Director of Impact Consulting

About Us

Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) is a social impact nonprofit consulting firm with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, advocates, and capacity builders.

Our capabilities reflect the depth and breadth of our commitment to serve rural America, and the local leaders there working to advance tech-enabled economic development. Our work provides critical support to secure funding, develop infrastructure, and implement the programs needed to unlock the potential of rural America.

We work with rural communities across the country as they build tech economies that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. From writing federal grants and launching accelerators to convening stakeholders and securing funding, our team supports communities through the entirety of their tech-based economic development journey.

Rural America is home to 12% of the U.S. workforce, but just 5% of the tech workforce. Smaller populations and lack of broadband in rural areas have historically translated into inequities in access to training for fast-growing tech careers, leading rural employers to outsource their tech talent demand to other markets. This has led to a vicious cycle in which there is never enough demand to justify tech training in rural areas, and because training is not available, employers continue to outsource their tech needs. RISI aims to break this cycle by showing that tech jobs and tech talent can exist in rural areas, and we are seizing the moment to create a more equitable distribution of accessible future-proof jobs.

RISI and its collaborating organization, the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), are headquartered in a historic general store building in the village of Hartland, Vermont, part of New England’s Upper Valley and greater Dartmouth College region.

The Director of Impact Consulting will be an experienced leader who oversees our growing consulting practice. Our multidisciplinary teams deliver a variety of expertise to rural community leaders and other clients across the country: Technical assistance as they work to grow and strengthen their local tech economies; help understanding, planning, and executing on fiber-to-the-home network strategies; support for programming targeted toward seasoned and aspiring tech entrepreneurs; and support to identify grants and other funding opportunities that align with their long-term goals. This role will collaborate with the leadership of our partner organization, the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), leadership to develop long-term organizational strategy.

This role will be responsible for managing and developing their team to execute on this work, identify new services to offer, and drive our next stage of growth and build upon the success we’ve had to date. This year the RISI team worked across 25+ rural communities to build their capacity and help them secure more than $90 million through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s highly competitive Build to Scale program and broadband expansion funding opportunities.

Job Summary:

This role is responsible for strategic planning (tech-based economic development), broadband consulting, entrepreneurship consulting, and federal grant support while managing and developing a large team to execute on work in their assigned areas, identify new services to offer, and drive the organization's next stage of growth.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Broadband, RII, Eship, & Federal Grants teams

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Ensure the consulting team is delivering the highest-quality technical assistance to rural communities across the country, focused on building tech economies
• Lead a high-performing team that works across projects and subject matter expertise
• Grow the consulting portfolio of business through community and national partnerships - expanding on existing work with agencies like the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration and corporate partners like Land O’ Lakes, Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
• Define and execute a business plan that will grow revenue by 2-3x (2023 expected revenue is ~$3M) in the next three years, and establish sustainable business models which include services to achieve RISI’s mission and that support CORI’s programmatic efforts (like the Rural Innovation Network)
• Leverage internal data tools, research, communication support effectively in support of RISI’s mission - and partner with CORI/RISI leadership to further develop those tools and resources
• Perform other duties as assigned

Requirements

Required Skills/Attributes:

• Superior client management experience, in a consulting or similar context.
• Proven ability to develop new business lines, products, and services to achieve mission and generate revenue, including an ability to refine products and services based on customer feedback, results, and market shifts.
• Knowledge of entrepreneurial ecosystem development, tech skilling, innovation work, and/or broadband infrastructure that is transferable to a rural context.
• An ability to guide the development of practices that support diversity and inclusion goals in rural tech and entrepreneurship.
• Proven ability to recruit, develop, fully engage and empower talented people in a team-based, collaborative environment
• Experience building systems and practices to leverage data, technology, and communication tools to accomplish team objectives
• Excellent verbal & written communication skills. You will be interacting with all kinds of people-- including community organization leaders in small towns, municipal leaders, tech entrepreneurs, foundation staff, venture capitalists, and government officials and must have a deep understanding and passion for rural places and cultures.
• An understanding of how to translate consulting work to inform policy, fundraising, and development objectives.
• Experience with budget / financial models for client-facing deliverables
• Experience with facilitating meetings and workshops and/or giving presentations
• Strong computer skills, including use of Google Suite, web based collaboration and project management tools, and virtual presentation platforms
• Committed to the belief that rural America provides real opportunity in the innovation economy and that sustainable, future-focused development is necessary to bridging geographic and economic divides facing our country

Education and Experience:

• Experience in economic development, tech accelerators, consulting, federal grantmaking, and/or broadband infrastructure

Physical Requirements:

Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Location:

This is a remote position, however travel is required to rural communities across the United States and to the CORI/RISI headquarters in Vermont for an estimated 25-50% of time.

Benefits

Benefits:

• Personal and professional development opportunities
• Health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance
• 15 days PTO plus 8 floating holidays
• Employer matched 401k after 90 days
• The salary for this position is $100-140k depending on experience and possible performance bonus structure

Must be authorized to work in the US - no sponsorship offered at this time.