About City Bureau

City Bureau is an innovation lab reimagining local journalism, civic media, and participatory democracy. We equip people with civic skills, develop resources that directly meet people’s information needs, and create pathways for deliberative dialogue that strengthens communities. We envision a world where all communities have the information, tools, and resources they need to actively shape their futures and cultivate a more responsive and just democracy.

About our Documenters Network

City Bureau’s Documenters program makes local democracy real and accessible to anyone. We do this by training and paying community members to attend and take notes at local public meetings, turning the knowledge, relationships, and capacity of local residents into a powerful community information resource. 

Since launching Documenters in Chicago in 2016, local news and community organizations nationwide have adopted the program through the Documenters Network, which now includes more than 20 programs housed in local organizations across the country, with more added every year. Collectively, we have trained nearly 4,000 community members and documented more than 5,000 public meetings across the country.

Using a network approach, City Bureau partners with local community and news organizations to start local Documenters programs (“sites”) in order to equip communities to understand and shape local policies and public systems. City Bureau stewards the overall Documenters program model; provides custom central technology through Documenters.org to operate and publish Documenters assignments; and offers convenings, template materials, and more to sites that support innovation, learning, and connection.

Location: Remote, with some required travel to Chicago and partner communities

About the Job

City Bureau is seeking a Site Success Director to lead our strategy for supporting our growing network of 20+ Documenters sites. 

This role will be responsible for refining, innovating, and evaluating our approach to supporting the success of individual Documenters sites through different stages of maturity: developing and onboarding new sites; coaching and setting goals with existing sites; and supporting the deepening or expansion of mature sites. This role will lead a growing team of Success Partners, who work 1:1 with a portfolio of sites to coach and problem solve together toward the success of the local Documenters program; build and manage relationships; and “weave” the network to promote strong connections and learning between sites. We are looking for a director who can evaluate and evolve our approach for supporting the success of Documenters sites; manage a coaching team; and build relationships and systems that further our ultimate vision.

We are looking for someone who has experience developing program or member success operations and teams. The ideal candidate will be detail-oriented in creating systems and metrics for success and can engage in strategic conversations about scaling program operations locally and nationally. We are seeking someone who can build meaningful relationships, especially with external partners; collaborate effectively across teams in a growth-stage organization; and get results.

The Site Success team will work alongside a Network + Learning team that focuses on network-wide convenings, communication, and learning materials; a Product team that develops Documenters.org; and the Chicago Documenters team that implements and innovates on the founding Documenters program in Chicago. The Site Success Director will contribute to overall Documenters program leadership and collaboration.

You should apply if…

• You’re an exceptional relationship builder: You’re curious what drives people; you naturally individualize your approach based on their needs; and you can motivate a team and partners toward common goals.

• You’re a strategic thinker: You have a knack for asking the right questions and building the right tools to help prioritize a team’s work. You have an eye for sustainability, including financially.

• You’re excited about reimagining civic life: You jump at the chance to create new pathways for communities to participate in local news and government.

Responsibilities

• Documenters site success strategy

• Lead the strategy for supporting successful, sustainable Documenters sites, including program implementation support, relationship management, and partnership development

• Foster strong communication and trust with sites, including with site leadership and editorial teams

• Over time, develop shared metrics for success in partnership with Documenters Network sites to guide support 

• Develop and implement team intervention tactics for issues that threaten site success, including performance and site sustainability issues, by leveraging understanding of organizational dynamics and cultivating buy-in and influence with sites to support high performance 

• Manage the most sensitive site issues (e.g., site closure or reputational risks) with City Bureau support

• Manage and evolve processes and workflows for site support and intake, with an eye toward strategic use of resources and an expanding network

• Develop strategic partnerships to support site success outside of City Bureau's defined role 

• Team management

• Manage and develop a growing team of three Success Managers, lead team tactical meetings, and contribute to Documenters departmental leadership team

• Hire and onboard additional team members in line with our growth needs

• Documenters Leadership and Collaboration

• Participate in the Documenters Leadership squad to guide overall Documenters program strategy and operations

• Contribute to team building activities such as retreats

• Deeply collaborate with other Documenters teams, such as our Product team, Chicago flagship team, and Network + Learning team, to ensure that needs and opportunities from Documenters sites and your team are informing their priorities

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience managing a team and/or leading projects where people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and abilities feel they can do their best work

• 3+ years of experience with program, member, or client success strategy

• Ability to be a player/coach who can lead teams and jump in where needed

• Strong strategic thinking abilities, capable of translating high-level goals into practical, actionable plans

• A systems thinker who can build and evolve strategies for sustainability, efficiency, and impact

• Collaborative: able to clearly and consistently communicate and collaborate with other teams, and create mutually beneficial goals on shared projects

• Exceptional relationship-building skills, with the ability to partner with executives, staff, residents, donors, and community partners. 

• Ability to build strategic partnerships with results, including through internal and external stakeholder buy-in

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to convey complex ideas clearly and concisely. Demonstrated experience communicating with diverse audiences

• Strong critical thinking and active listening skills, with the ability to identify challenges and develop effective solutions. Ability to adapt plans as new information becomes available.

• Proactive and accountable. Ability to take initiative and drive projects forward independently.

• Growth-oriented with a low ego; demonstrated ability to learn from past actions, individually and collectively, and apply insights to help our teams be successful in the future

• High degree of flexibility, able to be self-directed and able pivot to develop creative solutions to organizational challenges

• A deep understanding of nonprofit operations and challenges

• Experience with the following tools is a plus: Google tools (Gmail, Docs, Sheets), Slack, Asana, AirTable

  We expect that the strongest candidates will have the above skills and areas of expertise in varying degrees. If you don’t have every qualification, please consider applying, and use your application to tell us about the skills you bring that would help us build this team.

Compensation, Benefits and Support

• $105,000 annual salary. City Bureau uses a universal compensation that includes fixed annual raises currently set at 3.5%

• Full time with benefits package including health care, dental, vision, life insurance

• Employer sponsored 401k plans, with 100% employer match up to 4% of salary

• $1,000 annual technology and work tools allowance

• $1,000 professional development allowance

• 15 days paid vacation, not including health days

• 11 company holidays each year, which may be exchanged for employees who celebrate other holidays

• A 4.5-day week for most of the year. For three months during the summer, City Bureau operates on a 4-day work week.

• Flexible work schedule and work from home options—City Bureau has a central office and requires occasional in-person meetings and work sessions. Outside of the work we actually need to see each other for, we are flexible with schedules and employees work wherever they see fit.

• A culture of intentional professional development and organizational learning: City Bureau staff hold regular share outs to learn from one another and hold regular community check-ins to connect and surface feedback on policies and practices.

Our Anticipated Timeline

We’re projecting the following timeline for this hiring process. We will notify candidates of any shifts as we move through the process.

• Application closes on Mar 30, 2025

• Within two weeks of closing applications, you will know if you’ve moved onto the interview stage 

• Within two weeks of your interview, you’ll know if you moved onto the case exercise stage

• Within two weeks of your case exercise completion, you’ll know if you moved onto the final interview

• We expect to make a final offer by late April

City Bureau is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

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