Community Affairs Manager

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Illinois.

📋 Description

• Facilitate successful market entry, development, construction, and continuous operations by fostering trusted relationships with stakeholders and managing community, political, regulatory, and reputational risks.

• Create and implement community engagement strategies in assigned markets.

• Assist in permitting and entitlement processes through stakeholder engagement and collaboration across functions.

• Act as a primary representative for CyrusOne from due diligence through to development, construction, and operations.

• Evaluate community sentiment, stakeholder dynamics, and social risk factors during site assessments and due diligence.

• Formulate community outreach and stakeholder engagement plans for new projects.

• Identify, prioritize, and cultivate relationships with elected officials, municipal personnel, economic development organizations, school districts, community groups, business leaders, and adjacent property owners.

• Collaborate with Marketing to develop community-facing materials, including microsites, presentations, fact sheets, talking points, and FAQs.

• Organize and lead public meetings, stakeholder briefings, open houses, and community engagement events.

• Prepare executives, subject matter experts, and internal stakeholders for community-facing initiatives.

• Support tax incentive and economic development efforts through interaction with governmental agencies.

• Monitor political, regulatory, economic, and community trends impacting projects.

• Identify, evaluate, mitigate, and escalate community-related risks.

• Provide insights on stakeholders, community dynamics, and risk assessments to inform business decisions and project planning.

• Establish and nurture relationships with community and governmental stakeholders.

• Serve as a liaison among Design & Construction, Operations, and neighboring communities.

• Ensure a visible and positive presence for CyrusOne in operating communities.

• Recommend and implement community investments, sponsorships, partnerships, charitable initiatives, and external memberships.

• Assist in external communications and stakeholder messaging.

• Coordinate community engagement activities with Marketing, Communications, and executive leadership.

• Maintain records of stakeholder engagement, commitments, issues, and outreach efforts.

• Track outcomes of engagements and provide actionable recommendations.

• Prepare reports and updates regarding activities, risks, opportunities, achievements, and resource requirements.

• Support strategic planning and reporting for the Community Affairs function.

• Travel approximately 30% to CyrusOne sites and neighboring communities, mainly within the Chicagoland area, Springfield, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, North Carolina, with occasional travel to the Dallas headquarters.

• Provide support for the Northern U.S. portfolio outside of Texas and Arizona.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Public Affairs, Communications, Government Relations, Political Science, Economic Development, Business, Public Administration, or a related field, or equivalent education and experience.

• Over 7 years of experience in community affairs, public affairs, government relations, economic development, stakeholder engagement, external affairs, communications, or a related area.

• Proven experience in independently leading stakeholder engagement initiatives for complex development, infrastructure, real estate, energy, industrial, or construction projects.

• Experience supporting projects throughout due diligence, market entry, permitting, entitlement, construction, and ongoing operations.

• Solid working knowledge of zoning, permitting, entitlement, economic development, tax incentives, or relevant governmental processes.

• Demonstrated success in establishing trusted relationships with elected officials, municipal staff, community leaders, business stakeholders, and economic development organizations.

• Experience in planning and facilitating public meetings, stakeholder briefings, community engagement events, or similar public-facing activities.

• Ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams, including development, engineering, construction, legal, operations, communications, and executive leadership.

• Strong grasp of stakeholder engagement, community relations, risk management, and public affairs principles.

• Capacity to identify, assess, and effectively escalate political, community, operational, and reputational risks.

• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and relationship-building capabilities.

• Strong judgment, professionalism, and proficiency in navigating sensitive stakeholder situations.

• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

• Ability to work autonomously while effectively collaborating with diverse stakeholder groups.

• Must be willing to travel up to 30%.

• Experience supporting external communications, media engagement, or public-facing communication initiatives.

• Previous experience representing an organization before public bodies, community groups, or governmental entities.

• Experience in supporting mission-critical infrastructure, data center, utility, energy, industrial, or large-scale real estate development projects.

• Media spokesperson experience is preferred but not mandatory.

🏝️ Benefits

• Equal opportunity employment.

• Reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other state or local laws.