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 America’s small towns and cities.

Rural America is home to 12% of the U.S. workforce, but just 5% of the tech workforce. In the age of innovation, this disparity has led to an unprecedented economic divide in our nation. We work with rural communities across the country as they build tech economies that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. From assessments and strategic planning to securing funding and launching accelerators, our team supports communities through the entirety of their tech-based economic development journey.

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.

RISI Values

Collaboration, Equity, Integrity, Respect, Trust

Rural America is a place of untapped potential. As an organization, we believe it takes a culture of collaboration — one built upon integrity, respect, and trust — to achieve equity and help rural people and places take on meaningful roles in the 21st-century tech economy.

Job Summary:

The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and its partner organization Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) advances economic prosperity in rural America by developing inclusive tech economies that support entrepreneurship and create tech jobs. As a key part of this mission, we provide rural communities with consulting services and technical support in areas such as strategic planning, access to broadband, scalable entrepreneurship, and securing funding to implement those activities.

The Director of Impact Consulting will lead these consulting and technical support activities, managing and developing a team of 13+to (i) execute client work at the highest level of professionalism and (ii) evolve CORI/RISI’s service offerings in a way that supports our mission and drives our next stage of growth.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a talented mid-level strategy consultant to lead a practice with meaningful social impact within an innovative, rapidly growing, national organization.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Reporting to the Founder / Executive Director, this role will oversee the Broadband, Rural Innovation Initiative, and Entrepreneurship consulting teams.

Duties / Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Lead our consulting teams in delivering the highest-quality consulting and technical assistance to rural communities across the country.
• Working in collaboration with the Executive Director, define and execute a business plan that will grow revenue from $3.9 million in 2022 to ~$10.5 million in 2026 in a manner that appropriately balances mission objectives with the economic sustainability of CORI/RISI.
• Grow our portfolio of business through new client engagement as well as community and national partnerships, expanding on existing work with agencies such as the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration and corporate partners such as Land O’ Lakes, Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
• Partner with colleagues within CORI/RISI to develop and leverage data tools, research and communications to support a shared mission.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Required Skills/Attributes:

• Proven ability to recruit, develop, engage, empower, and manage talented people in a team-based, collaborative environment.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Superior client development and engagement skills.
• Ability to develop new business lines, products, and services to achieve our mission and refine these offerings based on customer feedback, results, and market shifts.
• Strong understanding of the economic drivers of a professional services business model, including implications for project scoping, staffing and budgeting.
• Knowledge of economic development, tech ecosystem development, tech skill-building, entrepreneurship, and/or broadband infrastructure that is transferable to a rural context.
• Structured thinking and analytical rigor, including the ability to develop sound frameworks and analytical methods across a range of strategic questions and subject matter areas.
• Excellent written communication skills, including impeccable clarity and structure in both memo and slide presentation formats; proven ability to produce top notch client deliverables.
• Excellent verbal communications skills, including (i) strong presentation skills, (ii) strong facilitations skills, and (iii) ability to interact effectively with a broad range of stakeholders (e.g. rural community leaders, tech entrepreneurs, foundations, venture capitalists, and government officials).
• Strong computer skills, including use of Google Suite, web-based collaboration and project management tools, and virtual presentation platforms.
• Proven ability to guide the development of practices that support diversity and inclusion goals.
• 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:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in business, public policy, economics or related field preferred.
• 8-10+ years of work experience, including time at a top-tier strategy consulting firm (e.g. McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Dalberg, Bridgespan or similar preferred), ideally at the Project Leader / Project Manager / Engagement Manager level.
• Experience with economic development work, tech accelerators, 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 the time.

Benefits

• Personal and professional development opportunities
• Health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance
• 15 days PTO (accrued) plus 8 floating holidays (pro-rated based on start date)
• Employer matched 401k after 90 days
• The salary for this position is $120-140k (depending on experience) with performance bonus

Not considering any candidate that reside in California

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