Community Partnerships Lead, Office of Community Engagement

Community Partnerships Lead

Argonne National Laboratory is inviting applications for the position of Community Partnerships Lead for the Office of Community Engagement. Located about 25 miles southwest of Chicago, Argonne is one of the preeminent multidisciplinary research facilities in the country and is operated by UChicago Argonne, LLC, an affiliate of the University of Chicago, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The Community Partnerships Lead is a hybrid position based out of Argonne's Hyde Park location in Chicago, IL and is a key role in the Office of Community Engagement (OCE). The OCE has as its mission to advance Argonne science and technology through expanded community collaborations and extend the benefits of Argonne's capabilities and resources to communities. As the hub and backbone of Argonne's external-facing community activities, the OCE enables the laboratory's alignment between external community engagement and partnerships and the laboratory's science and technology (S&T) strategy and scientific expertise.

The OCE is part of the laboratory's Science and Technology Partnerships and Outreach directorate (S&TPO).

The OCE will be strategic and responsive to DOE/administration's emerging priorities; build intentional, collaborative relationships with communities and community-focused organizations at the local, state, and regional levels; facilitate and support investment in short- and long-term collaborative research projects; support outreach of laboratory strategic growth initiatives and track the impact of laboratory-wide community engagement efforts and programming.

Reporting to the OCE Director, the Community Partnerships Lead will assist the Director with management and oversight of Argonne's portfolio of community-centered research initiatives. Working closely with the OCE team and Argonne research teams, they will facilitate collaboration with municipalities, small businesses, and science and technology-focused nonprofit organizations to identify, vet, write, secure, and report on government grants that align with the goals and objectives of OCE and advance Argonne's scientific priorities.

They will also be responsible for developing and implementing strategies to enhance Argonne's ability to build short and long-term partnership agreements in service of Argonne's community engagement goals.

Responsibilities and priorities include:

• Develop and maintain a structured relationship management pipeline that includes:
• Proactively identifying, cultivating, and advancing relationships with prospective partners, moving them through the stages of prospecting, qualification, proposal, and agreement or collaborative project.
• Leaning into development and maintenance of organizations and stakeholders, ensuring a systematic approach to relationship management and partnership development.
• Research and identify external funding proposals that present viable funding opportunities for OCE and community-focused external stakeholders.
• Collaborate with community partners to coordinate planning, grant writing, program design, budget development, and evaluation of grant funded projects.
• Assist the Director in managing OCE partnerships, including overseeing grant implementation, administration, and programmatic reporting for awarded grants. Liaise with the Argonne research community to identify opportunities where current research priorities and research expertise align with community interests and challenges.
• Demonstrate proficiency with AI tools to enhance relationship management, data analysis, grant prospecting, and partnership tracking.
• Partner with the OCE Community Engagement Strategist to facilitate management of external stakeholder relationships.
• Partner with the OCE Communications Coordinator to build awareness and support the execution of partnership communication strategies.
• Provide support for logistical needs of community engagement work.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Location:

This role requires 2-3 days onsite at the Hyde Park campus. Along with working at the Lemont campus several times per month.

Position Requirements

• PA4:
  Bachelor's degree in liberal arts, business or science…