Director of Operations, Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions

Job description

About the Agency: The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees housing standards across all 3.7 million homes in New York City. As the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, HPD is responsible for building and preserving affordable housing, protecting tenants from harassment and displacement, and holding landlords accountable across the five boroughs. Under Commissioner Dina Levy and the Mamdani Administration, HPD is pursuing an ambitious housing agenda focused on the needs of New York’s tenants. With a broad set of tools including standards enforcement, tenant resources, and the creation of new affordable housing, HPD is committed to making New York City a more affordable place for renters and homeowners alike. Your Team: The Office of Development (OOD) leads the agency’s effort to create and preserve affordable housing in collaboration with other HPD offices as well as other city, state and federal agencies. The OOD is comprised of eight divisions that administer a range of programs. These divisions include Portfolio Management & Conversions, New Construction Finance, Special Needs Housing, Building and Land Development Services (BLDS), Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation, Preservation Finance, Compliance and Enforcement, and Housing Incentives. The Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions (PMC) manages development projects after closing with an initial loan to manage rent restructuring and conversion to permanent financing, to deploy rental assistance to tenants prior to project stabilization, to ensure projects’ adherence to program and accounting requirements, and to facilitate timely completion. As a relatively new division in the OOD, PMC administers multiple programs areas including Conversions & Rental Assistance, Requisitions, and Construction Monitoring & Completions. Within OOD, PMC collaborates especially closely with the Division of Preservation Finance (PF) on a substantial shared portfolio of projects. As a result, PMC and PF share additional executive and operational support, including an Associate Commissioner and an Executive Director of Policy and Operations, that support both divisions. Program Areas within the Division: The Conversions team oversees the conversion of construction loans to permanent financing, a critical checkpoint for HPD to ensure that development teams have adhered to program requirements, and to set up these projects for long-term success for decades to come. The unit also oversees rent restructuring, a process through which HPD resets rents in a project in accordance with various laws, regulations, and program policies, and which is a critical tool to ensure housing affordability and long-term project stability. All of this involves managing due diligence requirements, managing multiple external stakeholders to overcome barriers to achieving these milestones, establishing new rent-stabilized rents, and close coordination with a broad array of HPD staff. The Rental Assistance team plays a key role in ensuring tenants in HPD-financed affordable housing are able to access rental assistance, and that projects reach rental achievement targets in a timely manner in order to convert to permanent financing. This work includes direct outreach and assistance to tenants, reviewing tenant income certifications for projects that provide preferential rent offers, and close coordination with the Division of Tenant and Owner Resources around the provision of rental assistance to eligible households. The Requisition unit is responsible for the financial administration, implementation, and close-out of HPD’s construction loan for a portfolio of moderate rehabilitation loan programs within the Division of Preservation Finance, including the Participation Loan, LIHTC Year 15, Multifamily Housing Rehabilitation, and HUD Multifamily Loan Programs. GHPP, MHRP, and HUD Multifamily. This team is responsible for processing construction requisition packages for payment, and processing construction change orders for projects whose construction is monitored by BLDS. Requisitions is the liaison between the loan programs, BLDS, partner lenders, construction loan servicers, HPD Fiscal Affairs, HPD Legal, owners/borrowers, and contractors for these matters throughout the construction period. This unit also tracks progress of and oversees close-out of a portfolio of Preservation Finance projects for which loan servicing and construction monitoring is managed by an external partner. The Construction Monitoring & Completions team is responsible for monitoring the portfolio of HPD-assisted affordable housing projects during construction to track and report out on construction progress, to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve significant construction and completion issues that could adversely impact project budgets and timelines, and to establish, track, and facilitate achievement of project completion targets. This growing unit coordinates closely with the Division of Building and Land Development Services (BLDS), OOD’s Executive Operations team, and other teams in PMC to support projects’ timely completion, ensure compliance with BLDS and Program policies, and support projects’ efficient deployment of subsidy in support of HPD’s mission. Your Impact: The Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions seeks an experienced professional with strong leadership, analytical, and management abilities to be the Director of Operations (D of O) responsible for all areas of operation within the division of more than 25 staff across multiple teams. The D of O reports to the Assistant Commissioner for Portfolio Management and Conversions and plays a key role in developing and supervising division operations and activities, including personnel, data tracking and management, policy, budget, and planning actions for all components of the division. Your Responsibilities: As Director of Operations, you will direct, coordinate, and conduct operational activities for the Division. You will facilitate personnel and hiring actions for each unit within the division as well as supporting teams and the Assistant Commissioner for data exercises and information requests. You will serve as a liaison to the Executive Director of Policy and Operations and to the Executive Office Chief of Staff. You will also serve as a main point of contact in coordinating activities within and outside of the Division of Portfolio Management and Conversions. The D of O will directly supervise the Director of Requisitions, Executive Assistant, and other staff as appropriate. Duties include, but are not limited to, the following main areas: - Data and Tracking: o Coordinate with division teams, Executive Director of Policy and Operations, and the Executive Director of PMC on key data and tracking exercises, and assist in responding to incoming requests from outside of the division o Provide strategy, tracking, and oversight for operations areas such as requisition and change order approval, violations monitoring, project close-out and handoff, completions targeting, rental assistance allocation, fiscal/budget, technology needs, workspace coordination, and personnel matters o As needed, analyze and create reports on the completion and conversion outputs of the Division in a manner that facilitates decision making, strategizing, and capital project budget forecasting o In conjunction with the Executive Director of Policy and Operations and D of O for Preservation Finance, ensure tracking and compliance on key divisional priorities and reporting/document retention obligations - Hiring and Personnel: o In coordination with the Executive Director of Policy and Operations and Executive Director for PMC, coordinate hiring, onboarding, and offboarding for teams within the division, including but not limited to setting up job interviews, drafting and submitting hiring paperwork, liaising with HPD’s Budget and Human Resources teams, and serving on interview panels as needed o Drive recruitment and hiring initiatives to efficient completion, optimizing onboarding timelines in partnership with division supervisors and HPD’s Budget and HR teams o Provide oversight and strategic guidance to supervisors, including participation in meetings with staff as needed, on personnel matters and performance appraisal processes - Coordination and Communication: o Assist divisional- and office-wide efforts to assess and update policy and procedures that are in line with the goals of the entire Division; under the guidance of the Assistant Commissioner, you will play an integral role in developing policy regarding programmatic and personnel matters within the Division. This could include but may not be limited to coordinating with other divisions, research, developing proposals, meetings with elected officials, and brainstorming new program needs. o Serve as a liaison to the Directors of Operation for Preservation Finance and for BLDS to ensure expeditious approvals of requisitions and change orders, minimize delays in completion and close-out, and allocate rental assistance resources strategically across the PF and PMC portfolios. o With support from the Executive Director of Policy and Operations and Executive Director for PMC, assess the training needs of the entire division, coordinate participation in training and other opportunities o Disseminate information from the various areas of the agency to the Division. Information could include but not be limited to: new data entry rules, policy initiatives, and current events related to housing o Coordinate with the Administrative Operations staff for divisional meeting and calendar management, event preparation, and other functions as needed o Advocate for the operational needs of the division in cross-agency conversations, as needed o As needed, represent the Assistant Commissioner and the Division at meetings and be called upon by the Assistant Commissioner to assist in the preparation of materials for internal and external meetings. The D of O may be assigned other duties, as needed, by the Assistant Commissioner. Preferred Skills: - Strong analytical, research, organizational, and quantitative skills; demonstrated experience in proactive problem solving; - Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage projects in a timely manner; - Ability to perform complex tasks with limited supervision; - Experience in staff management and talent recruitment; - Excellent verbal, written communication, and presentation skills; excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in collaboration with others and in the supervision of others; - Strong follow-through and focus on timely results; - Experience working for or with government agencies or government programs related to affordable housing development is a plus; - Familiarity with financial modeling and business process analysis is a plus; - Strong facility with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint required. Please note, finalists for this position must have filed for the Open Competitive Associate Housing Development Specialist exam #4122 or promotional exam #4570. In addition, the position is open to applicants who are already permanent in the Associate Housing Development Specialist title, or permanent in another comparable civil service title. Candidates must indicate permanent civil service title on resume. ASSOCIATE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT - 22508 1.A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and three years of full-time satisfactory professional experience in the development, appraisal, financing, negotiation, or disposition of real estate, or in real estate law, or in urban planning or analytical or coordination work related to housing programs; or 2. A four year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a State's Department of Education or a recognized accrediting organization and seven years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "1" above; or 3.A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. Graduate study in the field of urban studies, city planning, business or public administration, finance, architecture, engineering or other related fields may be substituted for up to one year of the required experience on the basis of 30 credits equaling one year of experience. Graduation from an accredited law school may be substituted for one year of the required experience. However, all candidates must have at least two years of experience as described above. 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.