About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan which was recently expanded and accelerated through Housing New York 2.0 to complete the initial goal of 200,000 homes two years ahead of schedule by 2022, and achieve an additional 100,000 homes over the following four years, for a total of 300,000 homes by 2026.

Your Team:


The Office of the Chief of Staff directly supports the Commissioner in overseeing and leading the agency. The Commissioner except as otherwise provided by law plans, initiates, conducts, supervises, coordinates, reviews, and evaluates City programs and policies relating to carrying out the agency’s mission and the Mayor's Housing New York plan.

The Office of the Chief of Staff includes the Communications and Government Affairs teams.

Your Role:

As Deputy Chief of Staff, you will support the Chief of Staff and the Commissioner in identifying, developing, implementing, and communicating agency priority initiatives and policies. You will serve as a bridge between the external-facing work of the Commissioner’s Office and the internal operations of the agency.

You will work in close partnership with the Chief of Staff, the Executive Deputy Commissioner, and the rest of the agency’s senior team to help ensure that the Commissioner’s priorities are successfully operationalized and achieved.

You will serve as a critical liaison between the agency and City Hall on priority matters and ensure that the Commissioner is apprised of detailed information in all areas of the organization’s operations.

You will also manage the flow of information to, and relationships with, external agencies, departments and organizations, and partners in the private sector and community stakeholders.

Your Responsibilities:

Agency Strategy and Coordination
- Supporting the Chief of Staff in identifying and managing critical issues that have significant public or agency impact and that require the attention of the Commissioner and other senior agency staff
- Strategizing with the Chief of Staff and other senior staff to resolve problems and ensure that priority initiatives are managed efficiently and communicated effectively to relevant internal and external partners
- Providing guidance to staff on behalf of the Commissioner on major initiatives to ensure effective and timely implementation of projects.

Commissioner’s Office Coordination
- Ensuring the Commissioner has all key information for decision making
- Supporting operations of the Commissioner’s Office, including prioritizing meetings, assisting with meeting and calendar management, meeting and event preparation, and other project management and administrative functions as needed

External Affairs and Communications
- Supporting the Chief of Staff and Commissioner in their management and oversight of the IGA and Communications staff.
- Supporting the development of external affairs and communications strategies, including for public events, press, and digital media
- Ensuring the Commissioner is fully prepared for meetings, speaking engagements, and other events
- Representing the Chief of Staff and Commissioner at external meetings and events as required

Government Affairs
- Working with city, state, and federal officials, agencies, policy makers, advocates and planners in the public and private sectors to assess and craft housing policy.
- Supporting the management of New York City’s affordable housing city, state legislative and federal agenda
- Conferencing with elected officials, preparing testimony for public hearings, and responding to constituency and project inquiries from the general public and elected officials

Strategic Partnerships
- Engaging with with various external partners, including developers, non-profits, community organizations, and foundations
- Developing public-private partnerships to achieve the agency’s strategic objectives


Preferred skills

- Ability to perform complex tasks with limited supervision as well as meet deadlines and manage multiple projects in a timely manner
- A high degree of professionalism and discretion, with the ability to maintain complete confidentiality of extremely sensitive, proprietary information
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, including verbal and written communications, executive staff management, and conflict resolution
- Demonstrated ability to make sound decisions and balance multiple critical priorities
- Ability to manage multiple projects with various deadlines simultaneously
- Ability to work with varied teams and personalities
- Ability to complete and prioritize work with little supervision
- Strong technology and computer skills and intermediate to advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications
- Significant experience in affordable housing development, planning, real estate, community development, or public administration, or a related area is strongly preferred
- Prior government agency experience is preferred

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college with emphasis in transportation, city or urban planning, sustainability, civil or transportation engineering, urban studies or design, architecture, business or public administration, economics, operations research, organizational behavior, or a related field; and two (2) years of satisfactory, full-time experience in an area related to the above-described duties; or

2. A satisfactory equivalent of education and experience. However, all candidates must possess at least one year of the experience as described under “1”.

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.