Next Century Cities (NCC), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting city and local officials in expanding high-speed, affordable broadband access for all residents in the United States and closing digital divides, is seeking nominations and applications for Executive Director. The Executive Director will serve as both chief executive officer and organizational spokesperson, leveraging strong subject matter expertise and building upon the existing foundation at NCC to drive growth, innovation, and excellence. Leading a small yet powerful team of five, the Executive Director will bring vision, strategy, and execution skills to NCC’s network in order to organize, build, and sustain the movement to ensure equitable access to broadband and digital services for all and particularly in urban areas that are overlooked or vulnerable to disinvestment.
The ideal candidate will bring 10 plus years of leadership experience advancing effective policy and systems accountability, ideally in the broadband equity sector or relevant adjacent sectors. Qualified candidates will demonstrate exceptional competencies in strategy, fundraising, management, stakeholder organizing, and communications relevant to connecting local officials to resources and capacity building to expand broadband access for their communities. Application and nomination submission instructions can be found below.
While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:
• Strategic leadership and direction: including setting priorities, managing change, and driving growth.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, including industry leaders, funders, policymakers at the FCC, executive branch policymakers, members of Congress as well as state and local officials and community leaders.
• Passionate advocacy: ability to engage as a passionate advocate to increase NCC's visibility and support networks.
• Effective staff management: providing guidance, feedback, and support.
• Project management skills: balancing multiple priorities and projects, meeting deadlines, and delivering results.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills: including developing and implementing data-driven strategies.
• Creativity and innovation: identifying new opportunities and approaches to achieving organizational goals.
• Commitment to equity and inclusion: incorporating a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens into all aspects of organizational work.
• High motivation and efficiency: ability to work efficiently, meet deadlines, motivate, and manage competing priorities.
• 10+ years of work experience, including supervisory experience.
• Advanced degree preferences: Graduate degree preferred. A JD or other legal degree is helpful but not required.
Founded in 2014, Next Century Cities is a national membership organization of more than 220 mayors and local government officials committed to ensuring the benefits of fast, affordable, reliable broadband internet are accessible to all. NCC focuses not only on closing the digital divide but also on addressing the regulatory policies and market conditions that perpetuate digital inequities.
Recent pandemic years have highlighted even more starkly the importance of broadband access in the ability for individuals to engage with and benefit from our country’s most foundational support systems, including public health, education, employment access, community development, democratic processes, and news and information. Under the leadership of Francella Ochillo, NCC has further mobilized the grantmaking community and partner organizations to ensure both policymakers and broadband corporations are accountable to addressing systemic inequities in access experienced, especially in rural and urban impoverished areas and by communities of color.
