Community Program Manager Jobs in Elkridge, MD (NOW HIRING)

Are you an experienced project or program manager who wants your day-to-day work to build community wealth, dismantle racial inequity, and put resident and client voice at the center of every plan? Do you thrive when no two weeks - or two projects - look the same? If you've already led complex initiatives from scoping through impact, and you're ready to bring that discipline to a consulting environment grounded in human-centered design and racial equity, we want to talk to you.

About Medici Road

Medici Road is a nonprofit consulting practice that partners with community development organizations, foundations, municipalities, and mission-driven businesses to reduce poverty and uproot systemic racial inequities. We work at the intersection of housing, education, economic development, and public health - helping clients move from strategy to implementation using community co-creation, data, and human-centered design.

Racial equity isn't a separate workstream at Medici Road; it's embedded in how we scope engagements, facilitate with communities, structure partnerships, and measure success. Our team moves fluidly across sectors and client types, which means our Program Managers build broad, transferable expertise rather than project-specific knowledge.

Role Summary

The Program Manager is the backbone of engagement delivery at Medici Road. This is a role-based position: rather than being hired to run one named initiative, you'll be staffed across a rotating portfolio of 2-3 concurrent client engagements at any given time, drawing on a consistent set of project management, facilitation, and human-centered design skills.

You'll be the person who keeps engagements on scope, on budget, and on timeline while making sure the process itself reflects our values - centering the people closest to the problem, building trust with stakeholders, and translating community and client input into clear, actionable plans. You'll partner closely with Medici Road's leadership, subject-matter leads, and external partners, and you'll often be the most consistent point of contact a client has throughout an engagement.

The Kinds of Projects You Could Work On

Because this is a generalist, portfolio-based role, the specific engagements will shift over time. Representative project types include:

• Community & Corridor Revitalization Initiatives - coordinating multi-stakeholder efforts spanning affordable housing, economic development, and community engagement in a defined neighborhood or corridor.
• Federal & Foundation Grant Implementation - managing the project management side of federally or philanthropically funded programs (e.g., housing, energy efficiency, workforce development), including subrecipient coordination, reporting, and compliance support.
• Racial Equity & Organizational Strategy Engagements - supporting clients through equity assessments, strategic planning retreats, and organizational capacity-building work.
• Human-Centered Design & Innovation Labs - running discovery, ideation, and prototyping sessions with residents, staff, and partners to co-design programs, products, or policy recommendations.
• Program Evaluation & Results-Based Accountability - building out data collection plans, tracking KPIs, and preparing progress and impact reports for clients and funders.
• Real Estate & Community Development Transactions - supporting the project management side of mixed-use or affordable housing developments, including partner and vendor coordination.

Across all of these, you're managing process, people, and timelines - not becoming a subject-matter expert in any one domain before you start.

Who You Are

You've done this job before. This is not an entry point into project management - it's a role for someone who has already carried the responsibility of a project's success and wants to apply that skill set across a variety of mission-driven work.

• 3+ years of experience as a project or program manager, ideally including at least one role managing multiple concurrent projects or workstreams
• Demonstrated ability to independently manage the full lifecycle of a project - scoping, work planning, budgeting, execution, reporting, and closeout
• Comfort managing 2-3 active engagements simultaneously, each with its own timeline, stakeholders, and deliverables
• Experience facilitating meetings or workshops with diverse stakeholders, ideally including residents or community members in underserved communities
• Familiarity with, or strong interest in, human-centered design methods (discovery, ideation, prototyping, co-design)
• A genuine commitment to racial equity and a willingness to bring an equity lens to planning, facilitation, and decision-making - not just program content
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex or technical information for varied audiences
• Proficiency with project management tools (e.g., ClickUp, Asana, MS Project or similar) and standard office/collaboration software
• Comfort working independently in an evolving, client-facing consulting environment
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; graduate degree in public policy, urban planning, nonprofit management, or a related field is a plus but not required

Nice to Have

• Experience in nonprofit consulting, philanthropy, or professional services
• Grant writing or federal/foundation compliance experience
• Experience with Results-Based Accountability or similar evaluation frameworks
• PMP or other formal project management certification

Requirements

Primary Responsibilities

Engagement & Portfolio Management - 45%

• Own day-to-day delivery for 2-3 concurrent client engagements, ensuring each stays on scope, on timeline, and on budget
• Develop and maintain work plans, timelines, and budgets in coordination with engagement leads and Medici Road's finance team
• Establish and track KPIs and benchmarks to demonstrate progress and impact to clients and funders
• Flag risks, resourcing conflicts, or scope changes early and propose solutions

Facilitation, HCD & Equity Practice - 15%

• Design and facilitate human-centered design sessions - discovery interviews, co-design workshops, prototyping sprints - with clients, residents, and partners
• Apply a racial equity lens throughout the engagement lifecycle, from who is in the room to how decisions get made and documented
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative input into clear findings, recommendations, and action plans

Stakeholder & Partner Coordination - 20%

• Serve as a primary point of contact for client staff, partner organizations, and - where relevant - community members
• Coordinate across multiple partner organizations to keep communication clear and expectations aligned
• Represent Medici Road at client meetings, community forums, and partner check-ins

Reporting & Knowledge Management - 15%

• Prepare progress reports, deliverables, and presentations for clients, funders, and internal leadership
• Maintain clean, current project documentation and contribute reusable tools and templates to Medici Road's internal knowledge base

Business Development Support - 5%

• Contribute to proposal development and scoping conversations for new or renewed engagements, drawing on lessons from current project work

Skills Required

• Project management across full engagement lifecycles, including multi-workstream portfolios
• Facilitation and consensus-building, including with community members and cross-sector partners
• Human-centered design fundamentals
• Data literacy - able to track, interpret, and report on program metrics
• Clear, audience-appropriate written and verbal communication
• Comfort with ambiguity and shifting priorities across a portfolio of clients

Additional Requirements

• This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. The employee may be required to perform other related duties as assigned to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.
• Ability to travel up to 5% of the time for client meetings, site visits, and community engagement activities.
• Ability to lift up to 10 pounds and to sit or work at a computer for extended periods.
• Ability to speak clearly and understandably, and to operate effectively under deadline pressure.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $70,000-$95,000, commensurate with experience. Comprehensive benefits package including health and life insurance, retirement match, PTO, professional development support, and flexible/hybrid work arrangements.

Hiring Process

• Application Review
• Screening Questions
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Case Study / Final Interview with Senior Leadership Team
• Reference Checks
• Offer

Medici Road is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. All qualified candidates will be considered regardless of race, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, medical condition, veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.