The NYC Public Engagement Unit delivers government services and benefits to New Yorkers. We use direct outreach strategies lifted from political campaigns – knocking doors, street canvassing, text banking, etc – to reach hard-to-find people, and then help them navigate NYC’s tough bureaucracies. Watch our two-minute video to understand how PEU serves the City.
PEU is looking for a Chief Strategy Officer who can help PEU stand as an example of the public excellence that Mayor Mamdani emphasizes as a citywide priority. To do this, the CSO will look at the results of our outreach campaigns, understand what’s working and what’s not, and then set better goals for the future. The goal is to help the 100+ folks on our outreach teams reach more New Yorkers and connect them more effectively to city services. It’s all about continuous learning and improvement.
The CSO will be a central contributor to PEU’s Executive Team and a key thought partner to the Executive Director. This means we need an analytical person with high interpersonal skills. Day to day, the work mostly involves lots of meetings with leaders of PEU’s outreach teams. It also means lots of work with external partners – City Hall and the Office of Mass Engagement (to whom PEU reports), and also other agencies with whom we collaborate: DSS, HPD, DOF, NYCPS, OTI and others. You should know how to run a tight meeting, how to read the room, and how to build strong relationships with a very diverse group of stakeholders. (This isn’t the right job for an introvert.) And then, you should be able to synthesize what you’re hearing in those meetings and seeing in the data into options for PEU’s leaders to consider.
What does success for this position look like? After a year:
PEU's outreach teams are reaching more people, more efficiently, and delivering more city services.
The outreach leaders know their goals, believe in them, and can motivate their teams to achieve them.
Every outreach staffer feels like part of a continuous-improvement loop; they are excited to capture outcome data so that they can see what’s working and get better at their jobs.
Our partnerships with City Hall and other agencies have led to successes in high priority projects in areas like keeping NYC tenants in their homes, connecting families to pre-K seats, and helping New Yorkers afford transit costs.
To succeed in this role, you’ll need to be highly flexible and have a deep understanding of person-to-person outreach campaigns – door-knocking, phone banking, peer-to-peer texting, street canvassing, tabling, events, etc. That experience could come from a political campaign, government outreach, community engagement, or even direct sales. In whatever venue, we’re looking for folks who have dealt with the operations and strategy side of the outreach: how to get outreach staff to efficiently reach their targets, learn from the results, and zoom out to the big picture of how PEU structures its work.
You’ll have a leg up if you’ve worked in a complex environment like city government or other large bureaucracies. We’re looking for people who have negotiated relationships with many stakeholders simultaneously, under numerous bureaucratic constraints. Extra points if you’ve worked on formal data sharing agreements, have experience with data privacy and security, or can rattle off NYC’s definition of “sensitive” vs. “restricted” data.
This is a management role, though the specific team(s) you would oversee will depend on the skills and experience you bring to the role. Depending on your background, the role could involve leading technical, operational, or external-facing functions, among others. Regardless of focus area, we are only considering candidates with direct supervisory experience. Experience managing managers is especially valued.
We won’t consider candidates with less than 5 years of professional experience, and 10+ is more in the right range. You MUST live within the five boroughs, or move here within 90 days. You will work at PEU’s office at 253 Broadway most days, though we have other offices, and spend days in the field. Regularly scheduled remote work is available one or two days a week.