us. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to hiring a diverse workforce and will consider alternative ways in which an applicant may have gained the required qualifications outside of traditional pathways.

We are working to ensure our staff reflects the backgrounds, experiences and perspectives of the communities we serve. Employing a diverse staff enables us to better serve diverse communities and build an empowering, collaborative and innovative work culture. We strive to create an inclusive work environment where employees from all backgrounds and communities feel welcomed, valued, respected and received. Please see more about our efforts externally and internally at Peopleforbikes.org/careers.

We believe that no matter who you are, where you're from or why you ride, everyone can find joy on a bicycle. When you work at PeopleForBikes, you help us do the same.