Program Manager for Urban Economic Development

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The Ness School of Management and Economics at South Dakota State University (SDSU) invites applications for the position of Program Manager for Urban Economic Development. This position is located at the Ness School’s downtown outpost at Startup Sioux Falls. The Program Manager will focus on planning and coordinating community programming to support business and economic development in the Sioux Falls metro area. This position will organize events such as seminars, workshops, and career fairs, covering topics like venture creation, planning, housing, and macroeconomics, while also providing academic advising and career support for students. This role is essential in fostering connections between the Ness School and the local community. This position is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This position is a 12-month, full-time, benefits-eligible position.

The Ness School, an AACSB accredited business school, includes approximately 35 full-time faculty members and a team of academic advisors. The school embodies an intellectual philosophy that economics and quantitative analysis are foundational to thriving in and critically assessing a modern global economy. Consistent with its land-grant mission, the school is the premier source for economics and business intelligence in the region. The school engages its stakeholders in the classroom, through scholarship, and through outreach. The school is a unit of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The outpost serves as a discovery space, a club space, a growth space, and an information space. As a discovery space, the outpost transfers knowledge, disseminating what we know and what we learn in the Ness School. As a club space, the outpost engages the community, connecting with those who know us and with those who wish to know us. As a growth space, the outpost professionally advances learners, reducing the time, effort, and informational challenges our learners confront when they seek career paths, particularly those in the Sioux Falls metro area. As an information space, the outpost supports learners, sharing plans of study the school offers learners and, importantly, identifying what the school must improve to best serve learners, traditional and otherwise, in the Sioux Falls metro area.

Must be authorized to work in the U.S. Sponsorship is not available for this position.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead operations and brand marketing of the Ness School downtown outpost.
• Support business and economic development efforts in the Sioux Falls metro area.
• Organize and manage seminars, workshops, and panel discussions on topics such as venture creation, zoning, planning, and affordable housing, risk management, macroeconomics and finance, and food and nutrition policies.
• Organize and manage social events to connect existing students, prospective students, alumni, and the broader Sioux Falls metro area community.
• Organize and manage summits and listening sessions for employers, career coaching and career fairs for existing students who seek careers in the Sioux Falls metro area, and academic advising and career planning for prospective students who seek postsecondary education.
• Communicate broadly what the Ness School offers learners; and invite feedback the school could use to improve how it serves learners, particularly those in the Sioux Falls metro area.
• Monitor and evaluate program outcomes, ensuring alignment with the strategic goals and accreditation standards of the Ness School.
• Lead strategic planning for the Ness School downtown outpost, producing a strategic plan, complete with goals, objectives, operational tactics, and clear performance measures.
• Exercise budgetary authority of up to $100,000 annually.
• Work, make decisions, and solve problems independently, without supervision.

BENEFITS : South Dakota State University offers a wide range of excellent benefits including medical, dental, and flexible benefits, retirement plans, compensation packages, paid holidays, and vacation leave. We offer a generous retirement plan that includes 6% matching, 10 hours of annual leave each month, 9.34 hours of sick leave each month, and eleven paid holidays. Relocation benefits are available per university’s guidelines. Employees also have access to internal and state-sponsored training as well as reduced tuition for state-supported courses at all State of South Dakota academic institutions. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS :

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS :