Economic Development Manager

The Economic Development Manager serves as a primary business development officer responsible for executing the City’s business retention program, cultivating new investment opportunities, and managing the business development and prospect pipeline.

This position requires strong personal initiative, external relationship building, disciplined pipeline management, and consistent follow-through. The Manager is expected to proactively engage existing businesses, identify needs and challenges, cultivate prospective investment opportunities, and maintain accurate project and performance data within CRM and project management systems.

The Manager operates with independence in executing assigned responsibilities within established departmental strategy, priorities, workflows, and decision authority. This is an externally focused, performance-driven role requiring accountability for activity, follow-through, and measurable outcomes. This position reports to the Assistant Director of Economic Development.

The City of Lynchburg is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and encourages all to apply.

• Execute the City’s strategic Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) program, with primary responsibility for existing business engagement, actionable intelligence, issue identification, and measurable follow-through.
• Conduct targeted business engagement aligned with established annual visitation goals and departmental priorities, ensuring interactions result in documented follow-through and appropriate coordination.
• Serve as a primary day-to-day point of contact for existing businesses, identifying business needs and challenges and coordinating appropriate resources and responses.
• Identify and cultivate new investment prospects aligned with established priority industry sectors and support the advancement of recruitment projects under the direction of departmental leadership.
• Manage and maintain the qualified business development and prospect pipeline within CRM and project management systems, including activity, project status, next steps, and outcomes.
• Prepare prospect materials and data responses, coordinate site tours, and monitor commercial property inventory and proactively market strategic sites.
• Support incentive compliance and grant tracking with accuracy and timeliness.
• Track business development activity and deliver monthly performance metrics and quarterly KPI reports aligned with departmental goals.
• Other duties as required.

• Other duties to provide direct or indirect service to businesses and citizens may be assigned.
• When unusual situations occur and/or the City Manager declares a State of Emergency, all City employees may be required to accept special assignments and perform as needed to ensure appropriate service delivery.

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• High initiative without constant direction.
• Ability to work independently within established priorities and decision authority.
• Professional maturity in cross-functional and external-facing environments.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and competing priorities.
• Confidence in external relationship management.
• Sound judgment regarding when to act, coordinate, or escalat
• Strong ownership of commitments and follow-through.
• Accountability for measurable activity and outcomes.

QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• 3–5+ years of experience in economic development or a…